The Six Rivers 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 ...
, formed in 1997 and consisting of small schools in the southwestern part of the state. All member schools belong 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
The Six Rivers Conference was formed in 1997 through the merger of two smaller conferences in southwestern Wisconsin: the
Black Hawk League and the
State Line League
The State Line League is a former high school athletic conference in Wisconsin. Formed in 1927 and ending competition in 1997, its membership consisted of small schools located in the southernmost counties of the state along the Wisconsin-Illinois ...
.
It was named after the six rivers located in the conference's catchment area (
Mississippi
Mississippi ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern and Deep South regions of the United States. It borders Tennessee to the north, Alabama to the east, the Gulf of Mexico to the south, Louisiana to the s ...
,
Grant,
Sugar
Sugar is the generic name for sweet-tasting, soluble carbohydrates, many of which are used in food. Simple sugars, also called monosaccharides, include glucose
Glucose is a sugar with the Chemical formula#Molecular formula, molecul ...
,
Platte,
Fever
Fever or pyrexia in humans is a symptom of an anti-infection defense mechanism that appears with Human body temperature, body temperature exceeding the normal range caused by an increase in the body's temperature Human body temperature#Fever, s ...
and
Pecatonica). The conference was originally conceived as an umbrella organization, and its original divisional alignment reflects this:
After the first two seasons, the league realigned itself into two eight-member divisions. Pecatonica joined with the other Black Hawk Division schools in the Western Division while the remainder of the State Line Division schools comprised the new Eastern Division:
This alignment remained in place until 2006, when the two largest schools in the conference (
Belleville and
New Glarus) left the Six Rivers to join more similarly-sized schools the
Capitol Conference
The Capitol Conference was a high school athletic conference in the Illinois High School Association (IHSA), based in Central Illinois
Central Illinois is a region of the U.S. state of Illinois that consists of the entire central third of the s ...
.
Pecatonica rejoined their State Line League brethren in the conference's Eastern Division to create two seven-member divisions in an alignment that continues to this day:
Football
Because of the size of the Six River Conference's member schools, there are a large number of cooperative programs in certain sports, especially football. The Six Rivers has sponsored football since its inception in 1997, and all of the original members belonged to the Black Hawk League for football in the previous season. Most of the members of the State Line League that sponsored football had cooperative agreements with schools in larger conferences (i.e. Brodhead-Juda, Mount Horeb-Barneveld, New Glarus-Monticello) and did not participate with the exception of Black Hawk and Pecatonica/Argyle. For the 2000 season, Belleville/Albany and New Glarus/Monticello moved over from the Capitol Conference, where three of the schools (Belleville, Monticello and New Glarus) had previously played as the Sugar River Raiders football cooperative. This arrangement only lasted one season, as both programs moved to the new Trailways Conference for the 2001 football season. By the end of the 2010s, several programs had entered into cooperative agreements (Potosi and Cassville in 2017, Benton/
Scales Mound and Shullsburg in 2019) which coupled with Belmont's transition to
eight-player football and Highland's move to the
Ridge & Valley Conference dwindled conference membership to five schools.
Boscobel and
Southwestern
The points of the compass are a set of horizontal, radially arrayed compass directions (or azimuths) used in navigation and cartography. A ''compass rose'' is primarily composed of four cardinal directions—north, east, south, and west—each ...
entered as football-only members from the
Southwest Wisconsin Activities League to replace the lost members for the 2019 football season.
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. Boscobel left to join the Ridge & Valley Conference with Iowa-Grant shifting from the SWAL to take their place. The Six Rivers and SWAL also entered into a scheduling partnership since both conferences only had seven members. For the 2022-2023 competition cycle, Iowa-Grant moved to the Ridge & Valley Conference, and both the Six Rivers Conference and SWAL competed with six members each. Southwestern High School in Hazel Green also entered into a cooperative agreement with East Dubuque High School in Illinois to run a joint football program. In 2024, Riverdale and Seneca/Wauzeka-Steuben joined from the Ridge & Valley Conference, replacing outgoing members Benton/Scales Mound/Shullsburg and Southwestern/East Dubuque, both of which went to the SWAL for football. The return of Boscobel and Iowa-Grant to the conference brought football membership up to eight schools. This alignment is set to remain through at least the 2026-2027 realignment cycle.
