The Olympian 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 ...
with its members concentrated in east central
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 1970 and dissolved in 2015, all conference members 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
1970-1999
The Olympian Conference was formed in 1970 by eight small- to medium-sized high schools in proximity to the
Fox River Valley and
Lake Winnebago
Lake Winnebago (, , ) is a shallow freshwater lake in the north central United States, located in east central Wisconsin. At , it is the largest lake entirely within the state, covering an area of about by with of shoreline, an average depth ...
in east central Wisconsin.
Six of the original conference members previously competed in the
Little Nine Conference
The Little Nine Conference is a former high school athletic conference in Wisconsin. Operational from 1928 to 1970, its membership was concentrated in east central Wisconsin and all member schools belonged to the Wisconsin Interscholastic Athleti ...
(
Brillion,
Denmark
Denmark is a Nordic countries, Nordic country in Northern Europe. It is the metropole and most populous constituent of the Kingdom of Denmark,, . also known as the Danish Realm, a constitutionally unitary state that includes the Autonomous a ...
,
Freedom
Freedom is the power or right to speak, act, and change as one wants without hindrance or restraint. Freedom is often associated with liberty and autonomy in the sense of "giving oneself one's own laws".
In one definition, something is "free" i ...
,
Hilbert
David Hilbert (; ; 23 January 1862 – 14 February 1943) was a German mathematician and philosophy of mathematics, philosopher of mathematics and one of the most influential mathematicians of his time.
Hilbert discovered and developed a broad ...
,
Reedsville and
Wrightstown), while one each came from the
Eastern Wisconsin (
Valders
file:ValdersWisconsinVillageHall.jpg, Village hall
Valders is a village in Manitowoc County, Wisconsin, Manitowoc County, Wisconsin, United States. The population was 952 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census.
Geology
The village is kn ...
) and
Peninsula
A peninsula is a landform that extends from a mainland and is only connected to land on one side. Peninsulas exist on each continent. The largest peninsula in the world is the Arabian Peninsula.
Etymology
The word ''peninsula'' derives , . T ...
(
Mishicot) Conferences. The name of the conference was credited to a student at Mishicot High School after each school in the new conference suggested a name. Other finalists considered were the Inter-Lake Conference, Mid-Valley Conference and Packerland Conference (which would itself be used for a
new conference that was inaugurated the same year as the Olympian). It was named so because the
Olympics
The modern Olympic Games (Olympics; ) are the world's preeminent international sporting events. They feature summer and winter sports competitions in which thousands of athletes from around the world participate in a variety of competit ...
are considered the pinnacle of athletic competition. The Olympian Conference's first change in membership occurred in 1979, as Valders left to join a reconstituted Eastern Wisconsin Conference after a successful appeal against joining the Packerland Conference.
Their stay in the newly-formed EWC was short-lived as they returned to the Olympian
in 1980 to bring the circuit back to eight member schools. For football, Denmark and Mishicot swapped affiliations with Packerland members
Gibraltar
Gibraltar ( , ) is a British Overseas Territories, British Overseas Territory and British overseas cities, city located at the southern tip of the Iberian Peninsula, on the Bay of Gibraltar, near the exit of the Mediterranean Sea into the A ...
and
Sevastopol
Sevastopol ( ), sometimes written Sebastopol, is the largest city in Crimea and a major port on the Black Sea. Due to its strategic location and the navigability of the city's harbours, Sevastopol has been an important port and naval base th ...
,
an arrangement that would last until the 1984 football season.
1999-2015
The Olympian Conference's membership roster was remarkably stable for the first three decades of its existence, but major changes came in 1999 during a wave of realignment in east central Wisconsin. Denmark and Freedom, the two largest schools in the conference, left to join the Packerland Conference and
Valley Eight Conference, respectively.
They were replaced by three schools:
Chilton (previously of the Eastern Wisconsin Conference),
Manitowoc Lutheran (formerly a member of the
Fox Valley Christian Conference) and
St. Mary Catholic in
Neenah
Neenah ( ) is a city in Winnebago County, Wisconsin, United States. It is situated on the banks of Lake Winnebago, Little Lake Butte des Morts, and the Fox River approximately northeast of Oshkosh and southwest of Green Bay. Neenah's popul ...
(from the
Midwest Classic Conference).
