Upper St. Croix Valley Conference

The Upper St. Croix Valley Conference is a former high school athletic conference in northwestern Wisconsin. Operational from 1934 to 1994, all conference members were public schools affiliated with the Wisconsin Interscholastic Athletic Association.

History

1934-1953

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Location of Original Upper St. Croix Conference Members

The Upper St. Croix Valley Conference was founded in 1934 by eleven small high schools in northwestern Wisconsin: Amery, Balsam Lake, Centuria, Clayton, Frederic, Grantsburg, Luck, Milltown, Osceola, St. Croix Falls and Webster.^[1] Original members of the conference were located in two counties (Polk and Burnett) whose western border is the St. Croix River and were subdivided into Northern and Southern sections:

Northern Section	Southern Section
Centuria	Amery
Frederic	Balsam Lake
Grantsburg	Clayton
Luck	Osceola
Milltown	St. Croix Falls
Webster

Clayton left to join the Lakeland Conference in 1936,^[2] and the conference consolidated into a single division. In 1940, the five smallest schools in the conference (Balsam Lake, Centuria, Luck, Milltown and Webster) joined with Siren to form the Northwest Border Conference.^[3] Milltown returned to the Upper St. Croix Valley Conference in 1942,^[4] bringing the membership roster back up to six schools. In 1946, Luck followed Milltown out of the Northwest Border Conference to becom the Upper St. Croix Valley's seventh member school.^[5] Webster reentered the conference from the Northwest Border Conference in 1953, bringing the total number of schools to eight.^[6]

1953-1977

Since Webster joined in 1953, there were relatively few changes to the roster, and the Upper St. Croix Valley Conference maintained an eight-member loop for the remainder of its existence. In 1957, Milltown was merged with two former Upper St. Croix Valley members in the Lakeland Conference (Balsam Lake and Centuria) to form Unity High School in Balsam Lake, and the new school inherited Milltown's place in the conference.^[7] Amery left the conference for membership in the Middle Border Conference in 1977^[8] and were replaced by Somerset, late of the Dunn-St. Croix Conference.^[9]

1977-1994

30km
19miles

   

Location of Final Upper St. Croix Conference Members

The Upper St. Croix Valley Conference continued on for seventeen more years before it was disbanded in 1994, and its members were dispersed to other conferences in the area. Four schools (Frederic, Grantsburg, Luck and Webster) became members of the Lakeland Conference,^[10] three members (Osceola, St. Croix Falls and Unity)^[11] joined the Middle Border Conference and Somerset returned to the Dunn-St. Croix Conference.^[12]

Conference membership history

School	Location	Affiliation	Enrollment	Mascot	Colors	Joined	Left	Conference Joined	Current Conference
Amery	Amery, WI	Public	467	Warriors		1934[1]	1977[8]	Middle Border
Balsam Lake	Balsam Lake, WI	Public	N/A	Warriors		1934[1]	1940[3]	Northwest Border	Closed in 1957 (merged into Unity)
Centuria	Centuria, WI	Public	N/A	Raiders		1934[1]	1940[3]	Northwest Border	Closed in 1957 (merged into Unity)
Clayton	Clayton, WI	Public	93	Bears		1934[1]	1936[2]	Lakeland
Frederic	Frederic, WI	Public	116	Vikings		1934[1]	1994[10]	Lakeland
Grantsburg	Grantsburg, WI	Public	255	Pirates		1934[1]	1994[10]	Lakeland
Luck	Luck, WI	Public	118	Cardinals		1934,[1] 1946[5]	1940,[3] 1994[10]	Northwest Border, Lakeland	Lakeland
Milltown	Milltown, WI	Public	N/A	Wildcats		1934,[1] 1942[4]	1940,[3] 1957[7]	Northwest Border	Closed (merged into Unity)
Osceola	Osceola, WI	Public	552	Chieftains		1934[1]	1994[11]	Middle Border
St. Croix Falls	St. Croix Falls, WI	Public	345	Saints		1934[1]	1994[11]	Middle Border	Heart O'North
Webster	Webster, WI	Public	295	Tigers		1934,[1] 1953[6]	1940,[3] 1994[10]	Northwest Border, Lakeland	Lakeland
Unity	Balsam Lake, WI	Public	201	Eagles		1957[7]	1994[11]	Middle Border	Lakeland
Somerset	Somerset, WI	Public	470	Spartans		1977[9]	1994[12]	Dunn-St. Croix	Middle Border

Membership timeline

 Eastern Section  Western Section

List of state champions

Fall sports

Football

School	Year	Division
Osceola	1984	Division 5
Webster	1987	Division 6

Girls Volleyball

School	Year	Division
Webster	1985	Class C
Webster	1986	Class C
Somerset	1993	Division 3

Winter sports

Boys Basketball

School	Year	Division
St. Croix Falls	1950	Single Division
St. Croix Falls	1992	Division 3

Girls Gymnastics

School	Year	Division
Frederic	1992	Division 2

Boys Wrestling

School	Year	Division
St. Croix Falls	1991	Division 2

Spring sports

Boys Track & Field

School	Year	Division
Unity	1967	Class C
Unity	1969	Class C

Summer sports

Baseball

School	Year	Division
Unity	1992	Single Division