The East Central 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 ...

in Wisconsin. Originally founded in 1970, it was disbanded in 2001 and remained defunct until its reconstitution in 2015. It will be dissolved again after 2024-25 school year, and all members in both incarnations belonged to 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

1970–2001

The East Central Conference was founded in 1970 by eight medium-sized high schools in east central Wisconsin. Six of the eight schools were displaced by the dissolution of their previous conferences: three from the Little Nine Conference ( Hortonville, Omro and Winneconne), two from the

Little Ten Conference The Little Ten Conference is the oldest continuous high school athletic conference in the state of Illinois. Founded in 1919, it comprised the following small high schools in northern Illinois: Earlville, Hinckley, Leland, Paw Paw, Plano, ...

(

Berlin Berlin ( ; ) is the Capital of Germany, capital and largest city of Germany, by both area and List of cities in Germany by population, population. With 3.7 million inhabitants, it has the List of cities in the European Union by population withi ...

and

Ripon Ripon () is a cathedral city and civil parish in North Yorkshire, England. The city is located at the confluence of two tributaries of the River Ure, the Laver and Skell. Within the boundaries of the historic West Riding of Yorkshire, the ...

) and New London of the Mid-Eastern Conference. Former Central Wisconsin Conference members Waupaca and Weyauwega rounded out the original eight. In 1973, Weyauwega left the East Central Conference to rejoin the CWC, and

Little Chute Little Chute is a village in Outagamie County, Wisconsin, United States. The population was 11,619 at the 2020 census. It is immediately east of the city of Appleton, Wisconsin and runs along the Fox River. It is a part of the Appleton, Wisco ...

joined from the CWC as their replacement the following year. In 1979, New London exited for membership in the

Bay Conference The Bay Conference is a high school athletics conference made up of eight teams in northeastern Wisconsin, centering primarily around the Green Bay and Fox Valley metropolitan areas. The conference and its member schools are members of the Wisc ...

with Wautoma moving over from the CWC to maintain an eight-member conference. Aside from Waupun replacing Wautoma as a football-only member in 1995, the all-sport membership roster would remain intact for the next twenty years. In 1999, Hortonville, Little Chute and Waupaca became charter members of the Valley 8 Conference.

Laconia Laconia or Lakonia (, , ) is a historical and Administrative regions of Greece, administrative region of Greece located on the southeastern part of the Peloponnese peninsula. Its administrative capital is Sparti (municipality), Sparta. The word ...

and Markesan joined the ECC from the neighboring

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 ...

to take the vacated members' place. For football, the two new members stayed in the Flyway Conference, with Mayville and St. Mary's Springs in Fond du Lac joining as football-only members. Two years later, the seven schools of the East Central Conference merged with the nine members of the Flyway Conference to form the

East Central Flyway Conference The East Central Flyway Conference is a former high school athletic conference in Wisconsin, competing from 2001 to 2007. All members belonged to the Wisconsin Interscholastic Athletic Association. History The East Central Flyway Conference w ...

2015–2025

During the realignment of several conferences within northeastern Wisconsin, eight schools (Berlin, Campbellsport, Kettle Moraine Lutheran, Kewaskum,

Plymouth Plymouth ( ) is a port city status in the United Kingdom, city and unitary authority in Devon, South West England. It is located on Devon's south coast between the rivers River Plym, Plym and River Tamar, Tamar, about southwest of Exeter and ...

, Ripon,

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 ...

and Winneconne) joined together to form a new East Central Conference in 2015. Three of the members of the new ECC were also members of the original conference (Berlin, Ripon and Winneconne). In 2021, after a previous unsuccessful attempt two years prior, Campbellsport left the East Central Conference to join the

Wisconsin Flyway Conference The Wisconsin Flyway Conference is a high school athletic conference with its membership concentrated in east central Wisconsin. It was founded in 2006 and all members belong to the Wisconsin Interscholastic Athletic Association. History The W ...

