Hiawatha heading to Little Ten

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KIRKLAND - The Little Ten Conference will welcome a new member next fall. Hiawatha, located 17 miles northwest of DeKalb, enters the LTC after participating in the six-school Four Rivers Conference the last five school years. HHS current affilliation will cease at the conclusion of thie year. The North Boone defection to the Big Northern Conference forced the remaining five FRC programs to search to join new leagues. With a rich tradition dating back to 1920, the Little Ten Conference seemed to be a perfect fit for Hiawatha. &#8220We had already developed relationships with many of the Little Ten Conference schools with us playing a lot of them in non-conference games and tournaments,” said Hiawatha principal Ty Wolf. &#8220We also took into consideration the travel time and cost of being in a conference like the Upstate Illini where schools span from where we would be on the eastern-most side to almost the Mississippi River. It would have been a lot longer trips for us time wise, while also having to take kids out of school earlier.” The process of Hiawatha entering the LTC wasn't an overnight occurrence. After the initial contact to LTC president and Hinckley-Big Rock Principal Chuck Lawson in early October last year, each conference member's school board had to approve the addition. The final approval was made to accept the Four Rivers Conference program on Feb. 15 after an 8-1 vote. The lone school voted no due to travel logistics. &#8220We thought it was a good addition,” Lawson said. &#8220Hiawatha is similar in enrollment size with the rest of the schools in our conference. Besides competing in the main boys and girls sports, music, cheerleading as well as academic competitions are all included in the merge.” Hiawatha has all its sports in Class A. It's football program is a part of the Class 1A division and will play as an independent. The girls compete in volleyball, basketball and softball, while both coop with Genoa-Kingston in soccer. Hiawatha offers football, basketball and baseball for boys. Being the smallest school in the Four Rivers (291 enrollment avg.), the Hawks will be in the middle of the pack size-wise in the LTC. Somonauk is the largest school with 326 students and Paw Paw the smallest at 87. As for their history, Hiawatha has earned five regional titles in the school's history, with the last being in 2002 when the girls softball claimed a championship. The girls volleyball team won their third regional in 1999 and the boys basketball team, who finished this season with a 13-14 record captured their only title back in 1988. &#8220We are looking forward to developing some strong rivalries with Little Ten schools, they are all competitive and very strong in about all their programs,” added Wolf. &#8220Our coaches, athletes, administration are all very excited to be joining the Little Ten Conference. We feel like it's a good fit and I think we will match up well with the other schools.”