Dual County Conference

The Dual County Conference is a former high school athletic conference in Wisconsin, inaugurated in 1926 as the Columbia County Little Six Conference and ending competition in 2001. All conference members were affiliated with the Wisconsin Interscholastic Athletic Association.

History

1926–1939

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Location of Original Columbia County Little Six Conference Members

The Dual County Conference opened competition in 1926 as the Columbia County Forensic League.^[1] It was started as a league for academic competition before branching out into athletics in 1928.^[2] Its membership consisted of six small high schools in south central Wisconsin: five in Columbia County (Cambria, Fall River, Pardeeville, Poynette and Rio) and one just across the county line in Dodge County (Randolph). The conference expanded to seven schools in 1934, adding Fox Lake High School to its membership roster.^[3] The name of the conference became the Columbia County Little Seven Conference, despite the fact that the conference now had two schools in Dodge County.^[4]

1939–1954

In 1939, the conference added Reeseville High School and changed its name to the Dual County Conference,^[5] as the conference now had three member schools in Dodge County instead of one. Reeseville left the conference in 1942^[6][7] when they suspended their athletic program during World War II and were replaced by Markesan High School three years later.^[8] This marked the Dual County Conference's first foray into Green Lake County, but the name remained unchanged. The Dual County Conference sponsored six-man football for the first time in the 1946 season^[9] with four members participating (Fall River, Pardeeville, Randolph and Rio).^[10] Cambria (formerly of the Suburban Six-Man Football League) and Fox Lake joined the conference for the 1947 season,^[11] and all conference members were participating by 1948.^[12] In 1952, the Dual County Conference made a transition to sponsoring eight-man football with all member schools participating.^[13]

1954–1970

Poynette, which had historically been the largest school in the conference, joined the Tri-County League in 1954 and were immediately replaced by Princeton (previously of the Little 7-C Conference).^[14] Two years later, the Dual County Conference gave its member schools the option of sponsoring eleven-man football, which the larger schools adopted in 1956^[15] before the entire conference transitioned in 1959.^[16] Fox Lake made its exit that same year to join the Fox Valley Tri-County League^[17] for its final three years before consolidating with Waupun in 1962.^[18] Montello, formerly a member of the Big 7-C Conference, joined the Dual County Conference in 1961.^[19] In 1970, Green Lake and Westfield joined the Dual County Conference from the Fox Valley Tri-County League and Vacationland Conference, respectively.^[20]

1970–2001

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Location of Final Dual County Conference Members

During the final three decades of the Dual County Conference, there were relatively few changes to membership. Markesan left in 1977 to join the Flyway Conference, and were replaced by Poynette, who were previously part of the Capitol Conference and making their return to the Dual County after a nearly quarter century absence.^[21] They rejoined the Capitol Conference in 1987,^[22] and membership in the Dual County Conference stayed consistent through the rest of the conference's history with the exception of football. Fall River and Rio, citing competitive imbalance and lack of players, joined forces for the 1990 season to create a cooperative football program.^[23] The next year, the conference's three schools with the highest enrollment (Montello, Pardeeville and Westfield) swapped places for football with the three lowest-enrollment schools in the Eastern Suburban Conference (Deerfield, Hustisford and Johnson Creek).^[24] The end of the Dual County Conference came in 2001, when they merged with another conference of small schools in south central Wisconsin (the Eastern Suburban Conference) to form the new Trailways Conference.^[25]

Conference membership history

Final members

School	Location	Affiliation	Enrollment	Mascot	Colors	Joined	Left	Conference Joined	Current Conference
Cambria-Friesland	Cambria, WI	Public	100	Hilltoppers		1926[1]	2001[25]	Trailways
Fall River	Fall River, WI	Public	157	Pirates		1926[1]	2001[25]	Trailways
Green Lake	Green Lake, WI	Public	101	Lakers		1970[20]	2001[25]	Trailways
Montello	Montello, WI	Public	251	Hilltoppers		1961[19]	2001[25]	Trailways
Pardeeville	Pardeeville, WI	Public	263	Bulldogs		1926[1]	2001[25]	Trailways
Princeton	Princeton, WI	Public	109	Tigers		1954[14]	2001[25]	Trailways
Randolph	Randolph, WI	Public	198	Rockets		1926[1]	2001[25]	Trailways
Rio	Rio, WI	Public	111	Vikings		1926[1]	2001[25]	Trailways
Westfield	Westfield, WI	Public	295	Pioneers		1970[20]	2001[25]	South Central

