The Iowa High School Athletic Association has announced the district football pairings for the 2010 and 2011 football seasons.  Roland-Story continues to be in Class 2A, and for the next two years, will play several familiar foes.

The new opponents will be East Marshall, West Marshall, CMB, Gilbert, North Polk, South Hardin, and Fort Dodge St. Edmond's.   South Hardin and Gilbert are the only holdover district opponents from the previous two years.

The new district will be much easier on the gas budget for Norsemen fans.  Round trip mileage from Story City to each of our district opponents in the previous incarnation was 822 miles.  In, the new district, the mileage total is 528 miles.  The previous long road trips were to Osage, Manly, and Hudson at 106, 88, and 82 miles one way.  The three long road trips in this district are to LeGrand, Fort Dodge and Eldora at 56, 54, and 48 miles.

The two non-district opponents will be announced in a couple weeks.  District home/road games will also be announced soon.  It will rotate so in the fall of 2010, one of the pair will have the home game, and in 2011, the game will be played on the opponent's home turf.

Should the Norse make the playoffs, a long trip could be in order.  It has some Heart of Iowa Conference teams, but others in extreme Southwest Iowa.  The Norse's "sister district" is District 8, which includes Bondurant-Farrar, Clarinda, Osceola-Clarke, Colfax-Mingo, Interstate 35, Pella Christian, and Shenendoah.