Coulee Conference

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Template:Short description Template:Use mdy dates Script error: No such module "Infobox".Script error: No such module "Check for unknown parameters".The Coulee Conference is a high school athletic conference of medium-sized schools based in west central Wisconsin. Founded in 1926, it is one of Wisconsin's oldest athletic conferences and its member schools are affiliated with the Wisconsin Interscholastic Athletic Association.

History

1926-1977

Template:OSM Location map The Coulee Conference was formed in 1926 by six small high schools in west central Wisconsin: Bangor, Galesville, Holmen, Mindoro, Onalaska and West Salem.[1] The original member schools were located in La Crosse and Trempealeau Counties, and the conference was named after the Coulee Region in the southwestern part of Wisconsin's Driftless Area. Membership increased to seven schools in 1936 when Trempealeau joined the Coulee Conference[2] and eight in 1942 when Melrose became members.[3] After Galesville's merger with Ettrick in 1949,[4] the Coulee Conference's roster remained consistent for sixteen years until Melrose and Mindoro merged in 1965,[5] with the new school (Melrose-Mindoro) taking on the membership of its two predecessors.[6] Arcadia moved over from the original Mississippi Valley Conference to keep membership at eight schools.[7] In 1971, Gale-Ettrick merged with Trempealeau to create the new Gale-Ettrick-Trempealeau High School,[8] with the new school remaining in the Coulee Conference. As in the previous consolidation of conference members, the ledger was kept at eight schools by adding Cochrane-Fountain City from the Dairyland Conference.[9]

1977-1987

In 1977, the Coulee Conference lost three members to conference realignment in the region: two to the Dairyland Conference: (Cochrane-Fountain City and Melrose-Mindoro)[10] and one to the Scenic Central Conference (Bangor)[11] Replacing the three exiting schools were Black River Falls from the South Central Conference[12] and two schools from the Scenic Central Conference (Royall and Westby).[11] Royall was strongly opposed to being placed in the Coulee Conference for a multitude of reasons including small size compared to other Coulee schools, increased travel distances, and loss of traditional Scenic Central rivalries.[13] After the WIAA's two-year freeze on conference realignment expired in 1979, Royall joined with their former Scenic Central brethren to form the new Scenic Bluffs Conference.[14] The next year, the Coulee Conference accepted its first (and to date, only) out-of-state member, adding La Crescent from Minnesota (located across the Mississippi River from La Crosse) as Royall's replacement.[15]

1987-present

Membership in the Coulee Conference remained consistent for most of the 1980s, with Viroqua moving over from the Southwest Wisconsin Athletic League as the conference's ninth member in 1987.[16] This would turn out to be the high water mark for the conference, as Holmen and Onalaska were growing in enrollment beyond the size their conference rivals and wanted to explore other options.[17] Both schools left to become charter members of the new Mississippi Valley Conference in 1989 with former members of the Big Rivers (La Crosse Central and La Crosse Logan) and South Central (Sparta and Tomah) Conferences.[18] In 1996, Luther High School in Onalaska was invited to join the Coulee Conference after being expelled from their former home in the Dairyland Conference.[19] They began conference play the next year,[20] and the Coulee Conference's roster remained consistent for the next decade. In 2007, La Crescent-Hokah returned to a Minnesota-based conference as they left to become members of the Hiawatha Valley League,[21] bringing the Coulee Conference to its current alignment of seven schools. In 2020, Aquinas High School joined the Coulee Conference for football only.

List of member schools

Current members

School Location Affiliation Enrollment[22] Mascot Colors Joined
Arcadia Arcadia, WI Public 417 Raiders <templatestyles src="Legend/styles.css" />  <templatestyles src="Legend/styles.css" />  1965[7]
Black River Falls Black River Falls, WI Public 481 Tigers <templatestyles src="Legend/styles.css" />  <templatestyles src="Legend/styles.css" />  1977[12]
Gale-Ettrick-Trempealeau Galesville, WI Public 400 Red Hawks <templatestyles src="Legend/styles.css" />  <templatestyles src="Legend/styles.css" />  <templatestyles src="Legend/styles.css" />  1971[8]
Luther Onalaska, WI Private (Lutheran, WELS) 228 Knights <templatestyles src="Legend/styles.css" />  <templatestyles src="Legend/styles.css" />  1997[20]
Viroqua Viroqua, WI Public 339 Blackhawks <templatestyles src="Legend/styles.css" />  <templatestyles src="Legend/styles.css" />  1987[16]
West Salem West Salem, WI Public 607 Panthers <templatestyles src="Legend/styles.css" />  <templatestyles src="Legend/styles.css" />  1926[1]
Westby Westby, WI Public 305 Norsemen <templatestyles src="Legend/styles.css" />  <templatestyles src="Legend/styles.css" />  1977[11]

