The Upper St. Croix Valley 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 ...

in northwestern

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 ...

. Operational from 1934 to 1994, all conference members were public schools 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

1934-1953

The Upper St. Croix Valley Conference was founded in 1934 by eleven small high schools in northwestern Wisconsin: Amery, Balsam Lake,

Centuria ''Centuria'' (; : ''centuriae'') is a Latin term (from the stem ''centum'' meaning one hundred) denoting military units originally consisting of 100 men. The size of the centuria changed over time, and from the first century BC through most of ...

, Clayton, Frederic,

Grantsburg Grantsburg is a village in Burnett County, Wisconsin, United States. The population was 1,341 at the 2010 census. The village is located within the Town of Grantsburg. It was established by Canute Anderson. Geography Grantsburg is located ...

Luck Luck is the phenomenon and belief that defines the experience of improbable events, especially improbably positive or negative ones. The Naturalism (philosophy), naturalistic interpretation is that positive and negative events may happen at a ...

, Milltown,

Osceola Osceola (1804 – January 30, 1838, Vsse Yvholv in Muscogee language, Creek, also spelled Asi-yahola), named Billy Powell at birth, was an influential leader of the Seminole people in Florida. His mother was Muscogee, and his great-grandfa ...

St. Croix Falls St. Croix Falls is a city in Polk County, Wisconsin, United States. The population was 2,208 at the 2020 census. The city is located within the Town of St. Croix Falls along the St. Croix River, from which it takes its name. U.S. Route 8, Wi ...

and Webster. Original members of the conference were located in two counties (

Polk DNA polymerase kappa is a DNA polymerase that in humans is encoded by the ''POLK'' gene. It is involved in translesion synthesis DNA repair is a collection of processes by which a cell (biology), cell identifies and corrects damage to the ...

and Burnett) whose western border is the St. Croix River and were subdivided into Northern and Southern sections: Clayton left to join the Lakeland Conference in 1936, and the conference consolidated into a single division. In 1940, the five smallest schools in the conference (Balsam Lake, Centuria, Luck, Milltown and Webster) joined with

Siren Siren or sirens may refer to: Common meanings * Siren (alarm), a loud acoustic alarm used to alert people to emergencies * Siren (mythology), an enchanting but dangerous monster in Greek mythology that lured sailors to their deaths. Places * Sir ...

to form the

Northwest Border Conference The Northwest Border Conference is a former high school athletic conference comprising small public high schools along the St. Croix River in northwestern Wisconsin. The conference existed from 1940 to 1955, and all member schools were affiliated ...

. Milltown returned to the Upper St. Croix Valley Conference in 1942, bringing the membership roster back up to six schools. In 1946, Luck followed Milltown out of the Northwest Border Conference to becom the Upper St. Croix Valley's seventh member school. Webster reentered the conference from the Northwest Border Conference in 1953, bringing the total number of schools to eight.

1953-1977

Since Webster joined in 1953, there were relatively few changes to the roster, and the Upper St. Croix Valley Conference maintained an eight-member loop for the remainder of its existence. In 1957, Milltown was merged with two former Upper St. Croix Valley members in the Lakeland Conference (Balsam Lake and Centuria) to form Unity High School in Balsam Lake, and the new school inherited Milltown's place in the conference. Amery left the conference for membership in the Middle Border Conference in 1977 and were replaced by

Somerset Somerset ( , ), Archaism, archaically Somersetshire ( , , ) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South West England. It is bordered by the Bristol Channel, Gloucestershire, and Bristol to the north, Wiltshire to the east ...

, late of the

Dunn-St. Croix Conference The Dunn-St.Croix Conference is a high school athletic conference with its catchment in western Wisconsin. Founded in 1930, the conference and its member schools belong to the Wisconsin Interscholastic Athletic Association. History 1930-1944 ...

1977-1994

The Upper St. Croix Valley Conference continued on for seventeen more years before it was disbanded in 1994, and its members were dispersed to other conferences in the area. Four schools (Frederic, Grantsburg, Luck and Webster) became members of the Lakeland Conference, three members (Osceola, St. Croix Falls and Unity) joined the Middle Border Conference and Somerset returned to the Dunn-St. Croix Conference.

Conference membership history

Membership timeline

DateFormat = yyyy ImageSize = width:900 height:auto barincrement:20 Period = from:1934 till:1994 TimeAxis = orientation:horizontal PlotArea = right:60 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:skyblue from:1934 till:1936 text:Amery (1934-1977) bar:1 color:tan1 from:1936 till:1977 text: bar:2 color:skyblue from:1934 till:1936 text:Balsam Lake (1934-1940) bar:2 color:tan1 from:1936 till:1940 text: bar:3 color:blue from:1934 till:1936 text:Centuria (1934-1940) bar:3 color:tan1 from:1936 till:1940 text: bar:4 color:skyblue from:1934 till:1936 text:Clayton (1934-1936) bar:5 color:blue from:1934 till:1936 text:Frederic (1934-1994) bar:5 color:tan1 from:1936 till:1994 text: bar:6 color:blue from:1934 till:1936 text:Grantsburg (1934-1994) bar:6 color:tan1 from:1936 till:1994 text: bar:7 color:blue from:1934 till:1936 text:Luck (1934-1940) bar:7 color:tan1 from:1936 till:1940 text: bar:7 color:tan1 from:1946 till:1994 text:(1946-1994) bar:8 color:blue from:1934 till:1936 text:Milltown (1934-1940, 1942-1957) bar:8 color:tan1 from:1936 till:1940 text: bar:8 color:tan1 from:1942 till:1957 text: bar:9 color:skyblue from:1934 till:1936 text:Osceola (1934-1994) bar:9 color:tan1 from:1936 till:1994 text: bar:10 color:skyblue from:1934 till:1936 text:St. Croix Falls (1934-1994) bar:10 color:tan1 from:1936 till:1994 text: bar:11 color:blue from:1934 till:1936 text:Webster (1934-1940) bar:11 color:tan1 from:1936 till:1940 text: bar:11 color:tan1 from:1953 till:1994 text:(1953-1994) bar:12 color:tan1 from:1957 till:1994 text:Unity (1957-1994) bar:13 color:tan1 from:1977 till:1994 text:Somerset (1977-1994) ScaleMajor = gridcolor:line unit:year increment:5 start:1934

List of state champions

Fall sports

Winter sports

Spring sports

Summer sports

References

{{Wisconsin high school athletic conferences Sports organizations established in 1934 Wisconsin high school sports conferences 1934 establishments in Wisconsin 1994 establishments in Wisconsin