Southern Lakes Conference

The Southern Lakes Conference is a high school athletic conference with its membership based in southeastern Wisconsin. Founded in 1953, the conference and its member schools are affiliated with the Wisconsin Interscholastic Athletic Association.

History

1953-1997

The Southern Lakes Conference traces its origin to the break-up of the Southern Wisconsin and Northern Illinois (SWANI) Conference in 1952. The five Wisconsin-based schools in that conference ( Burlington, Delavan, Elkhorn, Lake Geneva and Whitewater) entered into negotiations with three schools from the Southeastern Wisconsin Conference (East Troy, Mukwonago and Wilmot Union) to form a new eight-member league, which was eventually named the Southern Lakes Conference and began play in 1953. In 1958, Lake Geneva and Genoa City High Schools merged to form Badger High School, which took Lake Geneva's place in the conference. Big Foot High School in Walworth joined the Southern Lakes Conference in 1961, increasing membership to nine schools. A tenth school ( Salem Central, now Westosha Central) joined in 1969, and the next year, membership increased to twelve with the addition of Union Grove and Waterford. All three of the new members previously played in the Southeastern Badger Conference, which was dissolved in 1970. To better facilitate scheduling and competition, the Southern Lakes Conference was split into Eastern and Western Divisions:

In 1980, Mukwonago left to join the Parkland Conference as part of a major realignment of southeastern Wisconsin high schools. Big Foot followed them out of the conference two years later, and they were replaced by Jefferson and Milton, with Badger moving to the Eastern Division to keep divisions at six members each, an alignment that would remain in place until 1997:

1997-present

In 1997, all of the schools in the Eastern Division left the Southern Lakes Conference: Burlington joined the Southeast Conference, and the remaining schools formed the Lakeshore Conference along with St. Catherine's High School in Racine and St. Joseph High School in Kenosha. Fort Atkinson joined the Southern Lakes that same year to bring conference membership to seven schools in a single division. In 2008, the five public schools in the Lakeshore Conference (Badger, Union Grove, Waterford, Westosha Central and Wilmot) rejoined the Southern Lakes Conference. They replaced five schools that exited the conference: three joined the Rock Valley Conference (East Troy, Jefferson and Whitewater) and two joined the Badger Conference (Fort Atkinson and Milton). Burlington rejoined the Southern Lakes from the Southeast Conference the next year, and Beloit Memorial became the latest addition to the Southern Lakes when they joined in 2023 from the Big Eight Conference. They replaced Delavan-Darien, who left for the Rock Valley Conference that same year.

Football-only alignment

In February 2019, in conjunction with the Wisconsin Football Coaches Association, 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 Southern Lakes Conference began the 2020-2021 cycle with the same eight-member group as its full membership roster for football. The 2022-2023 realignment cycle brought changes to the Southern Lakes that would predate its non-football realignment by a year. Delavan-Darien moved over to the Rock Valley Conference, and Beloit Memorial joined from the Big Eight Conference. This alignment will be maintained through the 2024-2025 cycle, In 2026, Westosha Central will shift to the Southeast Conference, which the Southern Lakes Conference will enter into a scheduling partnership with. As part of this partnership, there will be one crossover game per season per team that counts in the overall conference standings.

