The Iowa High School Athletic Association (IHSAA) is the regulating body for male Iowa high school interscholastic athletics and is a full member of the National Federation of State High School Associations. Its female counterpart, the Iowa Girls High School Athletic Union, (IGHSAU) is an associate member. Iowa is the only state that maintains separate governing bodies for boys' and girls' athletics. Sports overseen by the IHSAA are baseball, basketball, bowling, cross country, football, golf, soccer, swimming & diving, tennis, track & field, and wrestling. As classifications vary highly across sports, they are included under the individual sport section.

Administrative staff

The administrative staff that runs the IHSAA consists of the 7 members in the office of directors, and the 10 members of the board of control.

Board of directors (as of July 2024)

Board of control (as of July 2024)

Member Schools

Baseball

The IHSAA, historically, has had 3 state baseball championships. Currently, there is only one: the Summer State Championship, whose winners are currently recognized as the State Champions. Historically, however, the winners of all 3 tournaments are given credit for State Championships. Iowa was the first State Association in the nation to hold a baseball championship meet in the summer.

Classification guidelines

===State Champions ===

Summer Tournament

The summer tournament was first held in 1946, with one classification from 1946 to 1972. From 1973 to 1980, there were 2 classifications (1A and 2A), and since 1981 there have been 4 classifications (1A, 2A, 3A, and 4A).

Spring Tournament

The Spring Tournament was held every summer from 1928 to 1972, and is the oldest of the 3 state tournaments. In the 4 years prior to 1928 (1924–1927), Iowa State College hosted an "invitational state tournament" in the spring that attracted nearly 40 schools, but was unofficial in nature. Unlike the Summer tournament, the Spring tournament never divided into separate classes.

Fall Tournament

The Fall Tournament was held every summer from 1939 to 1985. Unlike the Summer tournament, the Fall tournament never divided into separate classes. .

Basketball

Classification guidelines

• ''IHSAA Board policy allows schools to participate in a higher classification than their enrollment places them in a sport with four classes. Schools requesting this placement will remain in higher class for two years. As a result, In the 2014-15 school year, there were 97 schools in 2A basketball, even though regulations call for 96''

State Champions

Timeline

Bowling

Bowling was first sanctioned by the IHSAA in 2009–2010. ===State Champions ===

Cross country

Cross Country was first contested in Iowa in 1922, and is considered a fall sport. It is also the only sport that is jointly sanctioned by the IHSAA and the IGHSAU. The current official distance for cross country meets is 5000m (approximately 3.1 miles). The standard format for team scoring, per NFHS guidelines, is to sum the places of the 5 highest placing runners among qualifying teams (teams must have at least 5 runners to qualify in the context of the team competition) to obtain the team's score. Teams are then ranked with the lowest score winning. Additionally, a team may have up to 7 runners count in placing for team scores, although only the first 5 scores, with the 6th and 7th runners serving to displace and lower the position of runners on other teams.

Classification guidelines

In classifying Cross Country programs, due to the collaboration of the IHSAA and IGHSAU, teams are included in the largest 48, next 64, etc., on the basis of having either a boys or a girls program, as not all schools have both. This is to avoid a situation where boys and girls from the same school do not compete in the same class. ===State Champions ===

Timeline

Football

=== Classification guidelines === Football classifications remain the same for 2 years, following remain the same for the 2021 and 2022 football seasons. ===State Champions === Although different sources claim that certain schools to have been state champions in years prior to 1972, these championships are not apparently recognized by the IHSAA and are not listed on its website, and it is not clear how these championships were determined. 8-Player started having postseason in 2000, the previous two years were regular season due to low number of teams.

Golf

The standard team scoring format for golf tournaments, per NFHS guidelines, is to add up the scores of 6 players with each player playing 2 rounds of 18 holes. Teams are then ranked according to lowest score.

Classification guidelines

• ''Plus golf schools that play in 4A conferences that wish to play in the fall. In 2006–2007 there were 52 schools in class 4A'' ===State Champions ===

Fall Tournament

In 1940, 1941, and 1986–1993, teams could also participate in a separate Fall Championship. Listed below are the champions of those tournaments. Beginning in 1994, the Fall tournament became simply the 4A championship. Those results are included above.

Soccer

Classification guidelines

===State Champions === The current State Champion is the winner of the spring tournament that has been held since 1995 and was divided into 2 classes in 1998 and 3 classes starting in 2011. From 1994 to 2000, there was also a fall State Championship tournament that crowned a single champion. Winners of both tournaments are considered State Champions.

Swimming & diving

Classification guidelines

===State Champions ===

Tennis

An IHSAA tennis team consists of 6 competitors. Each head-to-head competition is made of 6 singles and 3 doubles, each worth 1 point, and the first team to 5 points is the winner. Both singles and doubles matches are in a best-of-3-sets format. With a 10-point tiebreaker in the 3rd in most cases.

Classification guidelines

===State Champions ===

Timeline

Track & Field

Iowa's official track season is currently outdoors. There was also an indoor State Track Meet from 1926 to 1973, and the IHSAA is in the process of collecting and publishing these champions.

Classification guidelines

===List of events === The following is the current list of official track events according to the IHSAA Track: Field: Wheel Chair:

State Champions

State track titles have been given every year since 1906. Since 2003, there has also been wheelchair events at the state meet. A separate wheelchair team championship is also awarded. In 2005, the wheelchair championship has been co-ed.

Wrestling

Classification guidelines

Weight classifications

State Champions

The Iowa High School Athletic Association holds two separate team wrestling championships: the Traditional tournament, which also crowns individual champions, and a Dual Team tournament. The dual team tournament was held at the U.S. Cellular Center in Cedar Rapids a week after the traditional tournament, until 2012, when it was held the Wednesday before the traditional tournament in Des Moines. This was the subject of much controversy, as several teams sat their state qualifiers for the Dual Team tournament. In 1921–1925, the State University of Iowa (Iowa City) and Iowa State University (Ames) held open state tournaments that were not supervised nor sanctioned by the IHSAA.

Broadcasting

Prior to 2016, championship events in football, basketball and wrestling were carried across the state of Iowa on a network made up of local television stations. Beginning with the 2016 football championships, IHSAA reached a deal with NBCUniversal-owned Comcast SportsNet Chicago to become the exclusive provider of these sports, making them available across CSN's footprint consisting of Iowa, Illinois and Indiana via television, online and the NBC Sports mobile app.