The Four Rivers Conference was a high school conference in north central Illinois . The conference participated in athletics and activities in the Illinois High School Association . The conference included small public high schools with enrollments between 150-550 students in Boone , DeKalb , Lee and Winnebago counties. The conference was named for the 4 rivers that ran through its geographic area, the Rock River , Pecatonica River , Kishwaukee River and Sugar River .
19-768: Founded in 2001, the Four Rivers Conference was based primarily on the teams within the East Division of the Upstate Illini Conference . Those teams included: Ashton-Franklin Center, Durand, Kirkland-Hiawatha, North Boone, Pecatonica, Rockford Christian Life, Rockford Lutheran and South Beloit. By 2000, the Upstate Illini had grown to be the second largest conference in the state of Illinois and included 24 teams and 3 divisions,
38-706: A re-branding of the Northwest 8 took place in 1987, due to the fact that it had grown to 12 teams and was looking to expand beyond that number. In 1988, the Upstate Illini Conference was reconstructed and schools from the Northwest 8 joined, competition for all sports, with the exception of football, was established. In 1991, football schedules were set with 6 teams in the North Division : Durand, North Boone, Pearl City, Rockford (Lutheran), Elizabeth (River Ridge)-Warren (coop) and South Beloit and
57-598: The East as well as the West - Dakota, East Dubuque, Galena, Lena-Winslow, Orangeville, River Ridge, Stockton and Warren and the South - Forreston, Freeport Aquin, Lanark (Eastland), Milledgeville, Mt. Carroll, Pearl City, Polo and Savanna. These divisions were based on geography and not enrollment with the hope of keeping rivalries alive and travel time minimized. Unfortunately, due to football coops as well as enrollment discrepancies,
76-657: The Four Rivers Conference . Rockford Lutheran and Rockford Christian Life also departed the conference in 2001, seeking competition more suited to their locations and size by joining the Private School League . The remaining schools realigned under the Northwest Upstate Illini Conference banner. The Upstate Illini Conference had various divisions throughout its history, the list of schools encompasses all of
95-935: The Illinois High School Association . The conference included small public and private high schools with enrollments between 75-1,000 students in Bureau , Boone , Carroll , DeKalb , Jo Daviess , Kane , Lee , McHenry , Ogle , Stephenson and Winnebago counties. The name Upstate Illini was originally given to a collection of 15 schools primarily coming from five conferences, the Blackhawk , Route 72 , Northwestern Illinois , SHARK and US Grant . The 15 original teams included: Ashton, Chadwick, Durand, Elizabeth, Franklin Center, Hanover, Leaf River, Milledgeville, Mt. Carroll, Orangeville, Pearl City, Rockford Lutheran, Scales Mound, Shannon and Thomson. This league began play in 1974, however within two years
114-619: The NWIC , was a high school conference in northwest and north central Illinois . The conference participated in athletics and activities in the Illinois High School Association . The conference included small public high schools, and one small private school, with enrollments between 75-400 students in Carroll , Jo Daviess , Stephenson and Winnebago counties. Originally known as the Stephenson County Conference ,
133-479: The Northwest Upstate Illini Conference , while Kirkland-Hiawatha went to the Little Ten Conference . Based on the fact that football schedules are set several years in advance, The Four Rivers Conference played a "home-and-home" football schedule with the first meeting being considered non-conference and the second being counted as the conference game. In a 9 game schedule, and only 6 opponents in
152-650: The South Division : Ashton-Franklin Center, Kirkland-Hiawatha, Milledgeville, Mt. Carroll, Mt. Morris and Polo. In 1994, Mt. Morris was merged into the Oregon School District and dropped out of the conference. In that same year, Huntley joined and the divisions were realigned into East - Durand, Huntley, Kirkland-Hiawatha, North Boone, Rockford Lutheran and South Beloit and West - Ashton-Franklin Center, Milledgeville, Mt Carroll, Pearl City, Polo, River Ridge and Warren. In 1991, Pecatonica joined
171-575: The East withdrew from the Upstate Illini, establishing the Four Rivers Conference. The remaining 2 schools, Rockford Christian Life and Rockford Lutheran, joined the Private School League in order compete with other non-public schools with similar enrollments. The conference ceased in 2005 with North Boone joining the Big Northern to effectively disband the Four Rivers. The remaining teams joined
