The North Central Illinois Conference , far better known as the NCIC , was an IHSA recognized high school extra-curricular conference. Its location, as the name would indicate, was in the north-central part of the state. The schools all hailed from communities with municipal populations in the 5000–20,000 range. This conference was especially superior to the lowly tri River conference.
25-591: Until the departure of the Rochelle Hubs in 2006, the NCIC's 42-year span of unchanged membership was the longest of any high school conference. However, that one change sent shockwaves through the rest of the conference, ultimately resulting in the dissolution of the NCIC at the end of the 2010–11 school year. The North Central Illinois Conference was formed in 1929. Its charter members were Belvidere , DeKalb , Dixon , Mendota , Rochelle , and Sterling . Over
50-550: A co-operative, participated in the football-exclusive Big Rivers Conference . In early 2012, it was announced that Orion , Rockridge , Sherrard , all former members of the Olympic Conference, and Princeton accepted an invitation for full membership in the Three Rivers Conference at the start of the 2013-14 school year. These four schools, along with Hall, Kewanee, and St. Bede Academy make up
75-696: A conference champion. Because the Big Rivers Conference and the Three Rivers Conference, co-operatives excepted, consist of the same member schools with this most recent expansion, the decision was made to drop the Big Rivers name in favor of the longer-standing Three Rivers Conference. See the Big Rivers Conference article for information about its history, achievements, and participating schools. (Co-op with Prophetstown) (Co-op with Erie) West Carroll (2005) Prior to
100-610: A mile north of the old one. The demographic breakdown of the 893 students enrolled in 2018-2019 was: The colors of the RTHS Hubs are purple and white. For most of its history, the Rochelle Hubs competed in the North Central Illinois Conference . Rochelle was a founding member of the NCIC in 1929, but left the conference in 2006 for the newly formed Western Sun Conference . This affiliation
125-606: A two-division larger school conference. Also joining as a charter member of the NIB-12 was former NCIC powerhouse Rochelle, meaning that over half of the NIB-12's membership consisted of former NCIC schools. Also leaving were the Kewanee Boilermakers , who left for the Three Rivers Conference . The NCIC did not immediately dissolve, however. For the 2010–11 school year, the NCIC added one school,
150-601: A variety of other elementary school districts in the area. Despite its name, the school is located in Flagg Township ; there is no township named "Rochelle" within Ogle County, nor anywhere else in the United States , for that matter. RTHS was originally built in 1918, with nearly a dozen additions built on over the next 80 years, the entire edifice was replaced in 2004 with a new building, located about
175-488: Is a secondary school located in Rochelle, Illinois . RTHS is the only school operated by Rochelle Township High School District 212. The district includes portions of Ogle , Lee , and DeKalb counties. Approximately one-half of the students come from Rochelle Community Consolidated District 231, which includes the middle school and elementary schools from Rochelle proper. The remaining student population comes from
200-679: The TRAC-8 ( T hree R ivers A thletics C onference), is a high school conference in northwest Illinois . The conference participates in athletics and activities in the Illinois High School Association . The conference comprises small public, and two private, high schools with enrollments between 200-600 students in portions of Bureau , Henry , Lee , Rock Island , and Whiteside counties. Sources:IHSA Conferences, IHSA Coop Teams, and IHSA Member Schools Directory The Three Rivers Conference formed in 1975, and
225-541: The Mid-State 6. Even the NCIC's two smallest schools, long-time member Hall Township and new inductee St. Bede, announced that they too were leaving in 2011, for the Tri-County Conference . With only one to three schools remaining without other conference affiliations (depending on whether one is talking about football or other sports) the dissolution of the NCIC became a near-certainty. News reports in
250-618: The NCIC continued, however, despite gaining St. Bede. Both Rock Falls and Mendota left for the Big Northern Conference after the 2010–2011 academic year,. At least two schools (Princeton and IVC) accepted invitations to play football—Princeton in the West Central Conference and IVC in the Mid-State 6 IVC was turned down by four other conferences before successfully petitioning for an invitation from
275-496: The St. Bede Bruins of Peru, who replaced departing Kewanee in all sports except football. The St. Bede football program remained in the Big Rivers. Under IHSA regulations, with only five football participants, the automatic playoff qualifier privileges for the NCIC's champion could be suspended. However, a team could still make the state playoffs as an at-large team, and in fact, both Mendota and IVC gained playoff spots. The dissolution of
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#1732787005480300-519: The conference approved expansion for six schools to join the league beginning in the 2013-14 school year. Included in the expansion are Orion , Rockridge , Sherrard , Princeton , St. Bede Academy of Peru and Spring Valley Hall . The six additions make the Three Rivers a 15-team league, one of the largest in Illinois. The conference will be split into two divisions, with Interstate 80 being
325-706: The conference are geographically set. In 2024, Morrison is the third team from the conference to migrate to the Northwest Upstate Illini Conference, joining Amboy and Fulton. This move, however will refresh the rivalry between Fulton and Morrison, the Battle for the Wooden Shoe . The Three Rivers Conference dropped football from 1999 until the 2013-14 school year. During this hiatus, the league offered championships in other sports, and member schools, either independently or as part of
