Recent Iowa High School Playoff Qualifier Not Fielding Team

Lone Tree will play a junior varsity-only schedule in 2025

The Iowa high school football season is just days away. But for one team, they will not compete at the varsity level in 2025.

Lone Tree High School has opted for a junior varsity-only schedule this coming fall, according to a report by The Cedar Rapids Gazette. Two years ago, the team qualified for the Iowa high school playoffs.

A total of 10 players, including two seniors and zero juniors, were at the first practice this past Monday. Superintendent Tyler Hotz said 11 showed up later in the week, but that is far too few to field a varsity team.

“We knew last spring that we were going to be low,” Hotz said. “We were shooting for 20 kids. Then we thought 18 would be the max.”

The Lions will play as many junior varsity games as they can after going 2-6 a season ago with 19 players on the roster. Five of those 19, though, graduated this past spring.

Lone Tree had several winning seasons in recent memory

In 2023, Lone Tree finished 6-3 and qualified for the 8-player pllayoffs. Hotz confirmed that the middle school program has 17 players between seventh- and eighth-grade.

Hotz noted that the school provided three options regarding the program during a meeting last spring, saying they could play varsity-only, JV-only or have a sharing agreement with another school.

“Ultimately, our community decided to take the chance to try and have a varsity program,” Hotz said.

Lone Tree had back-to-back eight-win seasons in 2016 and ‘17, winning 22 games total from 2019-2023. They have had just four losing years since 2008, highlighted by a 10-2 campaign in 2011.

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