190-707: The Northwest Conference. Additionally, in 1966, Lanark, from Carroll County, joined the conference, bringing the total number of schools to 10. In 1974 after Durand, Orangeville and Pearl City left for the Upstate Illini Conference , the remaining schools changed the name to the Northwestern Illinois Conference, also known as the NWIC. Officially formed in 1974, the 7 members were Dakota, Freeport Aquin, Galena, Lanark, Lena-Winslow, Stockton and Warren. In 1977, Orangeville returned to
209-472: The conference began to have issues regarding football scheduling and opened talks about reorganizing the divisions based on enrollment. During the spring of the 1999-2000 school year, at the annual conference meeting, the issues of realignment created a sticking point that found the administrators of the East Division at odds with the majority of the league. It was at this meeting that 6 of the 8 teams in
SECTION 10
#1732802534874228-577: The first year of competition was 1958 with four charter schools: Dakota, Durand, Lena-Winslow and Orangeville. In 1959 Freeport Aquin, Galena, Stockton and Warren joined from the disbanded US Grant Conference . Pearl City joined the conference in 1960 increasing the total number of teams to nine. The last year of competition under the Stephenson County name was 1962. Based on the fact that the conference contained schools from Jo Daviess, Stephenson and Winnebago Counties, in 1963 it became known as
247-416: The fold increasing the total teams to eight. As the 1986 school year began, Lanark High School consolidated with Shannon High School, becoming Eastland High School. After 30 years of membership, in 1988 Warren dropped out of the conference. However, East Dubuque quickly replaced them in 1989, keeping the total number of teams an even eight. Unfortunately, in 1995 they decided to leave the conference. This left
266-1083: The league for all sports except football, due to existing schedules in the Mid-Northern, however, in 1992 joined the East Division. In 1995 Huntley dropped out and East Dubuque, Forreston and La Moille were added to the West Division while Ashton-Franklin Center moved from the West division to the East. In 1996 the Northwestern Illinois Conference (NWIC) and Upstate Illini merged under the Upstate Illini banner. Based on these new additions, three divisions were formed West - Dakota, East Dubuque, Galena, Lena-Winslow, Orangeville, River Ridge, Stockton and Warren. East - Ashton-Franklin Center, Durand, Kirkland-Hiawatha, North Boone, Pecatonica, Rockford Lutheran and South Beloit. South - Forreston, Freeport Aquin, Lanark (Eastland), Milledgeville, Mt. Carroll, Pearl City and Polo. In 1999 Savanna
285-477: The league would lose over half of the teams based primarily on football. The teams which left either returned to their original conference or began play under a new moniker, the Northwest 8 Conference . The remaining teams, all without football, maintained the name Upstate Illini. The teams that stayed within the conference, were Chadwick, Elizabeth, Hanover, Scales Mound, Shannon and Thomson. Eventually talks for
304-505: The league, a team could become conference champions with only 5 wins. All other sports within the conference played traditional schedules with a championship based on the total wins within the league. The list of Four Rivers Conference schools. Full members Full members (non-football) Upstate Illini Conference The Upstate Illini Conference (UIC) was a high school conference in northwest and north central Illinois . The conference participated in athletics and activities in
323-628: The schools which were once a part of the conference. ♦ Elizabeth and Hanover consolidated creating the River Ridge CUSD in 1985. ♥ Shannon and Lanark consolidated creating the Eastland CUSD in 1986. ♣ Chadwick and Milledgeville consolidated creating the Chadwick-Milledgeville CUSD in 1989. ° Leaf River ceased operations and was merged into Forreston High School in 1990 ³ Mt. Morris ceased operations and
342-606: Was added to the South Division and Rockford Christian Life to the East Division making the total number of teams 24 for football, 26 overall, the largest conference in Illinois outside of the Chicago Public League . The year 2000 was the last year under the Upstate Illini name because six schools (Ashton-Franklin Center, Durand, Kirkland-Hiawatha, North Boone, Pecatonica and South Beloit) left in 2001 to form
361-745: Was merged into Oregon High School in 1995 ♠ Ashton and Franklin Center consolidated creating Ashton-Franklin Center High School in 2004 • Mount Carroll, Savanna and Thomson consolidated, creating the West Carroll School District in 2006. * River Ridge High School relocated to Hanover, IL in 2004. Full members Full members (non-football) Northwest 8 Conference Northwestern Illinois Conference Mid/Big-Northern Conference SHARK Conference Other Conference Northwestern Illinois Conference The Northwestern Illinois Conference , known locally as
#873126