Black Diamond Conference
The Black Diamond Athletic Conference is a high school athletic conference represented by 13 schools in the southern portion of Illinois. The conference currently offers championships for girls in basketball, cross country, golf, softball, track and field, and volleyball. In boys' sports, the BDC offers championships in baseball, basketball, cross country, football, golf, track and field, and wrestling.
History
1949-1968
The Black Diamond Conference was created first as a football-only conference in 1949. The original schools were members of the Coal Belt Conference for other sports. The original conference schools were Carterville, Christopher, Elkville, Sesser, and Zeigler.In 1956, the Black Diamond added Boys' Basketball and the conference became full-time.
Carbondale University High, a charter member of the Coal Belt Conference, joined the conference in 1963 and remained a member until its closure in 1966.
In 1962, Elkville High School consolidated with Vergennes and Dowell to become Elverado High School. Zeigler High School consolidated with Royalton High School to become Zeigler-Royalton High School.
In 1963, Sesser High School consolidated with Valier High School to become Sesser-Valier High School.
1968-2003
Trico joined the Black Diamond in 1968 -69 season and won three consecutive BDC Basketball Titles. They left the BDC after the 1970–71 season after failing to start a football program.Carterville and Christopher left the BDC to join the Southern Illini Conference after the 1973 season and returned in 1975. There was no football race in 1974 and no basketball races in 1974-75 and 1975-76.
Johnston City joined the conference in 1975.
McLeansboro joined for football only in 1990 when Christopher and Zeigler-Royalton combined their football programs.
Cairo and Eldorado joined in 1992 for football only.
Eldorado would later join for girls' basketball and both boys' and girls' track and field in 1992 and girls' volleyball in 1995
McLeansboro joined the BDC for baseball and both boys' and girls' track and field in 1992 and girls' volleyball in 1995.
2003 expansion
The 2003–2004 school year saw the largest single expansion in conference history. Carmi-White County and Fairfield joined from the defunct North Egypt Conference and former member Trico rejoined the conference. Cairo, Eldorado, and Hamilton County became full-time members by joining the conference for all sports.The conference was divided into two divisions, East and West. The West Division consisted of the original five members Carterville, Christopher, Elverado, Sesser-Valier, and Zeigler-Royalton and new member Trico. The East consisted of five new members Cairo, Carmi-White County, Eldorado, Fairfield, and Hamilton County and current member Johnston City.
The conference also began to crown a champion from each division in Basketball and Volleyball. All other sports have one champion. The Diamond Duels in Basketball puts the 6 teams in each division against each other for Bragging Rights. The Duels have no outcome on Conference Champions.
Recent Years 2004-Present
Cairo High School left the conference at the end of the 2007–2008 school year and Vienna High School joined the conference in the 2008–2009 school year.Carterville left the BDC at the conclusion of the 2009–2010 school year to the Southern Illinois River-to-River Conference. Chester High School took their place in the BDC.
With Carterville leaving the conference, the Black Diamond has dropped Wrestling as a Conference sport as only 3 schools now have wrestling programs.
Goreville High School joined the BDC for the 2011–2012 school year as a member of the BDC West Division.
Elverado left the BDC at the conclusion of the 2013–14 school year due to dropping their football program. Elverado joined the South Egyptian Conference and has started a football Co-op with Du Quoin High School with Du Quoin being the host.
Edwards County High School joins the BDC in 2014-15 as a Baseball and Softball member and will compete in the New BDC East Divisions of those sports. Edwards Co. will join the BDC Full-Time in the 2016–17 school year with all schools in the BDC East and Vienna will move to the BDC West.
Chester left the BDC at the conclusion of the 2020-21 school year. Chester joined the Cahokia Conference.
Flora High School joined starting the 2021-22 school year. They joined from the Little Illini Conference.
Members
Current members
Affiliate Member
Cooperative Programs
Former members
Membership Timeline
DateFormat = yyyy
ImageSize = width:1000 height:auto barincrement:20
Period = from:1949 till:2023
TimeAxis = orientation:horizontal
PlotArea = right:0 left:0 bottom:20 top:0
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id:line value:black
id:bg value:white
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width:14 textcolor:black shift: anchor:from fontsize:s
bar:1 color:powderblue from:1949 till:1973 text:Carterville 1949-1973
bar:1 color:powderblue from:1975 till:2010 text:1975-2010
bar:2 color:powderblue from:1949 till:1973 text:Christopher 1949-1973
bar:2 color:powderblue from:1975 till:end text:1975-present
bar:3 color:powderblue from:1949 till:1962 text:Elkville 1949-1962
bar:4 color:powderblue from:1949 till:1963 text:Sesser 1949-1963
bar:5 color:powderblue from:1949 till:1962 text:Zeigler 1949-1962
bar:6 color:powderblue from:1962 till:2014 text:Elverado 1962-2014
bar:7 color:powderblue from:1962 till:end text:Zeigler-Royalton 1962-present
bar:8 color:powderblue from:1963 till:1968 text:Carbondale U. 1963-1968
bar:9 color:powderblue from:1963 till:end text:Sesser-Valier 1963-present
bar:10 color:powderblue from:1968 till:1971 text:Trico 1968-1971
bar:10 color:powderblue from:2003 till:end text:2003-present
bar:11 color:powderblue from:1975 till:end text:Johnston City 1975-present
bar:12 color:tan1 from:1990 till:2003 text:Hamilton Co. 1990-2003
bar:12 color:powderblue from:2003 till:end text:2003-present
bar:13 color:tan1 from:1992 till:2003 text:Cairo 1992-2003
bar:13 color:powderblue from:2003 till:2008 text:2003-2008
bar:14 color:tan1 from:1992 till:2003 text:Eldorado 1992-2003
bar:14 color:powderblue from:2003 till:end text:2003-present
bar:15 color:powderblue from:2003 till:end text:Carmi-White Co. 2003-present
bar:16 color:powderblue from:2003 till:end text:Fairfield 2003-present
bar:17 color:powderblue from:2008 till:end text:Vienna 2008-present
bar:18 color:powderblue from:2010 till:2021 text:Chester 2010-2021
bar:19 color:powderblue from:2011 till:end text:Goreville 2011-present
bar:20 color:tan1 from:2014 shift: till:2016 text:Edwards Co. 2014-2016
bar:20 color:powderblue from:2016 shift: till:end text:2016-present
bar:21 color:powderblue from:2021 shift: till:end text:Flora 2021-present
ScaleMajor = gridcolor:line unit:year increment:5 start:1950
Sports
Fall
Cross Country
Cross Country has been a BDC sport since the 2003 expansion. The conference champion is determined by the winner of the conference meet.Football
The BDC was founded as a football-only conference and a title has been awarded in all but two years, 1974 and 75, since.Currently there are ten BDC football programs. Six schools compete individually and 2 pairs, Christopher-Zeigler-Royalton and Vienna-Goreville, compete as co-op programs. Sesser-Valier co-ops with non-conference members Waltonville High School while new member Edwards County who joins in 2016 currently co-ops with Grayville High School. The BDC currently has a 9-game biennial rotating schedule with all programs playing each other once. Week 5, known as rivals week, however, does not rotate and has the same match-ups each year. These match-ups are as follows.
BDC schools have also had moderate success at the state level winning two state titles, Zeigler-Royalton in 1982 and Carterville in 1996.