The North Shore 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
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 ...
. It was founded in 1985, and membership is concentrated in the northern suburbs of 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 ...
. All 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
1985-1992
The North Shore Conference was one of three conferences formed (along with the
Big Nine
Big or BIG may refer to:
* Big, of great size or degree
Film and television
* Big (film), ''Big'' (film), a 1988 fantasy-comedy film starring Tom Hanks
* ''Big'', a 2023 Taiwanese children's film starring Van Fan and Chie Tanaka
* ''Big!'', a ...
and
Suburban Park) during the realignment of high school athletic conferences in southeastern Wisconsin for the 1985-86 school year. Six members came from the
Braveland Conference
The Braveland Conference is a former high school athletic conference in Wisconsin, formed in 1953 and ending competition in 1993. Its membership was concentrated in the Milwaukee metropolitan area and members were affiliated with the Wisconsin Int ...
(
Cedarburg,
Germantown,
Grafton,
Homestead
Homestead may refer to:
*Homestead (building), a farmhouse and its adjacent outbuildings; by extension, it can mean any small cluster of houses
* Nguni homestead, a cluster of houses inhabited by a single extended family, typically with a kraal ...
,
Nicolet and
Port Washington) and four came from the disbanded
Suburban Conference (
Shorewood,
Wauwatosa East,
Wauwatosa West and
Whitefish Bay
Whitefish Bay is a large bay on the eastern end of Lake Superior between Michigan, United States, and Ontario, Canada. It is located between Whitefish Point in Michigan and Whiskey Point along the more rugged, largely wilderness Canadian Shield ...
).
Other names considered for the conference were the Heritage Conference, Lakeshore Ten and North Suburban Conference.
1992-2017
Shorewood left the North Shore Conference in 1992 to take West Milwaukee's place in the Parkland Conference after the school closed its doors.
In 1993, Wauwatosa East and Wauwatosa West left to become charter members of the new
Woodland Conference
The Woodland Conference is a high school athletic conference with its geographic footprint in southeastern Wisconsin. Founded in 1993, the Woodland Conference and its members are affiliated with the Wisconsin Interscholastic Athletic Association ...
, with
Menomonee Falls
Menomonee Falls is a village in Waukesha County, Wisconsin, United States. Its population was 38,527 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, making it the most-populous village in Wisconsin. It is part of the Milwaukee metropolitan area. ...
moving over from the defunct Braveland Conference as a replacement.
They would only last four years in the North Shore Conference and were replaced 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 ...
in 1997.
Milwaukee Lutheran was in the process of joining the WIAA as part of the merger with the Wisconsin Independent Schools Athletic Association, and was the first (and to date, only) private high school in the conference.
2017-present
Membership would stay consistent for the next twenty years before further realignment occurred. In 2017, Germantown left to join the
Greater Metro Conference
The Greater Metro Conference is a high school athletics conference with its membership base in southeastern Wisconsin. Formed in 1997, the conference and its member schools belong to the Wisconsin Interscholastic Athletic Association.
History ...
and Milwaukee Lutheran became a member of the Woodland Conference. They were replaced by four schools who were displaced after the dissolution of the Wisconsin Little Ten Conference:
Hartford Union,
Slinger,
West Bend East and
West Bend West.
The North Shore Conference will become a seven-member loop in 2025 with the loss of Port Washington, West Bend East and West Bend West to the
Glacier Trails Conference
The Glaicer Trails Conference is a high school athletic conference with its membership concentrated on the northern outskirts of the Milwaukee metropolitan area. Its first year of competition will be the 2025-26 school year, and the conference is ...
.
Football-only alignment
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 North Shore Conference's original football group consisted of full conference members Cedarburg, Hartford Union Homestead, Nicolet, Slinger, West Bend East, West Bend West and Whitefish Bay.
