The Iowa High School Athletic Association and Iowa Girls High School Athletic Union have collaborated to reduce spring schedule congestion by moving boys’ golf and girls’ tennis to the fall sport seasons starting in the 2025-26 school year.

The changes address decades-long concerns from member schools over scheduling and were approved by both the IHSAA’s board and IGHSAU’s board following discussions at a joint meeting in early July.

Iowa’s current spring schedule includes eight sports – golf, soccer, tennis, track and field for both boys and girls – and overlaps seasonally with baseball and softball.

The adjustment was discussed across 2023-24 district meetings, the IHSADA state conference, advisory committees, and the 2023 IHSAA membership survey.

Among nine other peer state associations in the Midwest, seven separate golf seasons by gender and all nine separate tennis seasons. The increased availability of facilities, coaching, and school resources, plus the reduction of scheduling conflicts are the top cited reasons for those successful season separations.

In 2025, boys’ golf (3A, 2A, 1A) and girls’ tennis (2A, 1A) will compete in both the 2024-25 spring season and the 2025-26 fall season. Class 4A boys’ golf has competed exclusively in the fall since 1993 and features the earliest competition start date of any fall sport.

Other HS Sports Changes:

In Basketball, the closely guarded “five seconds” rule will be eliminated starting in 2024-25. Following previous board discussion and basketball advisory committee recommendation, substate final games in Class 4A and Class 3A will be hosted by the higher-seeded team.

In Bowling, a split season for boys’ and girls’ bowling to start in 2025-26. This concept would potentially end the current coed championships format and allow for staggered start and finish within the current 16-week schedule. The individual tournament will now also bowl out to eighth place, similar to the team tournament.

In Golf, Three teams will advance from each round of the postseason to the next in 3A, 2A, and 1A golf, with no regard for home course in qualification. This will ensure a set number of qualifiers at district meets and 12 qualifiers at the state meet for those classes.

In Tennis, A consistent scoring format is coming to the postseason, with both singles & doubles and the team tournaments now featuring ad scoring, best two out of three sets, with a 10-point super tiebreaker instead of a complete third set. All consolation rounds and the coed state tournament will remain no-ad scoring.