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Northern Lakes Conference (Wisconsin)
Wisconsin high school athletic conference From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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The Northern Lakes Conference is a high school athletic conference with its membership base in northern Wisconsin. It was founded in 1927 and all members belong to the Wisconsin Interscholastic Athletic Association.
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History
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1927–1937
The Northern Lakes Conference was originally formed in 1927 as Land O'Lakes Conference by eleven schools in northern Wisconsin: Argonne, Crandon, Eagle River, Elcho, Goodman, Hiles, Laona, Suring, Three Lakes, Wabeno and White Lake.[1] Football was sponsored from the conference's inception, with five schools (Argonne, Crandon, Elcho, Goodman and Wabeno) forming the initial roster.[2] Phelps joined the conference after the first season,[3] and in 1929, Mountain entered the league as its thirteenth member.[4] Minocqua became a member of the Land O' Lakes Conference in 1932,[5] but membership stayed at thirteen schools due to Crandon's departure.[6] That number was decreased to eleven the next year, as Mountain and Suring left to join the Marinette & Oconto Conference.[7] Crandon reinstated full membership in the Land O'Lakes in 1934 to put the roster at twelve schools, and the conference subdivided into Northern and Southern Divisions:[8]
1937–1972
In 1937, the Land O'Lakes Conference changed its name to the Northern Lakes Conference in order to avoid confusion with another conference of the same name.[9] Membership stayed at twelve schools until the start of World War II, when both Argonne[10] and Hiles[11] closed, with students for both schools being redistricted to Crandon. After World War II, the Northern Lakes began sponsorship of six-player football, and three of the conference's smaller schools (Elcho, Phelps and Three Lakes) participated along with associate members Woodruff-Arbor Vitae.[12] Their entry into the conference as full members in 1950 brought the membership roster to eleven schools.[13] The conference's six-player football division was also ended that year, as all four participants transitioned to eleven-player football.[14] In 1951, Goodman accepted an invitation to join the Marinette & Oconto Conference,[15] and Elcho shifted to the Southern Division to create two five-member divisions:[16]
Divisional play was ended in 1954,[17] and in 1957, the number of schools in the Northern Lakes Conference decreased to eight as White Lake left for membership in the Wolf River Valley Conference[18] and Lakeland Union High School was created from the consolidation of Minocqua and Woodruff-Arbor Vitae.[19][20] Lakeland Union's tenure in the Northern Lakes Conference turned out to be short-lived, as they only spent one season in the conference before joining with larger schools in the Lumberjack Conference in 1958.[21] Goodman rejoined the conference in 1960 after spending the previous few seasons as members of the disbanded Granite Valley Conference.[22] In 1964, the Northern Lakes Conference added Florence as a new member, who joined after exiting the Big Six Conference in Michigan's upper peninsula.[23]
1972–present
In 1972, Pembine entered the Northern Lakes from the Michigan-based Skyline Conference[24] and White Lake rejoined after displacement from the defunct Wolf River Valley Conference two years prior.[25] Eagle River High School changed its name to Northland Pines High School in 1974[26] when they built a new facility to relieve overcrowding, and they would leave the conference two years later for membership in the newly expanded Lumberjack Conference.[27] The Northern Lakes Conference remained a stable ten-school circuit for the next three decades before welcoming the Conserve School in Land o' Lakes into the fold in 2005.[28] Their stay would be relatively short, as they left the conference in 2009.[29][30] The Northern Lakes Conference would see four programs consolidate into two at the beginning of the 2010s, first with Goodman and Pembine in 2011[31] and then with Laona and Wabeno the next year.[32] Sponsorship of football was ended after the 2016 season, and Northern Lakes joined with the Marinette & Oconto Conference and Packerland Conference to create the MONLPC Football Conference.[33] White Lake left the conference for a second time to join the Central Wisconsin Conference in 2021,[34] bringing the membership roster to its current total of nine schools, four of which are part of cooperative programs due to size.
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List of conference members
Current members
Former members
Former football-only members
11-player
6-player
Notes
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Membership timeline
Full members
Northern Division Southern Division
Football members
11-player
6-player
Membership map
Northern Lakes Conference
Location of Northern Lakes Conference full members:
List of state champions
Fall sports
None
Winter sports
Spring sports
List of conference champions
Boys Basketball
Girls Basketball
Football
11-player
6-player
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References
External links
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