Midwest Prep Conference

The Midwest Prep Conference is a former high school athletic conference in competition from 1940 to 1983. Consisting entirely of private schools, most were located in Wisconsin and had membership in the Wisconsin Independent Schools Athletic Association.

History

1940–1952

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19miles

   

Location of original Wisconsin Prep Conference members

The Midwest Prep Conference began play in 1940 as the Wisconsin Prep Conference with five private high schools in southeastern Wisconsin. Three were located in the Milwaukee area (Lutheran High, Milwaukee Country Day, and Milwaukee University), one in Watertown (Northwestern Prep) and one in Beaver Dam (Wayland Academy).^[1] Northwestern Military & Naval Academy in Lake Geneva had a brief stint in the conference from 1945 to 1949,^[2] and was replaced by Racine Lutheran High School in 1950.^[3]

1952–1964

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31miles

   

Location of Midwest Prep Conference members (1955–1964)

In 1952, the Wisconsin Prep Conference added two schools to bring the membership roster to eight. Both schools were located in Illinois (Lake Forest Academy and North Shore Country Day School in Winnetka). With the addition of Illinois-based schools to the loop came a new name: the Midwest Prep Conference.^[4] North Shore Country Day School’s tenure in the conference would be brief, as they left in 1954.^[5] The next year, Lutheran High School in Milwaukee was split up by the two ecclesiastical organizations running the school. Milwaukee Lutheran High School was opened by the Lutheran Church – Missouri Synod and Wisconsin Lutheran High School was established by the Wisconsin Evangelical Lutheran Synod, both in 1955.^[6]

1964-1970

The year 1964 saw numerous changes to Midwest Prep Conference membership with a net loss of two members. Milwaukee Country Day School and Milwaukee University School (along with the all-girls Milwaukee-Downer Seminary) merged to form the University School of Milwaukee. The new school took over both MCDS’s campus in Whitefish Bay and MUS’s River Hills campus, along with both predecessor schools’ conference membership.^[7] The Midwest Prep also lost Lake Forest Academy and Wayland Academy, becoming a Wisconsin-only conference in the process.^[8] The entry of Concordia College Prep in Milwaukee to the conference brought its membership roster to six members. St. John's Military Academy in Delafield applied for membership along with Concordia but was rejected because of scheduling issues.^[9] Fox Valley Lutheran High School in Appleton joined the Midwest Prep Conference in 1965^[10] accompanied with Wayland Academy's return to the circuit,^[11] bringing the total number of members back up to eight schools. In 1968, seven of the eight member schools of the Midwest Prep Conference joined the Wisconsin Independent Schools Athletic Association, an organization for interscholastic athletics composed entirely of parochial and private schools.^[12] Northwestern Prep was the only holdout, not joining WISAA until 1974.^[13]

1970–1983

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19miles

   

Location of final Midwest Prep Conference members

In 1970, Martin Luther High School in Greendale joined the Midwest Prep Conference,^[14] replacing Concordia Prep, which had left the conference to compete as an independent before closing its doors the next year.^[15][16] Fox Valley Lutheran left the Midwest Prep Conference in 1971 to join the Fox Valley Christian Conference, looking to cut down on long travel distances.^[17] St. Mary’s High School in Burlington, which had been left without conference affiliation when the Southeastern Badger Conference disbanded, replaced Fox Valley Lutheran.^[18] The last changes to conference membership occurred in 1974, when Milwaukee Lutheran joined the Metro Conference^[19] and Wisconsin Lutheran left for the Wisconsin Little Ten Conference.^[20] St. John’s Military Academy in Delafield came over from the Classic Conference to replace the two exiting schools, ten years after its initial attempt to gain conference membership.^[21] The conference featured the same seven members for the remainder of its existence, and in 1983 the Midwest Prep Conference joined with nine out of the eleven schools from the Classic Conference (Central Wisconsin Christian, Kettle Moraine Lutheran, Notre Dame, Sheboygan Christian, Sheboygan Lutheran, Shoreland Lutheran, St. Lawrence Seminary, and The Prairie School) to form the Midwest Classic Conference.^[22]

