The Western Valley Activities Conference is an athletic conference for small high schools in Western Iowa. Formed in 2008 from the merger of the longstanding Maple Valley Conference and Boyer Valley Activities Conference, the league consists of 17 schools and spans over 100 miles from north to south, covering almost half the state.
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The Western Valley Activities Conference was formed in 2008 with the merger of the Maple Valley Conference and the Boyer Valley Conference. The Maple Valley Conference traces its history to 1931 when the conference was founded with Onawa, Mapleton, Woodbury Central, Eastwood, Holstein, and Odebolt-Arthur high schools. Kingsley joined the conference in 1944 and over time, the conference grew to 12 members so that by the time of the merger the conference included Odebolt-Arthur, Battle Creek-Ida Grove, Galva-Holstein, Woodbury Central, Kingsley-Pierson, Remsen-Union, Lawton-Broson, Westwood, River Valley, Maple Valley-Anthon-Oto, West Monona, and Whiting.
The Boyer Valley Conference had been formed around 1960 and had many schools to consolidation over the years. After peaking at 12 schools, the conference was left with only eight in its final year of 2007: Ar-We-Va, Boyer Valley, Charter Oak-Ute, IKM, Logan-Magnolia, Manning, West Harrison, and Woodbine. With IKM and Manning entering a sport-sharing agreement, it looked like the right time for many of its members to find a new home.
In 2008, the Maple Valley Conference agreed to merge with the Boyer Valley Activities Conference by a 10–1 vote, with only Woodbury Central opposing and Lawton-Bronson abstaining. The new 19-team league would work together not only in athletics, but in music and speech as well, as the former BVAC had. In addition most of the old rivalries were kept intact by splitting the conference into two divisions with the old Maple Valley basically making up the north and the former Boyer Valley plus Whiting and West Monona forming the south. Since the formation of the league the conference has been dominated on all fronts by OA-BCIG and IKM-Manning.
After the 2008 season, Odebolt-Arthur and Battle Creek-Ida Grove entered into a full-grade sharing agreement. Following the 2009 season, Remsen-Union left the conference, and starting in 2010, Galva-Holstein will share all high school functions and classes with nearby Schaller-Crestland High School, forming the new Ridge View High School, which will remain in the conference. With other small schools losing money and the long travel distances, more changes are likely to come for the conference.