The Coulee Conference is a high school
athletic conference
An athletic conference is a collection of sports teams which play competitively against each other in a sports league. In many cases conferences are subdivided into smaller Division (sport), divisions, with the best teams competing at successively ...
of medium-sized schools based in west central
Wisconsin
Wisconsin ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Great Lakes region, Great Lakes region of the Upper Midwest of the United States. It borders Minnesota to the west, Iowa to the southwest, Illinois to the south, Lake Michigan to the east, Michig ...
. Founded in 1926, it is one of Wisconsin's oldest athletic conferences and its member schools are affiliated with the
Wisconsin Interscholastic Athletic Association
The Wisconsin Interscholastic Athletic Association (WIAA) is the regulatory body for all high school sports in Wisconsin. Its history dates to 1895, making it the earliest continually existing high school athletic organization in the country. ...
.
History
1926-1977
The Coulee Conference was formed in 1926 by six small high schools in west central Wisconsin:
Bangor,
Galesville,
Holmen,
Mindoro
Mindoro is the seventh largest and eighth-most populous island in the Philippines. With a total land area of 10,571 km2 ( 4,082 sq.mi ), it has a population of 1,408,454, as of the 2020 census. It is located off the southwestern coast of ...
,
Onalaska and
West Salem.
The original member schools were located in
La Crosse
La Crosse ( ) is a city in La Crosse County, Wisconsin, United States, and its county seat. Positioned alongside the Mississippi River, La Crosse is the largest city on Wisconsin's western border. La Crosse's population was 52,680 as of the 20 ...
and
Trempealeau Counties, and the conference was named after the
Coulee Region
The Driftless Area, also known as Bluff Country and the Paleozoic Plateau, is a topographic and cultural region in the Midwestern United States that comprises southwestern Wisconsin, southeastern Minnesota, northeastern Iowa, and the extreme ...
in the southwestern part of Wisconsin's
Driftless Area
The Driftless Area, also known as Bluff Country and the Paleozoic Plateau, is a topographic and cultural region in the Midwestern United States that comprises southwestern Wisconsin, southeastern Minnesota, northeastern Iowa, and the extreme ...
. Membership increased to seven schools in 1936 when
Trempealeau joined the Coulee Conference
and eight in 1942 when
Melrose Melrose may refer to:
Places
United Kingdom
* Melrose, Scottish Borders, a town in the Scottish Borders, Scotland
** Melrose Abbey, ruined monastery
** Melrose RFC, rugby club
Australia
* Melrose, Queensland, a locality in the South Burnett R ...
became members.
After Galesville's merger with
Ettrick in 1949,
the Coulee Conference's roster remained consistent for sixteen years until Melrose and Mindoro merged in 1965,
with the new school (
Melrose-Mindoro) taking on the membership of its two predecessors.
moved over from the original
Mississippi Valley Conference to keep membership at eight schools.
In 1971, Gale-Ettrick merged with Trempealeau to create the new
Gale-Ettrick-Trempealeau High School,
with the new school remaining in the Coulee Conference. As in the previous consolidation of conference members, the ledger was kept at eight schools by adding
Cochrane-Fountain City from the
Dairyland Conference.
1977-1987
In 1977, the Coulee Conference lost three members to conference realignment in the region: two to the Dairyland Conference: (Cochrane-Fountain City and Melrose-Mindoro)
and one to the
Scenic Central Conference (Bangor)
Replacing the three exiting schools were
Black River Falls from the
South Central Conference and two schools from the Scenic Central Conference (
Royall and
Westby).
Royall was strongly opposed to being placed in the Coulee Conference for a multitude of reasons including small size compared to other Coulee schools, increased travel distances, and loss of traditional Scenic Central rivalries. After the WIAA's two-year freeze on conference realignment expired in 1979, Royall joined with their former Scenic Central brethren to form the new
Scenic Bluffs Conference.
The next year, the Coulee Conference accepted its first (and to date, only) out-of-state member, adding
La Crescent from Minnesota (located across the
Mississippi River
The Mississippi River is the main stem, primary river of the largest drainage basin in the United States. It is the second-longest river in the United States, behind only the Missouri River, Missouri. From its traditional source of Lake Ita ...
from
La Crosse
La Crosse ( ) is a city in La Crosse County, Wisconsin, United States, and its county seat. Positioned alongside the Mississippi River, La Crosse is the largest city on Wisconsin's western border. La Crosse's population was 52,680 as of the 20 ...