, leaving the ECC with seven members. That same year, Berlin and Ripon requested a move to the nearby South Central Conference due to declining enrollment and competitive disparity. Winneconne also requested a shift to the

due to its growth and West De Pere's desire to move to the larger Fox River Classic Conference. Both requests were denied by the WIAA Task Force due to a lack of solution to move the other four schools. In December 2023, the other four schools requested an exit from the East Central Conference. Kettle Moraine Lutheran wanted to join other private schools in the Midwest Classic Conference, Kewaskum and Plymouth sought membership in the

North Shore Conference The North Shore Conference is a high school athletic conference in Wisconsin. It was founded in 1985, and membership is concentrated in the northern suburbs of the Milwaukee metropolitan area. All member schools are affiliated with the Wisconsi ...

and Waupun requested a shift to the Capitol Conference. After some deliberation, the decision was made to disband the East Central Conference and disperse its member schools to other conference. Berlin and Ripon joined the South Central Conference, Waupun became members of the Capitol Conference, Winneconne was accepted into the Bay Conference and the remaining three schools (Kettle Moraine Lutheran, Kewaskum and Plymouth) combined with four other schools ( Port Washington, Sheboygan South, West Bend East and West Bend West) to form the Glacier Trails Conference.

Football-only alignment (2020-2025)

In February 2019, in conjunction with the

Wisconsin Football Coaches Association The Wisconsin Football Coaches Association is an association of American football coaches on all levels within the state of Wisconsin. An annual clinic of members is held in Madison, Wisconsin to promote the sport, primarily at the high school lev ...

, the WIAA released a sweeping football-only realignment for Wisconsin to commence with the 2020 football season and run on a two-year cycle. The East Central Conference retained six members for football (Berlin, Kettle Moraine Lutheran, Kewaskum, Plymouth, Ripon and Waupun) and welcomed two football-only members: Port Washington of the

, and Sheboygan Falls of the

Eastern Wisconsin Conference The Eastern Wisconsin Conference is a high school athletic conference with its membership based in east central Wisconsin. It existed in two incarnations: the original conference from 1923 to 1970 and the current one since 1979. The conference an ...

. This alignment remained in place for the 2022-2023 realignment cycle. For the 2024-2025 cycle, the East Central Conference was whittled down to six members, with returnees Kettle Moraine Lutheran, Kewaskum, Plymouth and Port Washington being joined by

Beaver Dam A beaver dam or beaver impoundment is a dam built by beavers; it creates a pond which protects against predators such as coyotes, alligators, cougars, foxes, eagles, wolves and bears, and holds their food during winter. These structures modify th ...

and Watertown of the

Badger Conference The Badger Conference is a high school athletic conference with its membership concentrated in south central Wisconsin. Established in 1952, the Badger Conference is a member of the Wisconsin Interscholastic Athletic Association. History 1 ...

. The East Central Conference was realigned out of existence for football for the 2026-2027 realignment cycle.

Conference membership history

1970-2001

Full members

Football-only members

2015-2025

Full members

Football-only members

Membership timeline

1970-2001

Full members

DateFormat = yyyy ImageSize = width:900 height:auto barincrement:20 Period = from:1970 till:2001 TimeAxis = orientation:horizontal PlotArea = right:100 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:1970 till:2001 text:Berlin (1970-2001) bar:2 color:tan1 from:1970 till:1999 text:Hortonville (1970-1999) bar:3 color:tan1 from:1970 till:1979 text:New London (1970-1979) bar:4 color:tan1 from:1970 till:2001 text:Omro (1970-2001) bar:5 color:tan1 from:1970 till:2001 text:Ripon (1970-2001) bar:6 color:tan1 from:1970 till:1999 text:Waupaca (1970-1999) bar:7 color:tan1 from:1970 till:1973 text:Weyauwega (1970-1973) bar:8 color:tan1 from:1970 till:2001 text:Winneconne (1970-2001) bar:9 color:tan1 from:1974 till:1999 text:Little Chute (1974-1999) bar:10 color:tan1 from:1979 till:2001 text:Wautoma (1979-2001) bar:11 color:tan1 from:1999 till:2001 text:Laconia (1999-2001) bar:12 color:tan1 from:1999 till:2001 text:Markesan (1999-2001) ScaleMajor = gridcolor:line unit:year increment:5 start:1970

