The South Shore Conference is a former high school athletic conference in Wisconsin, operating from 1970 to 1980 with its membership concentrated in Racine and Kenosha.

History

Map
Location of South Shore Conference Members

Prior to the creation of the South Shore Conference, the public high schools in Racine and Kenosha were part of the Big Eight, a conference of large high schools in southern Wisconsin that also included schools from Madison, Janesville and Beloit. As new schools were added to districts due to population growth, membership had experienced a net increase to twelve by the end of the 1960s. Tensions increased between the Madison-area schools and those in southeastern Wisconsin, and the South Shore Conference was formed in 1970 after the five schools in Racine and Kenosha were forced out by the rest of the Big Eight members. This was a move that was met with some opposition by the WIAA since a five-team conference was widely seen as inadequately sized. After several years of attempting to merge the South Shore Conference with several large conferences in southern Wisconsin (including a failed attempt to create a cross-border league with high schools in northern Illinois), the conference was dissolved in 1980. The five schools were spread out over four existing conferences before reconstituting as the Big Nine Conference (along with four high schools on the south side of Milwaukee) in 1985.

Conference membership history

SchoolLocationAffiliationMascotColorsJoinedLeftConference JoinedCurrent Conference
Kenosha BradfordKenosha, WIPublicRed Devils19701980BravelandSoutheast
Kenosha TremperKenosha, WIPublicTrojans19701980Milwaukee AreaSoutheast
Racine CaseRacine, WIPublicEagles19701980ParklandSoutheast
Racine HorlickRacine, WIPublicRebels19701980SuburbanSoutheast
Racine ParkRacine, WIPublicPanthers19701980Milwaukee AreaSoutheast

Membership timeline

List of state champions

Fall sports

SchoolYearDivision
Kenosha Tremper1971Large Schools
Racine Case1973Class A
Racine Case1975Class A
SchoolYearDivision
Racine Case1979Class A
SchoolYearDivision
Kenosha Tremper1979Division 1
SchoolYear
Racine Case1974
Racine Case1975

Winter sports

None

Spring sports

SchoolYearDivision
Racine Park1973Single Division
SchoolYearDivision
Racine Park1974Class A
SchoolYearDivision
Racine Park1978Class A

List of conference champions

Boys Basketball

SchoolQuantityYears
Kenosha Bradford31973, 1974, 1979
Racine Case31971, 1977, 1978
Racine Horlick21975, 1980
Racine Park21972, 1976
Kenosha Tremper0

Girls Basketball

SchoolQuantityYears
Racine Horlick11980
Racine Park11979
Kenosha Bradford0
Kenosha Tremper0
Racine Case0

Football

SchoolQuantityYears
Kenosha Tremper51970, 1971, 1973, 1977, 1979
Racine Horlick51972, 1975, 1976, 1977, 1978
Racine Case31974, 1977, 1978
Kenosha Bradford0
Racine Park0