Former members

School Location Affiliation Enrollment Mascot Colors Joined Left Conference Joined Current Conference
Bangor Bangor, WI Public 203 Cardinals <templatestyles src="Legend/styles.css" />  <templatestyles src="Legend/styles.css" />  1926[1] 1977[11] Scenic Central Scenic Bluffs
Galesville Galesville, WI Public N/A Gales <templatestyles src="Legend/styles.css" />  <templatestyles src="Legend/styles.css" />  1926[1] 1949[4] Closed (merged into Gale-Ettrick)
Holmen Holmen, WI Public 1,215 Vikings <templatestyles src="Legend/styles.css" />  <templatestyles src="Legend/styles.css" />  1926[1] 1989[18] Mississippi Valley
Mindoro Mindoro, WI Public N/A Tigers <templatestyles src="Legend/styles.css" />  <templatestyles src="Legend/styles.css" />  1926[1] 1965[5] Closed (merged into Melrose-Mindoro)
Onalaska Onalaska, WI Public 923 Hilltoppers <templatestyles src="Legend/styles.css" />  <templatestyles src="Legend/styles.css" />  1926[1] 1989[18] Mississippi Valley
Trempeleau Trempeleau, WI Public N/A Bears <templatestyles src="Legend/styles.css" />  <templatestyles src="Legend/styles.css" />  1936[2] 1971[8] Closed (merged into G-E-T)
Melrose Melrose, WI Public N/A Eagles <templatestyles src="Legend/styles.css" />  <templatestyles src="Legend/styles.css" />  1942[3] 1965[5] Closed (merged into Melrose-Mindoro)
Gale-Ettrick Galesville, WI Public N/A Redmen <templatestyles src="Legend/styles.css" />  <templatestyles src="Legend/styles.css" />  1949[4] 1971[8] Closed (merged into G-E-T)
Melrose-Mindoro Melrose, WI Public 223 Mustangs <templatestyles src="Legend/styles.css" />  <templatestyles src="Legend/styles.css" />  1965[6] 1977[10] Dairyland
Cochrane-Fountain City Fountain City, WI Public 175 Pirates <templatestyles src="Legend/styles.css" />  <templatestyles src="Legend/styles.css" />  1971[9] 1977[10] Dairyland
Royall Elroy, WI Public 154 Panthers <templatestyles src="Legend/styles.css" />  <templatestyles src="Legend/styles.css" />  1977[11] 1979[14] Scenic Bluffs
La Crescent-Hokah La Crescent, MN Public 347 Lancers <templatestyles src="Legend/styles.css" />  <templatestyles src="Legend/styles.css" />  1980[15] 2007[21] Hiawatha Valley (MSHSL) Three Rivers (MSHSL)