350-583: The conference line-up in 42 years, as the Rochelle Hubs left the NCIC. The Hubs, having won nine consecutive NCIC (Southwest Division) football championships, were in search of stronger competition, and became a charter member of the Western Sun Conference . Rochelle was quickly replaced in the conference line-up by Illinois Valley Central High School , located in Chillicothe. However, the departure of Rochelle created shockwaves through
375-462: The conference was split into Northeast and Southwest divisions (later renamed the Reagan and Lincoln divisions). Despite this accommodation, however, over the next thirty years, the larger schools grew far more rapidly than the smaller schools, creating even greater discrepancies; it became doubtful that the twelve schools could continue to share the same banner. The 2006 season saw the first change in
400-558: The conference which continued to reverberate and ultimately resulted in the conference's dissolution. In 2009, the NCIC added the Morris Redskins to its Reagan Division. However, other long-time NCIC schools, such as LaSalle-Peru, began making plans to find another conference. At the beginning of the 2010–11 school year, all the teams from the NCIC Reagan division left to join the new Northern Illinois Big 12 Conference ,
425-812: The conference. In order to maintain competition, the teams from the Three Rivers' football programs including: Amboy, Erie, Fulton, Morrison, Sterling Newman, Prophetstown, Riverdale, and Savanna joined the ranks of Tri-County Conference schools Peru St. Bede, Bureau Valley, Ottawa Marquette, Eureka, and Bradford (now Stark County High School) to make up the newly formed Big Rivers Conference's Illinois Division. Full members Upstate Illini Conference North Central Illinois Conference Olympic Conference Northwest Upstate Illini Conference Tri-County Conference Big Northern Conference The Three Rivers Conference has won 11 state championships in IHSA sponsored athletics and activities, 16 if wins by member schools participating in
450-663: The development of the TRAC-8, the IHSA was pushing teams to end multi-state conferences. Therefore, Fulton, Morrison, Riverdale, Savanna and Newman came from the dissolved Illowa Conference, Amboy left the Wisconsin-Illinois SHARK Conference and Erie and Prophetstown, then competing as individual high schools, left the Iowa-Illinois Pleasant Valley Conference. From 1999 to 2012, the TRAC-8 dropped football from
475-727: The dividing line. Following the 2015-16 school year, Amboy left the conference and joined the Northwest Upstate Illini Conference for the 2016-17 school year. Following the 2021 season, Fulton also left to join the Northwest Upstate Illini Conference, however, Mendota and Monmouth-Roseville, who had been playing football within the conference since 2016, joined the conference fully as their replacement. Current members Bureau Valley, Erie-Prophetstown, Kewanee, Mendota, Monmouth-Roseville, Morrison, Orion, Peru St. Bede, Princeton, Riverdale, Rockridge, Sherrard, Spring Valley Hall, and Sterling Newman. The divisions in
500-528: The new TRAC-8 conference. Throughout the conference's history, alignment changes included the departure of Savanna, which went on to join the Northwest Upstate Illini Conference , and the additions of Bureau Valley in the mid-1990s and Kewanee in 2010. Upon the addition of Kewanee, the league became known as the TRAC-9. In addition, Erie and Prophetstown formed a cooperative to share certain sports programs, including football and wrestling. On January 12, 2012
525-411: The next thirty years more schools joined, and by 1960, there were twelve member schools. In the late 1960s it was decided to divide the conference into two divisions. This was due to a wide variance in the sizes of the member schools' populations, and the IHSA regulations which prohibited the larger schools from playing in the same size division against the smaller schools during football playoffs. Thus
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#1732787005480550-478: The seven teams in the newly created South Division. The North Division includes Amboy-La Moille, Bureau Valley, Erie-Prophetstown, Fulton, Morrison, Newman Central Catholic, and Riverdale. The decision to create a geographical North-South alignment was based upon a desire to maintain existing rivalries and minimize travel times. The football schedule includes six intra-divisional games and three rotating inter-divisional cross-over match-ups. Each division will award
575-543: The summer of 2011 indicated that the NCIC had, in fact, folded. However, at the end of 2011, Princeton had not yet found a conference for other sports besides football. Reports surfaced that Princeton asked to join the Big Northern Conference, but did not receive an invitation. Finally, in 2013, Princeton was accepted into the Three Rivers Conference . Dutchesses 1947 2006 RTHS Rochelle Township High School , commonly referred to as RTHS ,
600-705: Was largely the result of the dissolution of two conferences that had also included high schools in Iowa. Fulton, Morrison, Riverdale, Savanna and Sterling Newman had been part of the Illowa Conference along with Iowa schools North Scott of Eldridge , Central Clinton of De Witt , and St. Mary's High School of Clinton . Erie and Prophetstown were members of a league with the Iowa-based Pleasant Valley , Camanche and Northeast of Goose Lake . The seven Illinois schools joined with Amboy to form
625-700: Was short lived, and from 2011 to 2019, the Hubs competed as members of the Northern Illinois Big 12 Conference . Then, for the 2019-2020 school year, they joined the Interstate Eight Conference with Sycamore, LaSalle-Peru, Ottawa, Morris, Sandwich, Plano, and Kaneland. The following IHSA sanctioned sports are offered at RTHS: Besides athletics, RTHS competes in IHSA events in the following: Three Rivers Conference (Illinois) The Three Rivers Conference , also known as
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