List of member schools
Current members
Current football-only members
Former members
Former football-only members
List of cooperative athletic programs
Current members
Former members
Membership timeline
Full members
DateFormat = yyyy
ImageSize = width:900 height:auto barincrement:20
Period = from:1997 till:2030
TimeAxis = orientation:horizontal
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width:15 textcolor:black shift:(5,-5) anchor:from fontsize:m
bar:1 color:skyblue from:1997 till:1999 text:Albany (1997-present)
bar:1 color:red from:1999 till:2030 text:
bar:2 color:skyblue from:1997 till:1999 text:Argyle (1997-present)
bar:2 color:red from:1999 till:2030 text:
bar:3 color:skyblue from:1997 till:1999 text:Barneveld (1997-present)
bar:3 color:red from:1999 till:2030 text:
bar:4 color:skyblue from:1997 till:1999 text:Belleville (1997-2006)
bar:4 color:red from:1999 till:2006 text:
bar:5 color:blue from:1997 till:1999 text:Belmont (1997-present)
bar:5 color:coral from:1999 till:2030 text:
bar:6 color:blue from:1997 till:1999 text:Benton (1997-present)
bar:6 color:coral from:1999 till:2030 text:
bar:7 color:skyblue from:1997 till:1999 text:Black Hawk (1997-present)
bar:7 color:red from:1999 till:2030 text:
bar:8 color:blue from:1997 till:1999 text:Cassville (1997-present)
bar:8 color:coral from:1999 till:2030 text:
bar:9 color:blue from:1997 till:1999 text:Highland (1997-present)
bar:9 color:coral from:1999 till:2030 text:
bar:10 color:skyblue from:1997 till:1999 text:Juda (1997-present)
bar:10 color:red from:1999 till:2030 text:
bar:11 color:skyblue from:1997 till:1999 text:Monticello (1997-present)
bar:11 color:red from:1999 till:2030 text:
bar:12 color:skyblue from:1997 till:1999 text:New Glarus (1997-2006)
bar:12 color:red from:1999 till:2006 text:
bar:13 color:skyblue from:1997 till:1999 text:Pecatonica (1997-present)
bar:13 color:coral from:1999 till:2006 text:
bar:13 color:red from:2006 till:2030 text:
bar:14 color:blue from:1997 till:1999 text:Potosi (1997-present)
bar:14 color:coral from:1999 till:2030 text:
bar:15 color:blue from:1997 till:1999 text:River Ridge (1997-present)
bar:15 color:coral from:1999 till:2030 text:
bar:16 color:blue from:1997 till:1999 text:Shullsburg (1997-present)
bar:16 color:coral from:1999 till:2030 text:
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Football members
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bar:1 color:lavender from:1997 till:2000 text:Belmont (1997-2018)
bar:1 color:yellowgreen from:2000 till:2001 text:
bar:1 color:lavender from:2001 till:2019 text:
bar:2 color:lavender from:1997 till:2000 text:Benton/Scales Mound (1997-2018)
bar:2 color:yellowgreen from:2000 till:2001 text:
bar:2 color:lavender from:2001 till:2019 text:
bar:3 color:lavender from:1997 till:2000 text:Black Hawk (1997-2018)
bar:3 color:green from:2000 till:2001 text:
bar:3 color:lavender from:2001 till:2019 text:
bar:4 color:lavender from:1997 till:2000 text:Cassville (1997-2016)
bar:4 color:yellowgreen from:2000 till:2001 text:
bar:4 color:lavender from:2001 till:2017 text:
bar:5 color:lavender from:1997 till:2000 text:Highland (1997-2018)
bar:5 color:yellowgreen from:2000 till:2001 text:
bar:5 color:lavender from:2001 till:2019 text:
bar:6 color:lavender from:1997 till:2000 text:Pecatonica/Argyle (1997-present)
bar:6 color:green from:2000 till:2001 text:
bar:6 color:lavender from:2001 till:2030 text:
bar:7 color:lavender from:1997 till:2000 text:Potosi (1997-2016)
bar:7 color:yellowgreen from:2000 till:2001 text:
bar:7 color:lavender from:2001 till:2017 text:
bar:8 color:lavender from:1997 till:2000 text:River Ridge (1997-present)
bar:8 color:green from:2000 till:2001 text:
bar:8 color:lavender from:2001 till:2030 text:
bar:9 color:lavender from:1997 till:2000 text:Shullsburg (1997-2018)
bar:9 color:yellowgreen from:2000 till:2001 text:
bar:9 color:lavender from:2001 till:2019 text:
bar:10 color:green from:2000 till:2001 text:Belleville/Albany (2000)
bar:11 color:green from:2000 till:2001 text:New Glarus/Monticello (2000)
bar:12 color:lavender from:2017 till:2030 text:Potosi/Cassville (2017-present)
bar:13 color:lavender from:2019 till:2024 text:Benton/Scales Mound/Shullsburg (2019-2023)
bar:14 color:lavender from:2019 till:2030 text:Black Hawk/Warren (2019-present)
bar:15 color:lavender from:2019 till:2020 text:Boscobel (2019)
bar:15 color:lavender from:2024 till:2030 text:(2024-present)
bar:16 color:lavender from:2019 till:2022 text:Southwestern (2019-2021)
bar:17 color:lavender from:2020 till:2022 text:Iowa-Grant (2020-2021, 2024-present)
bar:17 color:lavender from:2024 till:2030 text:
bar:18 color:lavender from:2022 till:2024 text:Southwestern/East Dubuque (2022-2023)
bar:19 color:lavender from:2024 till:2030 text:Riverdale (2024-present)
bar:20 color:lavender from:2024 till:2030 text:Seneca/Wauzeka-Steuben (2024-present)
ScaleMajor = gridcolor:line unit:year increment:2 start:1997
Membership map
List of state champions
Fall sports
Winter sports
Spring sports
List of conference champions
Boys Basketball
Girls Basketball
Football
References
External links
Six Rivers Conference - official site
{{Wisconsin high school athletic conferences
Wisconsin high school sports conferences
Sports organizations established in 1997
1997 establishments in Wisconsin