List of member schools

Current members

Notes

Former members

Former football-only members

Notes

Membership timeline

Full members

DateFormat = yyyy
ImageSize = width:900 height:auto barincrement:20
Period = from:1953 till:2030
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bar:1 color:tan1 from:1953 till:1970 text:Burlington (1953-1997)
bar:1 color:blue from:1970 till:1997 text:
bar:1 color:tan1 from:2009 till:2030 text:(2009-present)
bar:2 color:tan1 from:1953 till:1970 text:Delavan (1953-1957), Delavan-Darien (1957-2023)
bar:2 color:skyblue from:1970 till:1997 text:
bar:2 color:tan1 from:1997 till:2023 text:
bar:3 color:tan1 from:1953 till:1970 text:East Troy (1953-2008)
bar:3 color:skyblue from:1970 till:1997 text:
bar:3 color:tan1 from:1997 till:2008 text:
bar:4 color:tan1 from:1953 till:1970 text:Elkhorn (1953-present)
bar:4 color:skyblue from:1970 till:1997 text:
bar:4 color:tan1 from:1997 till:2030 text:
bar:5 color:tan1 from:1953 till:1958 text:Lake Geneva (1953-1958)
bar:6 color:tan1 from:1953 till:1970 text:Mukwonago (1953-1980)
bar:6 color:blue from:1970 till:1980 text:
bar:7 color:tan1 from:1953 till:1970 text:Whitewater (1953-2008)
bar:7 color:skyblue from:1970 till:1997 text:
bar:7 color:tan1 from:1997 till:2008 text:
bar:8 color:tan1 from:1953 till:1970 text:Wilmot Union (1953-1997)
bar:8 color:blue from:1970 till:1997 text:
bar:8 color:tan1 from:2008 till:2030 text:(2008-present)
bar:9 color:tan1 from:1958 till:1970 text:Badger (1958-1997)
bar:9 color:skyblue from:1970 till:1982 text:
bar:9 color:blue from:1982 till:1997 text:
bar:9 color:tan1 from:2008 till:2030 text:(2008-present)
bar:10 color:tan1 from:1961 till:1970 text:Big Foot (1961-1982)
bar:10 color:skyblue from:1970 till:1982 text:
bar:11 color:tan1 from:1969 till:1970 text:Salem Central (1969-1985)
bar:11 color:blue from:1970 till:1985 text:
bar:11 color:blue from:1985 till:1997 text:Westosha Central (1985-1997)
bar:11 color:tan1 from:2008 till:2030 text:(2008-present)
bar:12 color:blue from:1970 till:1997 text:Union Grove (1970-1997)
bar:12 color:tan1 from:2008 till:2030 text:(2008-present)
bar:13 color:blue from:1970 till:1997 text:Waterford (1970-1997)
bar:13 color:tan1 from:2008 till:2030 text:(2008-present)
bar:14 color:skyblue from:1982 till:1997 text:Jefferson (1982-2008)
bar:14 color:tan1 from:1997 till:2008 text:
bar:15 color:skyblue from:1982 till:1997 text:Milton (1982-2008)
bar:15 color:tan1 from:1997 till:2008 text:
bar:16 color:tan1 from:1997 till:2008 text:Fort Atkinson (1997-2008)
bar:17 color:tan1 from:2023 till:2030 text:Beloit Memorial (2023-present)

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Football members (since 2020)

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id:line value:black
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bar:1 color:lavender from:2020 till:2030 text:Badger (2020-present)
bar:2 color:lavender from:2020 till:2030 text:Burlington (2020-present)
bar:3 color:lavender from:2020 till:2022 text:Delavan-Darien (2020-2021)
bar:4 color:lavender from:2020 till:2030 text:Elkhorn (2020-present)
bar:5 color:lavender from:2020 till:2030 text:Union Grove (2020-present)
bar:6 color:lavender from:2020 till:2030 text:Waterford (2020-present)
bar:7 color:lavender from:2020 till:2026 text:Westosha Central (2020-2025)
bar:8 color:lavender from:2020 till:2030 text:Wilmot Union (2020-present)
bar:9 color:lavender from:2022 till:2030 text:Beloit Memorial (2022-present)

ScaleMajor = gridcolor:line unit:year increment:1 start:2020

Membership map

List of state champions

Fall sports

Winter sports

Spring sports

List of conference champions

Boys Basketball

Girls Basketball

Football

References

External links

Southern Lakes Conference

{{Wisconsin high school athletic conferences

Wisconsin high school sports conferences
Sports organizations established in 1953
1953 establishments in Wisconsin