High School

Fifth Iowa High School Football Team Forfeits Rest of Season

New London latest Iowa high school football team to end year early

Dana Becker

A fifth Iowa high school football program has packed up for the rest of the season.

According to a post by Southeast Iowa Union Sports Wednesday night, New London High School has announced they are cancelling the rest of the 2025 football season.

The post cites low numbers within the program, which was set to host Homecoming this Friday night vs. Columbus.

New London is the latest school to make the unfortunate decision to forfeit games this season in Iowa. Siouxland Christian, Lone Tree, Rockford and Dunkerton have all done the same either before the year kicked off or over the past four weeks.

Three other schools, defending eight-player state champion Remsen St. Mary’s, Highland and Mormon Trail, have all paused playing games this season. New London and Highland are both in Class A while the other schools are all in the eight-player ranks.

New London Earned Win, Forfeit This Season

The Tigers have a record of 2-2 at the moment, which includes a forfeit victory over Highland from September 12. New London also opened the season with a 36-32 win vs. Cardinal.

They lost to Pekin a week later, 68-20, and lost to Wapello last Friday night, 20-12. 

New London had games scheduled with Columbus, Danville, BGM and Van Buren County before the decision was made. 

In the loss to Wapello, seniors Rowen Atkinson, Grant Wilson, Justyn Faulkner, Garrett Cooley, Tucker Fisk and Wyatt Marlette all made contributions on offense, defense or both. 

According to Bound, the Tiger roster includes 16 players, with seven of them being seniors. They also have two juniors and two sophomores with five freshmen listed.

New London Won the State Championship in 2018

Just a short time ago, the Tigers were on top of the world, winning as state championship inside the UNI-Dome in Cedar Falls with a 55-14 victory over Rockford. Ironically, that 2018 game now includes two schools that cannot field a team this year due to safety concerns.

New London won six games in 2022 and three total the two seasons since.

Published
Dana Becker
DANA BECKER

Dana Becker has been a sports writer in Iowa since 2000, writing for The Fort Dodge Messenger, Mason City Globe-Gazette, Cedar Rapids Gazette and others. Dana resides in northcentral Iowa and started as a writer with SB Live Sports in 2022 focused on the state of Iowa. Along with providing coverage of football and wrestling, Dana also spotlights cross country, swimming, basketball, track and field, soccer, tennis, golf, baseball and softball. He began writing for High School on SI in 2023.

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