Conference membership history

School	Location	Affiliation	Enrollment	Mascot	Colors	Joined	Left	Conference Joined	Current Conference
Lutheran High	Milwaukee, WI	Private (LCMS & WELS)	N/A	Knights		1940[1]	1955[6]	Closed (split into Milwaukee Lutheran and Wisconsin Lutheran)
Milwaukee Country Day	Whitefish Bay, WI	Private (Nonsectarian)	N/A	Cougars		1940[1]	1964[7]	Closed (merged into University School of Milwaukee)
Milwaukee University	River Hills, WI	Private (Nonsectarian)	N/A	Lancers		1940[1]	1964[7]	Closed (merged into University School of Milwaukee)
Northwestern Prep	Watertown, WI	Private (WELS)	N/A	Hornets		1940[1]	1983[22]	Midwest Classic	Closed in 1995 (merged with Martin Luther Prep)
Wayland Academy	Beaver Dam, WI	Private (historically Baptist)	159	Big Red		1940,[1] 1965[11]	1964,[8] 1983[22]	Independent, Midwest Classic	Trailways
Northwestern Military & Naval Academy	Lake Geneva, WI	Private (Nonsectarian), Military	N/A	Falcons		1945[2]	1949[3]	Independent	Closed in 1995 (merged with St. John's Military Academy)
Racine Lutheran	Racine, WI	Private (LCMS)	303	Crusaders		1950[3]	1983[22]	Midwest Classic	Metro Classic
Lake Forest Academy	Lake Forest, IL	Private (Nonsectarian)	452	Caxys		1952[4]	1964[8]	Private School League (IHSA)	Independent School League (IHSA)
North Shore Country Day	Winnetka, IL	Private (Nonsectarian)	213	Raiders		1952[4]	1954[5]	Private School League (IHSA)	Independent School League (IHSA)
Milwaukee Lutheran	Milwaukee, WI	Private (LCMS)	908	Red Knights		1955[6]	1974[19]	Metro	Woodland
Wisconsin Lutheran	Milwaukee, WI	Private (WELS)	938	Vikings		1955[6]	1974[20]	Wisconsin Little Ten	Woodland
Concordia Prep	Milwaukee, WI	Private (LCMS)	N/A	Falcons		1964[9]	1970[15]	Independent	Closed in 1971[16]
University School of Milwaukee	River Hills, WI	Private (Nonsectarian)	407	Wildcats		1964[7]	1983[22]	Midwest Classic
Fox Valley Lutheran	Appleton, WI	Private (WELS)	742	Foxes		1965[10]	1971[17]	Fox Valley Christian	Bay (2025)
Martin Luther	Greendale, WI	Private (LCMS)	649	Spartans		1970[14]	1983[22]	Midwest Classic	Metro Classic
St. Mary’s	Burlington, WI	Private (Catholic)	128	Hilltoppers		1971[18]	1983[22]	Midwest Classic
St. John's Military Academy	Delafield, WI	Private (Nonsectarian), Military	236	Lancers		1974[21]	1983[22]	Midwest Classic

Membership timeline

List of state champions

Fall sports

Boys Cross Country

School	Year	Organization	Division
University School	1975[23]	WISAA	Class C
University School	1976[24]	WISAA	Class C
University School	1977[25]	WISAA	Class C
University School	1982[26]	WISAA	Class C

Football

School	Year	Organization	Division
St. Mary’s	1976[27]	WISAA	Class B
St. Mary’s	1977[28]	WISAA	Class B
St. Mary’s	1978[29]	WISAA	Class B
Northwestern Prep	1980[30]	WISAA	Class B
St. Mary’s	1981[31]	WISAA	Class B

Boys Soccer

School	Year	Organization
University School	1975[32]	WISAA

Girls Tennis

School	Year	Organization
University School	1976[33]	WISAA
University School	1977[34]	WISAA
University School	1978[35]	WISAA
University School	1982[36]	WISAA

Winter sports

Boys Basketball

School	Year	Organization	Division
Racine Lutheran	1975[37]	WISAA	Class B

Girls Basketball

School	Year	Organization	Division
Northwestern Prep	1979[38]	WISAA	Class B

Spring sports

Boys Golf

School	Year	Organization
Milwaukee Lutheran	1969[39]	WISAA

Boys Tennis

School	Year	Organization
University School	1969[40]	WISAA
University School	1971[41]	WISAA
University School	1972[42]	WISAA
University School	1973[43]	WISAA
University School	1974[44]	WISAA
University School	1975[45]	WISAA
University School	1976[46]	WISAA
University School	1978[47]	WISAA
University School	1979[48]	WISAA
University School	1980[49]	WISAA

Boys Track & Field

School	Year	Organization	Division
Wayland Academy	1969[50]	WISAA	Class C
University School	1970[51]	WISAA	Class C
University School	1971[52]	WISAA	Class C
University School	1972[53]	WISAA	Class C
University School	1975[54]	WISAA	Class C
University School	1976[55]	WISAA	Class C
St. John’s Military Academy	1977[56]	WISAA	Class C
University School	1978[57]	WISAA	Class C
University School	1979[58]	WISAA	Class C
Racine Lutheran	1980[59]	WISAA	Class C
Racine Lutheran	1981[60]	WISAA	Class C
Racine Lutheran	1982[61]	WISAA	Class C
Wayland Academy	1983[62]	WISAA	Class C

Girls Track & Field

School	Year	Organization
Wisconsin Lutheran	1972[63]	WISAA
Wisconsin Lutheran	1973[64]	WISAA