The Perry School Board approved moving athletics to the Heart of Iowa Conference from the Raccoon River Conference at their February Board meeting. 

Perry Superintendent Clark Wicks says the change will go into effect this fall and will hopefully bring more hope to athletic programs. Wicks says the desire to change conferences has been present for the last couple years. 

“The Raccoon, as great a conference as it is, does not match up to where Perry is and the Heart of Iowa meets our needs much better and it gives us hope.”

Wicks says going to the Heart of Iowa Conference is a good change for staff, the community and students moving forward. He points out some changes will come with signage that depicts the new conference and scheduling games. 

“The one thing that we all want to see is success, we want to see energy, positive energy and again that whole feeling that we can go out and leave the court, leave the field with Perry Pride and I think what has happened is we are competing against a level of student athletes that are just much, much different than what we can compete with at this point.”

Wicks notes the conference change will not affect football as they play against district schools.