The Dual County Conference is a former 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 ...

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 ...

, 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 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

1926-1939

The Dual County Conference opened competition in 1926 as the Columbia County Forensic League. It was started as a league for academic competition before branching out into athletics in 1928. Its membership consisted of six small high schools in south central Wisconsin: five in Columbia County (

Cambria Cambria is a name for Wales, being the Latinised form of the Welsh name for the country, . The term was not in use during the Roman period (when Wales had not come into existence as a distinct entity) or the early medieval period. After the ...

, Fall River, Pardeeville, Poynette and

Rio Rio or Río is the Portuguese and Spanish word for "river". The word also exists in Italian, but is largely obsolete and used in a poetical or literary context to mean "stream". Rio, RIO or Río may also refer to: Places United States * Rio, Fl ...

) and one just across the county line in Dodge County (

Randolph Randolph may refer to: Places In the United States * Randolph, Alabama, an unincorporated community * Randolph, Arizona, a populated place * Randolph, California, a village merged into the city of Brea * Randolph, Illinois, an unincorporated com ...

). The conference expanded to seven schools in 1934, adding Fox Lake High School to its membership roster. 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.

1939-1954

In 1939, the conference added Reeseville High School and changed its name to the Dual County Conference, as the conference now had three member schools in Dodge County instead of one. Reeseville left the conference in 1942 when they suspended their athletic program during

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

and were replaced by Markesan High School three years later. 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 Six-man football is a variant of gridiron football played with six players per team, instead of the standard eleven. It is generally played by high schools in rural areas of the United States and Canada. History Six-man football was developed in ...

for the first time in the 1946 season with four members participating (Fall River, Pardeeville, Randolph and Rio). Cambria (formerly of the

Suburban Six-Man Football League The Suburban Six-Man Football League is a former high school football conference with its catchment in the Madison metropolitan area. Originating in 1939 and playing its last season in 1957, the conference's member schools were affiliated with the ...

) and Fox Lake joined the conference for the 1947 season, and all conference members were participating by 1948. In 1952, the Dual County Conference made a transition to sponsoring

eight-man football Eight-man football is a form of gridiron football, generally played by high schools with smaller enrollments. Eight-man football differs from the traditional 11-man game with the reduction of three players on each side of the ball and a field wid ...

with all member schools participating.

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 Princeton University is a private Ivy League research university in Princeton, New Jersey, United States. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the Unit ...

(previously of the Little 7-C Conference). 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 before the entire conference transitioned in 1959. Fox Lake made its exit that same year to join the

Fox Valley Tri-County League The Fox Valley Tri-County League is a former high school athletic conference in Wisconsin, founded in 1924 and dissolved in 1970. Its membership was concentrated in the southern Fox River (Green Bay tributary), Fox River watershed and all public s ...

for its final three years before consolidating with

Waupun Waupun is a city in Dodge and Fond du Lac counties in the U.S. state of Wisconsin. The population was 11,344 at the 2020 census. Of this, 7,795 were in Dodge County, and 3,549 were in Fond du Lac County. In Fond du Lac County, the Town of Waup ...

in 1962. Montello, formerly a member of the Big 7-C Conference, joined the Dual County Conference in 1961. In 1970, Green Lake and Westfield joined the Dual County Conference from the Fox Valley Tri-County League and

Vacationland Conference The Vacationland Conference is a former high school athletic conference with its membership roster concentrated in south central Wisconsin. A relatively short-lived conference, the Vacationland was founded in 1966 and disbanded in 1970, and all m ...

, respectively.

1970-2001

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 The Flyway Conference is a former high school athletic conference with its membership concentrated in east central Wisconsin. Founded in 1970 and disbanded in 2001, all of its members were affiliated with the Wisconsin Interscholastic Athletic As ...

, and were replaced by Poynette, who were previously part of the

Capitol Conference The Capitol Conference was a high school athletic conference in the Illinois High School Association (IHSA), based in Central Illinois Central Illinois is a region of the U.S. state of Illinois that consists of the entire central third of the s ...

and making their return to the Dual County after a nearly quarter century absence. They rejoined the Capitol Conference in 1987, 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. 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 The Eastern Suburban Conference is a former high school athletic conference in Wisconsin, originally formed in 1969 and disbanding in 2001. With the exception of the conference's two private schools, all members belonged to the Wisconsin Intersch ...

( Deerfield, Hustisford and Johnson Creek). The end of the Dual County Conference came in 2001, when they merged with another conference of small schools in south central Wisconsin (the

) to form the new

Trailways Conference The Trailways Conference is a high school athletic conference in Wisconsin. Formed in 2001, its membership consists of smaller public and private high schools in east central and south central Wisconsin. All member schools belong to the Wiscons ...

Conference membership history

Full members

Football-only members

Membership timeline

DateFormat = yyyy ImageSize = width:900 height:auto barincrement:20 Period = from:1926 till:2001 TimeAxis = orientation:horizontal PlotArea = right:60 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:1946 text:Cambria (1926-1967) bar:1 color:skyblue from:1946 till:1947 text: bar:1 color:tan1 from:1947 till:1967 text: bar:1 color:tan1 from:1967 till:2001 text:Cambria-Friesland (1967-2001) bar:2 color:tan1 from:1926 till:1990 text:Fall River (1926-2001) bar:2 color:skyblue from:1990 till:2001 text: bar:3 color:tan1 from:1926 till:1991 text:Pardeeville (1926-2001) bar:3 color:skyblue from:1991 till:2001 text: bar:4 color:tan1 from:1926 till:1954 text:Poynette (1926-1954) bar:4 color:skyblue from:1946 till:1948 text: bar:4 color:tan1 from:1948 till:1954 text: bar:4 color:tan1 from:1977 till:1987 text:(1977-1987) bar:5 color:tan1 from:1926 till:2001 text:Randolph (1926-2001) bar:6 color:tan1 from:1926 till:1990 text:Rio (1926-2001) bar:6 color:skyblue from:1990 till:2001 text: bar:7 color:tan1 from:1934 till:1946 text:Fox Lake (1934-1959) bar:7 color:skyblue from:1946 till:1947 text: bar:7 color:tan1 from:1947 till:1959 text: bar:8 color:tan1 from:1939 till:1942 text:Reeseville (1939-1942) bar:9 color:tan1 from:1945 till:1946 text:Markesan (1945-1977) bar:9 color:skyblue from:1946 till:1948 text: bar:9 color:tan1 from:1948 till:1977 text: bar:10 color:tan1 from:1954 till:2001 text:Princeton (1954-2001) bar:11 color:tan1 from:1961 till:1991 text:Montello (1961-2001) bar:11 color:skyblue from:1991 till:2001 text: bar:12 color:tan1 from:1970 till:2001 text:Green Lake (1970-2001) bar:13 color:tan1 from:1970 till:1991 text:Westfield (1970-2001) bar:13 color:skyblue from:1991 till:2001 text: bar:14 color:blue from:1990 till:2001 text:Rio/Fall River (1990-2000) bar:15 color:blue from:1991 till:2001 text:Deerfield (1991-2000) bar:16 color:blue from:1991 till:2001 text:Hustisford (1991-2000) bar:17 color:blue from:1991 till:2001 text:Johnson Creek (1991-2000) ScaleMajor = gridcolor:line unit:year increment:5 start:1926

List of state champions

Fall sports

None

Winter sports

Spring sports

List of conference champions

Boys Basketball

Football

References

{{Wisconsin high school athletic conferences Wisconsin high school sports conferences Sports organizations established in 1926 1926 establishments in Wisconsin 2001 disestablishments in Wisconsin