) as Royall's replacement.
1987-present
Membership in the Coulee Conference remained consistent for most of the 1980s, with
Viroqua moving over from the
Southwest Wisconsin Athletic League as the conference's ninth member in 1987.
This would turn out to be the high water mark for the conference, as Holmen and Onalaska were growing in enrollment beyond the size their conference rivals and wanted to explore other options. Both schools left to become charter members of the new
Mississippi Valley Conference in 1989 with former members of the
Big Rivers (
La Crosse Central and
La Crosse Logan) and South Central (
Sparta
Sparta was a prominent city-state in Laconia in ancient Greece. In antiquity, the city-state was known as Lacedaemon (), while the name Sparta referred to its main settlement in the Evrotas Valley, valley of Evrotas (river), Evrotas rive ...
and
Tomah) Conferences.
In 1996,
Luther High School in
Onalaska was invited to join the Coulee Conference after being expelled from their former home in the Dairyland Conference.
They began conference play the next year,
and the Coulee Conference's roster remained consistent for the next decade. In 2007, La Crescent-Hokah returned to a Minnesota-based conference as they left to become members of the
Hiawatha Valley League,
bringing the Coulee Conference to its current alignment of seven schools. In 2020,
Aquinas High School joined the Coulee Conference for football only.
List of member schools
Current members
Former members
Membership timeline
DateFormat = yyyy
ImageSize = width:900 height:auto barincrement:20
Period = from:1926 till:2030
TimeAxis = orientation:horizontal
PlotArea = right:30 left:0 bottom:50 top:5
Colors = id:barcolor value:rgb(0.99,0.7,0.7)
id:line value:black
id:bg value:white
PlotData=
width:15 textcolor:black shift:(5,-5) anchor:from fontsize:m
bar:1 color:tan1 from:1926 till:1977 text:Bangor (1926-1977)
bar:2 color:tan1 from:1926 till:1949 text:Galesville (1926-1949)
bar:3 color:tan1 from:1926 till:1989 text:Holmen (1926-1989)
bar:4 color:tan1 from:1926 till:1965 text:Mindoro (1926-1965)
bar:5 color:tan1 from:1926 till:1989 text:Onalaska (1926-1989)
bar:6 color:tan1 from:1926 till:2030 text:West Salem (1926-present)
bar:7 color:tan1 from:1936 till:1971 text:Trempealeau (1936-1971)
bar:8 color:tan1 from:1942 till:1965 text:Melrose (1942-1965)
bar:9 color:tan1 from:1949 till:1971 text:Gale-Ettrick (1949-1971)
bar:10 color:tan1 from:1965 till:2030 text:Arcadia (1965-present)
bar:11 color:tan1 from:1965 till:1977 text:Melrose-Mindoro (1965-1977)
bar:12 color:tan1 from:1971 till:1977 text:Cochrane-Fountain City (1971-1977)
bar:13 color:tan1 from:1971 till:2030 text:Gale-Ettrick-Trempealeau (1971-present)
bar:14 color:tan1 from:1977 till:2030 text:Black River Falls (1977-present)
bar:15 color:tan1 from:1977 till:1979 text:Royall (1977-1979)
bar:16 color:tan1 from:1977 till:2030 text:Westby (1977-present)
bar:17 color:tan1 from:1980 till:2007 text:La Crescent (MN) (1980-2007)
bar:18 color:tan1 from:1987 till:2030 text:Viroqua (1987-present)
bar:19 color:tan1 from:1997 till:2030 text:Luther (1997-present)
ScaleMajor = gridcolor:line unit:year increment:10 start:1926
Membership map
Sports
The Coulee Conference sponsors 20 varsity sports. They are:
* Fall -
Football
Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kick (football), kicking a football (ball), ball to score a goal (sports), goal. Unqualified, football (word), the word ''football'' generally means the form of football t ...
, boys'
soccer
Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 Football player, players who almost exclusively use their feet to propel a Ball (association football), ball around a rectangular f ...
, girls'
tennis
Tennis is a List of racket sports, racket sport that is played either individually against a single opponent (singles (tennis), singles) or between two teams of two players each (doubles (tennis), doubles). Each player uses a tennis racket st ...
,
volleyball
Volleyball is a team sport in which two teams of six players are separated by a net. Each team tries to score points by grounding a ball on the other team's court under organized rules. It has been a part of the official program of the Summ ...
