7-C Conference

The 7-C Conference is a former high school athletic conference with its membership concentrated in central Wisconsin. It existed from 1926 to 1962, and its members belonged to the Wisconsin Interscholastic Athletic Association.

History

1926–1934

The 7-C Conference was formed in 1926 as the Four-County Conference, named after the four counties where member schools were located (Adams, Marquette, Portage and Waushara). It was initially made up of eleven small schools located in central Wisconsin: Almond, Coloma, Friendship, Hancock, Montello, Oxford, Plainfield, Redgranite, Wautoma, Westfield and Wild Rose. In 1929, Friendship High School merged with neighboring Adams High School to form the new Adams-Friendship High School, which retained Friendship's membership in the conference. That same year, the Four-County Conference added Neshkoro and Princeton to bring membership to thirteen schools. Despite the expansion into Green Lake County, the league did not change its name. Green Lake and Omro joined the 4-C Conference in 1931, and Winneconne became members of the conference in 1932. That same year, the conference's name was changed to the 6-C Conference, representing its expanded geographic footprint:

1934–1942

In 1934 the conference renamed itself the 7-C Conference because of the expansion into Wood County, adding Markesan to the Little 7-C and Port Edwards (formerly of the Wood County League) to the Big 7-C. Winneconne left to join the Little Nine Conference in 1935, and in 1937, the 7-C Conference realigned itself by geography instead of enrollment size:

Endeavor joined the 7-C Conference in 1938 as its eighteenth overall member, and was assigned to the Northern 7-C. In 1940, Wild Rose moved back to the Eastern 7-C after Omro's exit from the conference:

1942–1946

In 1942, the 7-C Conference disbanded for basketball because of wartime travel issues. The conference was revived for the 1943–44 school year, albeit with a reduced grouping of Adams-Friendship, Almond, Hancock, Plainfield, Port Edwards, Wautoma and Westfield. Former conference member Montello returned to the 7-C in 1944 along with several other schools, and the league split into two divisions by school enrollment size:

In 1945, the league welcomed back former members Omro and Wild Rose after the end of World War II. These two schools, along with Green Lake from the Little 7-C, were placed into the Big 7-C. The Little 7-C was left with five members following Green Lake's move and Markesan joining the Dual County Conference. The 7-C Conference also began sponsoring football with four conference members participating: Adams-Friendship, Omro, Wautoma and Westfield. Neshkoro was reinstated as a sixth member to the Little 7-C before the start of league competition, and the 7-C started the 1945–46 season with a sixteen-member roster:

1946–1962

After the end of World War II, the 7-C Conference began to lose members to school district consolidation. Coloma was the first to leave the conference for this reason, with their district folded into Westfield in 1946. To offset this loss, the Little 7-C added former members Redgranite and Wild Rose after the latter's shift from the Big 7-C. The next year, Hancock and Plainfield merged to form the new Tri-County High School in Plainfield. Almond moved over from the Big 7-C as their replacement. In 1948, the 7-C Conference lost two high schools to consolidation: Neshkoro (redistricted to Westfield) and Redgranite (redistricted to Berlin and Wautoma). In 1951, Endeavor High School closed its doors when it was consolidated into Oxford. That same year, Green Lake of the Big 7-C joined the four Little 7-C schools in seceding from the conference to form the new Central Lakes Conference. The seven members of what was formerly known as the Big 7-C continued on until Omro left to join the Little Nine Conference in 1956. Membership was whittled down to five schools in 1958 when Port Edwards left to join the Central Lakes Conference. Montello joined the Dual County Conference in 1961, further decreasing conference membership to four schools. Due in part to the rapid decline in membership, the 7-C Conference ceased operations in 1962. Three of its former members (Adams-Friendship, Tri-County and Westfield) aligned with the five Central Lakes Conference schools and Madonna High School in Mauston to form the new Central-C Conference. The fourth school (Wautoma) joined the Central Wisconsin Conference in the aftermath of the 7-C Conference's demise.

Conference membership history

Final members

Previous members

Membership timeline

Full members

Big 4-C/6-C/7-C Little 4-C/6-C/7-C Eastern 7-C Northern 7-C Western 7-C

Football members

List of state champions

Fall sports

None

Winter sports

None

Spring sports

List of conference champions

Boys Basketball

Football