Both Manitowoc Lutheran and St. Mary Catholic were new to the WIAA having recently joined as part of the merger with 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 ...
(WISAA). The Olympian Conference would continue in this alignment for eight years before
Roncalli in
Manitowoc joined from the Eastern Wisconsin Conference in 2007.
That same year, the Olympian entered into a football partnership with the Packerland Conference, creating the new seventeen-member
Olympian-Packerland Conference.
The Olympian Conference would be dissolved in 2015 as its five of its smallest members (Hilbert, Manitowoc Lutheran, Mishicot, Reedsville and St. Mary Catholic) would leave to join nine former
Central Lakeshore Conference schools in forming the new
Big East Conference
The Big East Conference (stylized as BIG EAST) is a collegiate List of NCAA conferences, athletic conference that competes in National Collegiate Athletic Association, NCAA NCAA Division I, Division I in 10 men's sports and 12 women's sports. H ...
. The Eastern Wisconsin Conference took four former Olympian schools into the fold (Brillion, Chilton, Roncalli and Valders), and Wrightstown would join the
North Eastern Conference.
Conference membership history
Full members
Football-only members
Membership timeline
Full members
DateFormat = yyyy
ImageSize = width:900 height:auto barincrement:20
Period = from:1970 till:2015
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:1970 till:2015 text:Brillion (1970-2015)
bar:2 color:tan1 from:1970 till:1999 text:Denmark (1970-1999)
bar:3 color:tan1 from:1970 till:1999 text:Freedom (1970-1999)
bar:4 color:tan1 from:1970 till:2015 text:Hilbert (1970-2015)
bar:5 color:tan1 from:1970 till:2015 text:Mishicot (1970-2015)
bar:6 color:tan1 from:1970 till:2015 text:Reedsville (1970-2015)
bar:7 color:tan1 from:1970 till:1979 text:Valders (1970-1979)
bar:7 color:tan1 from:1980 till:2015 text:(1980-2015)
bar:8 color:tan1 from:1970 till:2015 text:Wrightstown (1970-2015)
bar:9 color:tan1 from:1999 till:2015 text:Chilton (1999-2015)
bar:10 color:tan1 from:1999 till:2015 text:Manitowoc Lutheran (1999-2015)
bar:11 color:tan1 from:1999 till:2015 text:St. Mary Catholic (1999-2015)
bar:12 color:tan1 from:2007 till:2015 text:Roncalli (2007-2015)
ScaleMajor = gridcolor:line unit:year increment:5 start:1970
Football members
DateFormat = yyyy
ImageSize = width:900 height:auto barincrement:20
Period = from:1970 till:2007
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:1970 till:2007 text:Brillion (1970-2006)
bar:2 color:lavender from:1970 till:1979 text:Denmark (1970-1978)
bar:2 color:lavender from:1984 till:1999 text:(1984-1998)
bar:3 color:lavender from:1970 till:1999 text:Freedom (1970-1998)
bar:4 color:lavender from:1970 till:2007 text:Hilbert (1970-2006)
bar:5 color:lavender from:1970 till:1979 text:Mishicot (1970-1978)
bar:5 color:lavender from:1984 till:2007 text:(1984-2006)
bar:6 color:lavender from:1970 till:2007 text:Reedsville (1970-2006)
bar:7 color:lavender from:1970 till:1979 text:Valders (1970-1978)
bar:7 color:lavender from:1980 till:2007 text:(1980-2006)
bar:8 color:lavender from:1970 till:2007 text:Wrightstown (1970-2006)
bar:9 color:lavender from:1979 till:1983 text:Gibraltar (1979-1982)
bar:10 color:lavender from:1979 till:1984 text:Sevastopol (1979-1983)
bar:11 color:lavender from:1999 till:2007 text:Chilton (1999-2006)
bar:12 color:lavender from:1999 till:2007 text:Manitowoc Lutheran (1999-2006)
bar:13 color:lavender from:1999 till:2007 text:St. Mary Catholic (1999-2006)
ScaleMajor = gridcolor:line unit:year increment:5 start:1970
List of state champions
Fall sports
Winter sports
Spring sports
List of conference champions
Boys Basketball
Girls Basketball
Football
References
{{Wisconsin high school athletic conferences
Wisconsin high school sports conferences
Sports organizations established in 1970
1970 establishments in Wisconsin
2015 disestablishments in Wisconsin