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 ...

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

, 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