The Southeast Conference, formerly known as the Southeast 7, is an

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 ...

made up of six

high schools A secondary school, high school, or senior school, is an institution that provides secondary education. Some secondary schools provide both ''lower secondary education'' (ages 11 to 14) and ''upper secondary education'' (ages 14 to 18), i.e., b ...

in the southeast corner of

Iowa Iowa ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the upper Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. It borders the Mississippi River to the east and the Missouri River and Big Sioux River to the west; Wisconsin to the northeast, Ill ...

. All of the current schools compete at the 3A level, the second-largest in Iowa.

History

This conference was once known as the Little Six Conference. In 1969 the high schools Bettendorf, Muscatine, and Assumption left the league for conferences that made more geographical sense. Ottumwa, Burlington and Keokuk High Schools then invited Quincy, IL (Catholic Boys) to join them in a four-team league that maintained the Little Six Conference name. That affiliation fell apart after a couple of years. Ottumwa High School and Keokuk High School, as the only remaining members, formed the Southeast 7 to meet their needs for a conference. The new league was made up of Keokuk High School, Fort Madison High School, Mt. Pleasant High School, Fairfield High School, Oskaloosa High School, Ottumwa High School, and Washington High School. Oskaloosa left the conference after the 1983 baseball season to join the South Central Conference. Oskaloosa returned after the 1995-1996 School year after being asked to leave the South Central Conference due to enrollment numbers and after being denied membership into the Little Hawkeye Conference due to travel distance. After Ottumwa went to the CIML and Oskaloosa was accepted into the Little Hawkeye Conference in 1998, the conference changed its official name to the Southeast Conference. Starting with the 2019–2020 school year, Burlington joined the Southeast Conference, joining from the Mississippi Athletic Conference, of which it had been a charter member when formed (as the Mississippi Eight) in 1978.Coss, Matt, "MAC approves Burlington's request to leave conference," ''

Quad-City Times The ''Quad-City Times'' is a daily morning newspaper based in Davenport, Iowa, and circulated throughout the Quad Cities metropolitan area, including Davenport, Bettendorf and Scott County in Iowa; and Moline, East Moline, Rock Island, an ...

'', April 11, 2018. Accessed 04–15–2018

/ref> The conference's schools have faced shrinking enrollment. Located in the southeast corner of the state, the cities with schools in the conference were some of the first cities settled in Iowa, but have seen their populations decline in the recent decades.

Current members

References

Former members

*Centerville, 1958-1972, Left For South Central Conference *Davis County, 1958-1972, Left For South Central Conference *Oskaloosa, 1969-1983 Left For South Central Conference, 1996-1998 Left for Little Hawkeye Conference *Ottumwa, 1983-1998, Left for CIML *Burlington, 1961–1969 *Bettendorf, ????-1969 *Muscatine, ????-1969 *Davenport Assumption, 1963–1969 *Quincy, IL Catholic Boys 1970–1971

External links

Official Website
{{Iowa High School Athletic Conferences High school sports in Iowa