Membership timeline

<timeline> DateFormat = yyyy ImageSize = width:900 height:auto barincrement:20 Period = from:1926 till:2030 TimeAxis = orientation:horizontal PlotArea = right:30 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:tan1 from:1926 till:1977 text:Bangor (1926-1977)
 bar:2  color:tan1 from:1926 till:1949 text:Galesville (1926-1949)
 bar:3  color:tan1 from:1926 till:1989 text:Holmen (1926-1989)
 bar:4  color:tan1 from:1926 till:1965 text:Mindoro (1926-1965)
 bar:5  color:tan1 from:1926 till:1989 text:Onalaska (1926-1989)
 bar:6  color:tan1 from:1926 till:2030 text:West Salem (1926-present)
 bar:7  color:tan1 from:1936 till:1971 text:Trempealeau (1936-1971)
 bar:8  color:tan1 from:1942 till:1965 text:Melrose (1942-1965)
 bar:9  color:tan1 from:1949 till:1971 text:Gale-Ettrick (1949-1971)
 bar:10  color:tan1 from:1965 till:2030 text:Arcadia (1965-present)
 bar:11  color:tan1 from:1965 till:1977 text:Melrose-Mindoro (1965-1977)
 bar:12  color:tan1 from:1971 till:1977 text:Cochrane-Fountain City (1971-1977)
 bar:13  color:tan1 from:1971 till:2030 text:Gale-Ettrick-Trempealeau (1971-present)
 bar:14  color:tan1 from:1977 till:2030 text:Black River Falls (1977-present)
 bar:15  color:tan1 from:1977 till:1979 text:Royall (1977-1979)
 bar:16  color:tan1 from:1977 till:2030 text:Westby (1977-present)
 bar:17  color:tan1 from:1980 till:2007 text:La Crescent (MN) (1980-2007)
 bar:18  color:tan1 from:1987 till:2030 text:Viroqua (1987-present)
 bar:19  color:tan1 from:1997 till:2030 text:Luther (1997-present)

ScaleMajor = gridcolor:line unit:year increment:10 start:1926

</timeline>

Membership map

Template:OSM Location map

Sports

The Coulee Conference sponsors 20 varsity sports. They are:

State championships

Football

  • 1978 - Westby[23]
  • 1985 - Westby[23]
  • 1986 - Westby[23]
  • 2007 - West Salem[23]
  • 2021 - Aquinas
  • 2022 - Aquinas
  • 2023 - Aquinas

Boys' basketball

  • 1988 - Onalaska

Boys' golf

  • 1994 - Galesville-Ettrick-Trempealeau[23]
  • 2010 - Arcadia[23]

Softball

Boys' Track & Field

  • 1991 - Arcadia[23]
  • 1992 - Arcadia
  • 1994 - Arcadia
  • 1995 - Arcadia
  • 1998 - Arcadia
  • 1999 - Arcadia
  • 2004 - Arcadia

Girls' Track & Field

  • 1979 - West Salem[23]
  • 1998 - Arcadia
  • 2003 - Arcadia
  • 2004 - Arcadia
  • 2007 - West Salem
  • 2008 - Arcadia
  • 2009 - Arcadia

Spring Baseball

  • 2017 - West Salem

State championship runners-up

Football

  • 1989 - Westby[23]
  • 1999 - Black River Falls[23]
  • 2002 - West Salem[23]
  • 2005 - West Salem[23]
  • 2009 - Arcadia[23]
  • 2022 - West Salem

Boys' basketball

  • 2006 - Westby[24]
  • 2012 - Gale-Ettrick-Trempealeau[25]

Girls' basketball

Spring baseball

  • 1981 - Viroqua[27]
  • 1985 - Viroqua[27]
  • 1997 - Westby[27]
  • 2013 - Westby[27]
  • 2014- Viroqua

Summer baseball

  • 1984 - Galesville-Ettrick-Trempealeau[28]

Boys' cross country

  • 1994 - West Salem[29]

Girls' golf

  • 2008 - Arcadia/Cochrane-Fountain City[30]

Boys' golf

Gymnastics

  • 1979 - Viroqua[32]
  • 2004 - Galesville-Ettrick-Trempealeau/Melrose-Mindoro/Cochrane-Fountain City[32]
  • 2005 - Galesville-Ettrick-Trempealeau/Melrose-Mindoro/Cochrane-Fountain City[32]

Girls' hockey

Boys' Track & Field

  • 1973 - West Salem[34]
  • 2001 - Arcadia[34]
  • 2007 - Arcadia[34]
  • 2009 - West Salem[34]

Girls' Track & Field

  • 2008 - West Salem[35]
  • 2009 - West Salem[35]

Softball

Wrestling

The Vernon County Mega Bowl

Beginning in 2019, the Westby Norsemen and the Viroqua Blackhawks have played for the Vernon County Mega Bowl in their yearly football contest. The Norsemen won the first Mega Bowl game 21-8 in 2019. There was no Mega Bowl Game in 2020.[38]

Mega Bowl Game results

Template:Sports rivalry series table

References

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External links

Template:Wisconsin high school athletic conferences

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