Bettendorf High School - Athletics

Athletics

Bettendorf participates in the Mississippi Athletic Conference, and athletic teams are known as the Bulldogs. School colors are black and gold. The school fields athletic teams in 21 sports, including:

• Summer: Baseball, softball.
• Fall: Football, volleyball, cheerleading, girls' swimming, boys' cross country, girls' cross country and boys' golf.
• Winter: Boys' basketball, girls' basketball, cheerleading, wrestling, boys' swimming and boys' and girls' bowling.
• Spring: Boys' track and field, girls' track and field, boys' soccer, girls' soccer, girls' golf, boys' tennis and girls' tennis.

The school also has a cheerleading squad and a competitive dance team.

Bettendorf is classified as a 4A school (Iowa's largest 48 schools), according to the Iowa High School Athletic Association and Iowa Girls High School Athletic Union; in sports where there are fewer divisions, the Bulldogs are always in the largest class (e.g., Class 3A for wrestling, boys soccer, and Class 2A for golf, tennis and girls soccer). The school is a member of the 10-team Mississippi Athletic Conference (known to locals as the MAC), which comprises schools from the Iowa Quad Cities, along with Burlington, Clinton and Muscatine high schools. Bettendorf's biggest rivalry is with Davenport Assumption.

One notable sport in which Bettendorf has been very successful is football where the Bulldogs have won seven state championships in 1981, 1987, 1988, 1991, 1992, 2004, and 2007. As well, prior to a playoff system in Iowa, the Bulldogs were named the "Mythical State Champions" by the U.P.I. in 1960. Bettendorf has also finished as the Runner-up three times (1980, 2000, 2002) and currently own a 58-17 (77%) playoff record. The Bulldogs frequently make it to the semi-finals at the Uni-Dome on the University of Northern Iowa's campus each fall. The campus hosts the top 4 teams in the playoffs each year. The Bulldogs have had four notable winning streaks: 25-games from 1958–60, 36-games from 1987–89, 30-games from 1991–1993, and 24-games from 2007-2008. Bettendorf has also been ranked nationally on five different occasions by entities such as the L.A. Times, USA Today, and Prep Nation 101.

Three of the Bulldogs' coaches, Merrit Parsons, Mervin Habenicht and Randy Scott are members of the Iowa High School Football Coaches Hall of Fame and Bettendorf has had two players play in the NFL: running back Tavian Banks (Jacksonville Jaguars, 1998–99; New Orleans Saints, 2002–03) and linebacker Pat Angerer (Indianopolis Colts, 2010-current); both Banks and Angerer played for the University of Iowa where they were All-Americans for the Hawkeyes.