Football members

DateFormat = yyyy ImageSize = width:900 height:auto barincrement:20 Period = from:1970 till:2001 TimeAxis = orientation:horizontal PlotArea = right:150 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:lavender from:1970 till:2001 text:Berlin (1970-2000) bar:2 color:lavender from:1970 till:1999 text:Hortonville (1970-1998) bar:3 color:lavender from:1970 till:1979 text:New London (1970-1978) bar:4 color:lavender from:1970 till:2001 text:Omro (1970-2000) bar:5 color:lavender from:1970 till:2001 text:Ripon (1970-2000) bar:6 color:lavender from:1970 till:1999 text:Waupaca (1970-1998) bar:7 color:lavender from:1970 till:1973 text:Weyauwega (1970-1972) bar:8 color:lavender from:1970 till:2001 text:Winneconne (1970-2000) bar:9 color:lavender from:1974 till:1999 text:Little Chute (1974-1998) bar:10 color:lavender from:1979 till:1995 text:Wautoma (1979-1994) bar:10 color:lavender from:1999 till:2001 text:(1999-2000) bar:11 color:lavender from:1995 till:2001 text:Waupun (1995-2000) bar:12 color:lavender from:1999 till:2001 text:Mayville (1999-2000) bar:13 color:lavender from:1999 till:2001 text:St. Mary's Springs (1999-2000) ScaleMajor = gridcolor:line unit:year increment:5 start:1970

2015-2025

Full members

DateFormat = yyyy ImageSize = width:900 height:auto barincrement:20 Period = from:2015 till:2025 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:14 textcolor:black shift:(5,-5) anchor:from fontsize:m bar:1 color:tan1 from:2015 till:2025 text:Berlin (2015-2025) bar:2 color:tan1 from:2015 till:2021 text:Campbellsport (2015-2021) bar:3 color:tan1 from:2015 till:2025 text:Kettle Moraine Lutheran (2015-2025) bar:4 color:tan1 from:2015 till:2025 text:Kewaskum (2015-2025) bar:5 color:tan1 from:2015 till:2025 text:Plymouth (2015-2025) bar:6 color:tan1 from:2015 till:2025 text:Ripon (2015-2025) bar:7 color:tan1 from:2015 till:2025 text:Waupun (2015-2025) bar:8 color:tan1 from:2015 till:2025 text:Winneconne (2015-2025) ScaleMajor = gridcolor:line unit:year increment:2 start:2015

Football members

DateFormat = yyyy ImageSize = width:900 height:auto barincrement:20 Period = from:2015 till:2026 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:lavender from:2015 till:2024 text:Berlin (2015-2023) bar:2 color:lavender from:2015 till:2020 text:Campbellsport (2015-2019) bar:3 color:lavender from:2015 till:2026 text:Kettle Moraine Lutheran (2015-2025) bar:4 color:lavender from:2015 till:2026 text:Kewaskum (2015-2025) bar:5 color:lavender from:2015 till:2026 text:Plymouth (2015-2025) bar:6 color:lavender from:2015 till:2024 text:Ripon (2015-2023) bar:7 color:lavender from:2015 till:2024 text:Waupun (2015-2023) bar:8 color:lavender from:2015 till:2020 text:Winneconne (2015-2019) bar:9 color:lavender from:2020 till:2026 text:Port Washington (2020-2025) bar:10 color:lavender from:2020 till:2024 text:Sheboygan Falls (2020-2023) bar:11 color:lavender from:2024 till:2026 text:Beaver Dam (2024-2025) bar:12 color:lavender from:2024 till:2026 text:Watertown (2024-2025) ScaleMajor = gridcolor:line unit:year increment:2 start:2015

List of state champions

Fall sports

Winter sports

Spring sports

List of conference champions

Boys Basketball

Girls Basketball

Football

References

External links

East Central Conference (official website)
{{Wisconsin high school athletic conferences Wisconsin high school sports conferences Sports organizations established in 1970 Sports organizations established in 2015 1970 establishments in Wisconsin 2001 disestablishments in Wisconsin 2015 establishments in Wisconsin 2025 disestablishments in Wisconsin