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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
Location of Original Southern Lakes Conference Members
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:
Eastern Division
Western Division
Burlington
Badger
Mukwonago
Big Foot
Salem Central
Delavan-Darien
Union Grove
East Troy
Waterford
Elkhorn
Wilmot
Whitewater
Location of Southern Lakes Conference Members (1982-1997)
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:
Eastern Division
Western Division
Badger
Delavan-Darien
Burlington
East Troy
Salem Central
Elkhorn
Union Grove
Jefferson
Waterford
Milton
Wilmot
Whitewater
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 at least the 2026-2027 competition cycle.