Previous members

School	Location	Affiliation	Enrollment	Mascot	Colors	Joined	Left	Conference Joined	Current Conference
Fox Lake	Fox Lake, WI	Public	N/A	Lakers		1934[3]	1959[17]	Fox Valley Tri-County	Closed in 1962[18]
Markesan	Markesan, WI	Public	254	Hornets		1945[8]	1977[21]	Flyway	Trailways
Poynette	Poynette, WI	Public	310	Indians		1926,[1] 1977[21]	1954,[14] 1987[22]	Tri-County	Capitol
Reeseville	Reeseville, WI	Public	N/A	Eagles		1939[5]	1942[6][7]	Independent	Closed in 1969[26]

Football-only members

School	Location	Affiliation	Enrollment	Mascot	Colors	Seasons	Primary Conference
Rio/ Fall River	Rio, WI	Public	268	Rebels		1990-2000[23]	Dual County
Deerfield	Deerfield, WI	Public	216	Demons		1991-2000[24]	Eastern Suburban
Hustisford	Hustisford, WI	Public	105	Falcons		1991-2000[24]	Eastern Suburban
Johnson Creek	Johnson Creek, WI	Public	180	Bluejays		1991-2000[24]	Eastern Suburban

Membership timeline

Football-only members Non-football members

List of state champions

Fall sports

None

Winter sports

Boys Basketball

School	Year	Division
Pardeeville	1936	Class C
Randolph	1996	Division 4
Randolph	1998	Division 4

Curling

School	Year	Division
Pardeeville	1964	Single Division

Gymnastics

School	Year	Division
Fall River	1981	Class B
Fall River	1982	Class B

Spring sports

Girls Track & Field

School	Year	Division
Pardeeville	1980	Class C
Poynette	1984	Class C

List of conference champions

Boys Basketball

School	Quantity	Years
Randolph	29	1933, 1939, 1940, 1951, 1953, 1954, 1955, 1956, 1957, 1958, 1959, 1960, 1962, 1968, 1969, 1974, 1981, 1986, 1987, 1988, 1989, 1990, 1992, 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 1997, 1998
Pardeeville	14	1934, 1935, 1936, 1937, 1945, 1964, 1970, 1971, 1975, 1978, 1979, 1980, 1990, 1991
Rio	14	1942, 1943, 1944, 1947, 1949, 1950, 1952, 1956, 1961, 1963, 1965, 1967, 1976, 1977
Poynette	7	1929, 1930, 1931, 1932, 1938, 1948, 1982
Cambria-Friesland	4	1941, 1972, 1973, 1984
Fall River	3	1967, 1999, 2000
Markesan	3	1946, 1966, 1974
Westfield	3	1982, 1983, 1986
Green Lake	1	2001
Montello	1	1985
Fox Lake	0
Princeton	0
Reeseville	0

Football

School	Quantity	Years
Randolph	17	1950, 1951, 1952, 1954, 1955, 1956, 1958, 1959, 1961, 1965, 1978, 1979, 1983, 1984, 1987, 1988, 2000
Pardeeville	11	1946, 1947, 1960, 1961, 1962, 1963, 1967, 1969, 1970, 1975, 1990
Cambria-Friesland	8	1948, 1972, 1992, 1994, 1995, 1996, 1997, 1998
Poynette	7	1977, 1980, 1981, 1982, 1983, 1985, 1986
Montello	5	1968, 1969, 1971, 1973, 1975
Hustisford	4	1991, 1992, 1993, 1999
Westfield	4	1973, 1975, 1976, 1989
Fall River	3	1952, 1966, 1975
Markesan	3	1949, 1957, 1964
Princeton	2	1973, 1974
Rio	2	1953, 1969
Deerfield	0
Fox Lake	0
Green Lake	0
Johnson Creek	0
Reeseville	0
Rio/ Fall River	0