, boys'
cross country, girls' cross country and girls'
golf
Golf is a club-and-ball sport in which players use various Golf club, clubs to hit a Golf ball, ball into a series of holes on a golf course, course in as few strokes as possible.
Golf, unlike most ball games, cannot and does not use a standa ...
* Winter - Boys'
basketball
Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular Basketball court, court, compete with the primary objective of #Shooting, shooting a basketball (ball), basketball (appro ...
, girls' basketball,
gymnastics
Gymnastics is a group of sport that includes physical exercises requiring Balance (ability), balance, Strength training, strength, Flexibility (anatomy), flexibility, agility, Motor coordination, coordination, artistry and endurance. The movem ...
,
wrestling
Wrestling is a martial art, combat sport, and form of entertainment that involves grappling with an opponent and striving to obtain a position of advantage through different throws or techniques, within a given ruleset. Wrestling involves di ...
boys'
hockey
''Hockey'' is a family of List of stick sports, stick sports where two opposing teams use hockey sticks to propel a ball or disk into a goal. There are many types of hockey, and the individual sports vary in rules, numbers of players, apparel, ...
and girls' hockey.
* Spring - Boys'
track, girls' track, boys' golf, boys' tennis, girls' soccer,
baseball
Baseball is a bat-and-ball games, bat-and-ball sport played between two team sport, teams of nine players each, taking turns batting (baseball), batting and Fielding (baseball), fielding. The game occurs over the course of several Pitch ...
and
softball
Softball is a Variations of baseball, variation of baseball, the difference being that it is played with a larger ball, on a smaller field, and with only underhand pitches (where the ball is released while the hand is primarily below the ball) ...
.
State championships
Football
*1978 - Westby
*1985 - Westby
*1986 - Westby
*2007 - West Salem
*2021 - Aquinas
*2022 - Aquinas
*2023 - Aquinas
Boys' basketball
* 1988 - Onalaska
Boys' golf
*1994 - Galesville-Ettrick-Trempealeau
*2010 - Arcadia
Softball
*2014 - Arcadia
Boys' Track & Field
*1991 - Arcadia
*1992 - Arcadia
*1994 - Arcadia
*1995 - Arcadia
*1998 - Arcadia
*1999 - Arcadia
*2004 - Arcadia
Girls' Track & Field
*1979 - West Salem
*1998 - Arcadia
*2003 - Arcadia
*2004 - Arcadia
*2007 - West Salem
*2008 - Arcadia
*2009 - Arcadia
Spring Baseball
*2017 - West Salem
State championship runners-up
Football
*1989 - Westby
*1999 - Black River Falls
*2002 - West Salem
*2005 - West Salem
*2009 - Arcadia
*2022 - West Salem
Boys' basketball
*2006 - Westby
*2012 - Gale-Ettrick-Trempealeau
Girls' basketball
*1999 - Viroqua
Spring baseball
*1981 - Viroqua
*1985 - Viroqua
[
*1997 - Westby][
*2013 - Westby][
*2014- Viroqua
]
Summer baseball
*1984 - Galesville-Ettrick-Trempealeau
Boys' cross country
*1994 - West Salem
Girls' golf
*2008 - Arcadia/Cochrane-Fountain City
Boys' golf
*1991 - Arcadia[
*1999 - Arcadia][
]
Gymnastics
*1979 - Viroqua[
*2005 - Galesville-Ettrick-Trempealeau/Melrose-Mindoro/Cochrane-Fountain City][
]
Girls' hockey
*2002 - Viroqua/Cornerstone
A cornerstone (or foundation stone or setting stone) is the first stone set in the construction of a masonry Foundation (engineering), foundation. All other stones will be set in reference to this stone, thus determining the position of the entir ...
/Westby/Youth Initiative
Boys' Track & Field
*1973 - West Salem[
*2007 - Arcadia][
*2009 - West Salem][
]
Girls' Track & Field
*2008 - West Salem[
]
Softball
*1991 - Westby[
]
Wrestling
*1995 - Arcadia
The Vernon County Mega Bowl
Beginning in 2019, the Westby Norsemen and the Viroqua Blackhawks have played for the Vernon County Mega Bowl in their yearly football contest. The Norsemen won the first Mega Bowl game 21-8 in 2019. There was no Mega Bowl Game in 2020.
Mega Bowl Game results
References
External links
Coulee Conference (official website)
{{Wisconsin high school athletic conferences
Wisconsin high school sports conferences
Sports organizations established in 1926
1926 establishments in Wisconsin