The Metro Conference is a former high school athletic conference in

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 ...

, formed in 1974 and dissolving in 1997. It consisted entirely of private high schools in the

Milwaukee metropolitan area The Milwaukee metropolitan area (also known as Metro Milwaukee or Greater Milwaukee) is a major metropolitan area located in Southeastern Wisconsin, consisting of the city of Milwaukee and some of the surrounding area. There are several defini ...

, and most were

Catholic The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the List of Christian denominations by number of members, largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics Catholic Church by country, worldwid ...

high schools within the

Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Milwaukee The Archdiocese of Milwaukee () is a Latin Church ecclesiastical territory, or archdiocese, of the Catholic Church in southeast Wisconsin in the United States. The Archdiocese of Milwaukee is the metropolitan see of the ecclesiastical province of ...

History

The Metro Conference was formed in 1974 as the successor to the Milwaukee Catholic Conference and had twelve original members. It was formed in the wake of the successful application by

Milwaukee Lutheran High School Milwaukee Lutheran Middle & High School is a school located in Milwaukee, in the U.S. state of Wisconsin. The school was originally known as Lutheran High School (Milwaukee), Lutheran High School, established in 1903, making Milwaukee Lutheran o ...

to join the Milwaukee Catholic Conference in the early 1970s. All of its member schools competed under the banner of the

Wisconsin Independent Schools Athletic Association The Wisconsin Independent Schools Athletic Association is a former organization for high school athletics in Wisconsin. Consisting entirely of private schools, it was formed in 1968 and completed a merger with the Wisconsin Interscholastic At ...

, an organization for private high school athletic programs in the state of Wisconsin. The conference maintained a very consistent membership roster during its existence, only losing three members: St. John's Cathedral in 1976 (due to closing), Messmer in 1984 (due to nearly closing and exit from archdiocese) and St. Joan Antida in 1989 (joined the Midwest Classic Conference). The Metro Conference was very successful at state-level competitions within WISAA, with its most high-profile successes coming in basketball. During its twenty-three-year history, Metro Conference member schools won twenty boys and eighteen girls WISAA basketball championships. The Metro Conference was disbanded in 1997 in anticipation for the coming merger between WISAA and 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. ...

, the state's high school athletics organization for public schools. All of its member schools went to established WIAA conferences after the 1996-97 school year.

Conference membership history

Membership timeline

DateFormat = yyyy ImageSize = width:900 height:auto barincrement:20 Period = from:1974 till:1997 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:1974 till:1997 text:Catholic Memorial (1974-1997) bar:2 color:tan1 from:1974 till:1997 text:Divine Savior Holy Angels (1974-1997) bar:3 color:tan1 from:1974 till:1997 text:Dominican (1974-1997) bar:4 color:tan1 from:1974 till:1997 text:Marquette University (1974-1997) bar:5 color:tan1 from:1974 till:1984 text:Messmer (1974-1984) bar:6 color:tan1 from:1974 till:1997 text:Milwaukee Lutheran (1974-1997) bar:7 color:tan1 from:1974 till:1997 text:Pius XI (1974-1997) bar:8 color:tan1 from:1974 till:1997 text:St. Catherine's (1974-1997) bar:9 color:tan1 from:1974 till:1989 text:St. Joan Antida (1974-1989) bar:10 color:tan1 from:1974 till:1976 text:St. John's Cathedral (1974-1976) bar:11 color:tan1 from:1974 till:1997 text:St. Joseph (1974-1997) bar:12 color:tan1 from:1974 till:1997 text:Thomas More (1974-1997) ScaleMajor = gridcolor:line unit:year increment:5 start:1974

List of state championships

Fall sports

Winter sports

Spring sports

References

{{Wisconsin high school athletic conferences Wisconsin high school sports conferences Sports organizations established in 1974 1974 establishments in Wisconsin 1997 disestablishments in Wisconsin