This alignment is set to stay in place until the 2026-2027 cycle, when West Bend East and West Bend West move to their primary conference affiliation in the
Glacier Trails Conference
The Glaicer Trails Conference is a high school athletic conference with its membership concentrated on the northern outskirts of the Milwaukee metropolitan area. Its first year of competition will be the 2025-26 school year, and the conference is ...
, which is set to begin competition next year as an all-sport conference before its first football season in 2026. The two schools currently slated to replace them are
Pewaukee
Pewaukee is a city in Waukesha County, Wisconsin, United States. The population was 15,914 at the 2020 census. It is part of the Milwaukee metropolitan area.
The name of the city of Pewaukee comes from that of the name of the village, the ori ...
of the
Classic 8 Conference
The Classic 8 Conference is a high school athletic conference with its membership base in southeastern Wisconsin. Founded in 1997, the conference and its member schools belong to the Wisconsin Interscholastic Athletic Association.
History
The ...
and
Wisconsin Lutheran of the Woodland Conference.
List of conference members
Current members
Former members
Future football-only members
Membership timeline
Full members
DateFormat = yyyy
ImageSize = width:900 height:auto barincrement:20
Period = from:1985 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:1985 till:2030 text:Cedarburg (1985-present)
bar:2 color:tan1 from:1985 till:2017 text:Germantown (1985-2017)
bar:3 color:tan1 from:1985 till:2030 text:Grafton (1985-present)
bar:4 color:tan1 from:1985 till:2030 text:Homestead (1985-present)
bar:5 color:tan1 from:1985 till:2030 text:Nicolet (1985-present)
bar:6 color:tan1 from:1985 till:2025 text:Port Washington (1985-2025)
bar:7 color:tan1 from:1985 till:1992 text:Shorewood (1985-1992)
bar:8 color:tan1 from:1985 till:1993 text:Wauwatosa East (1985-1993)
bar:9 color:tan1 from:1985 till:1993 text:Wauwatosa West (1985-1993)
bar:10 color:tan1 from:1985 till:2030 text:Whitefish Bay (1985-present)
bar:11 color:tan1 from:1993 till:1997 text:Menomonee Falls (1993-1997)
bar:12 color:tan1 from:1997 till:2017 text:Milwaukee Lutheran (1997-2017)
bar:13 color:tan1 from:2017 till:2030 text:Hartford Union (2017-present)
bar:14 color:tan1 from:2017 till:2030 text:Slinger (2017-present)
bar:15 color:tan1 from:2017 till:2025 text:West Bend East (2017-2025)
bar:16 color:tan1 from:2017 till:2025 text:West Bend West (2017-2025)
ScaleMajor = gridcolor:line unit:year increment:5 start:1985
Football members (since 2020)
DateFormat = yyyy
ImageSize = width:900 height:auto barincrement:20
Period = from:2020 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:lavender from:2020 till:2030 text:Cedarburg (2020-present)
bar:2 color:lavender from:2020 till:2030 text:Hartford Union (2020-present)
bar:3 color:lavender from:2020 till:2030 text:Homestead (2020-present)
bar:4 color:lavender from:2020 till:2030 text:Nicolet (2020-present)
bar:5 color:lavender from:2020 till:2030 text:Slinger (2020-present)
bar:6 color:lavender from:2020 till:2026 text:West Bend East (2020-2025)
bar:7 color:lavender from:2020 till:2026 text:West Bend West (2020-2025)
bar:8 color:lavender from:2020 till:2030 text:Whitefish Bay (2020-present)
bar:9 color:lavender from:2026 till:2030 text:Pewaukee (2026-future)
bar:10 color:lavender from:2026 till:2030 text:Wisconsin Lutheran (2026-future)
ScaleMajor = gridcolor:line unit:year increment:1 start:2020
Membership map
List of state champions
Fall sports
Winter sports
Spring sports
Summer sports
List of conference champions
Source:
Boys Basketball
Girls Basketball
Football
References
External links
North Shore Conference (official website)
{{Wisconsin high school athletic conferences
Wisconsin high school sports conferences
Sports organizations established in 1985
1985 establishments in Wisconsin