Cascade Conference (MHSAA)
The Cascade Conference is a Michigan high school athletic conference that was formed prior to the 1954 school year. The conference includes mostly Class C schools and one Class B school with the majority of its members being from Jackson County along with one member each from Calhoun, Hillsdale, Ingham, Lenawee, and Washtenaw counties.
History
Formation
The Cascades Conference was formed in 1954 with ten schools from the Jackson County League. The original members were: Brooklyn, Concord, East Jackson, Grass Lake, Hanover-Horton, Jackson Vandercook Lake, Michigan Center, Napoleon, Parma and Springport high schools.Red and Blue
With the growth of suburbs, some Cascades Conference schools grew more rapidly than others. This led to the creation of the Red and Blue divisions. Between 1983 and 1996, four schools were listed as Cascades-Red Members: Jackson Lumen Christi, Jackson Northwest, Parma Jackson County Western and Brooklyn Columbia Central. In 1996, Jackson Northwest and Jackson Lumen Christi left the Cascades Red for the Capital-Circuit Conference. Brooklyn Columbia Central left the Cascades Red after 1995 and competed as an independent for two years, before joining the Lenawee County Conference at the start of the 1997 school year. Parma Jackson County Western left the Cascades Red after the 1995 school year and joined the Twin Valley Conference.Expansion
In 2022, the Cascades Conference was looking to expand from eight to twelve schools for the 2022–23 school year. On June 13, Brooklyn Columbia Central of the Lenawee County Athletic Association accepted their invite to join the Cascades, which they were previously a member of from 1968 to 1996. A little over a week later, Leslie, a member of the Greater Lansing Athletic Conference accepted their invitation as well. Within a few weeks after Columbia Central and Leslie joined, two Big "8" members, Jonesville and Homer accepted their invitations to join the conference as well. All four schools will be joining the conference for the 2022–23 school year.With the Cascades Conference expanding to twelve teams, the conference decided to split the league into two geographical divisions.
| East | West |
| East Jackson | Addison |
| Grass Lake | Columbia Central |
| Leslie | Hanover-Horton |
| Manchester | Homer |
| Michigan Center | Jonesville |
| Napoleon | Vandercook Lake |
Member schools
Current members
The following institutions are full members of the Cascade Conference for the 2022–23 school year:| School name | Location | Nickname | Class | Enrollment | Joined | Colors | Previous conference |
| Addison | Addison, Lenawee County | Panthers | C | 229 | 1988 | Lenawee County Athletic Association | |
| Brooklyn Columbia Central | Columbia Township, Jackson County | Golden Eagles | B | 410 | 1968 2023 | Lakeland "C" Conference Lenawee County Athletic Association | |
| East Jackson | Jackson, Jackson County | Trojans | C | 229 | 1954 | Jackson County League | |
| Grass Lake | Grass Lake, Jackson County | Warriors | C | 354 | 1954 1976 | Jackson County League Southern Central Athletic Association | |
| Hanover-Horton | Horton, Jackson County | Comets | C | 297 | 1954 1960 1976 | Jackson County League Independent Southern Central Athletic Association | |
| Homer | Homer, Calhoun County | Trojans | C | 277 | 2023 | Big "8" Conference | |
| Jonesville | Jonesville, Hillsdale County | Comets | C | 342 | 2023 | Big "8" Conference | |
| Leslie | Leslie, Ingham County | Black Hawks | C | 332 | 2023 | Greater Lansing Athletic Conference | |
| Manchester | Manchester, Washtenaw County | Flying Dutchmen | C | 281 | 1983 | Lenawee County Athletic Association | |
| Michigan Center | Michigan Center, Jackson County | Cardinals | C | 374 | 1954 | Jackson County League | |
| Napoleon | Napoleon, Jackson County | Pirates | C | 358 | 1954 | Jackson County League | |
| Vandercook Lake | Jackson, Jackson County | Jayhawks | C | 194 | 1954 | Jackson County League |
;Notes:
Former members
;Notes:Membership timeline
DateFormat= yyyy
ImageSize= width:1250 height:auto barincrement:20
Period= from:1954 till:2025
TimeAxis= orientation:horizontal
PlotArea= right:100 left:0 bottom:50 top:5 #> to display a count on left side of graph, use "left:20" to suppress the count, use "left:20"<#
Colors= id:barcolor
id:line value:black
id:bg value:white
id:Full value:rgb # Use this color to denote a team that is a member in all sports
id:FullB value:rgb # Use this color to denote a team that was a member of the Blue Division
id:FullR value:rgb # Use this color to denote a team that was a member of the Red Division
id:FullxF value:rgb # Use this color to denote a team that is a non-football member
id:FullRxF value:rgb # Use this color to denote a team that was a non-football member of the Red Division
id:OtherC value:rgb # Use this color to denote a team that has moved in another conference
PlotData=
width:15 textcolor:black shift: anchor:from fontsize:s
bar:1 color:Full from:1954 till:1960 text:Brooklyn
bar:1 color:OtherC from:1960 till:1967
bar:2 color:Full from:1954 till:1973 text:Concord
bar:2 color:OtherC from:1973 till:end
bar:3 color:Full from:1954 till:1983 text:East Jackson
bar:3 color:FullB from:1983 till:1996
bar:3 color:Full from:1996 till:end
bar:4 color:Full from:1954 till:1964 text:Grass Lake
bar:4 color:OtherC from:1964 till:1976
bar:4 color:Full from:1976 till:1983
bar:4 color:FullB from:1983 till:1996
bar:4 color:Full from:1996 till:end
bar:5 color:FullxF from:1954 till:1960 text:Hanover-Horton
bar:5 color:Full from:1960 till:1965
bar:5 color:OtherC from:1965 till:1976
bar:5 color:Full from:1976 till:1983
bar:5 color:FullB from:1983 till:1996
bar:5 color:Full from:1996 till:end
bar:6 color:Full from:1954 till:1983 text:Michigan Center
bar:6 color:FullB from:1983 till:1996
bar:6 color:Full from:1996 till:end
bar:7 color:Full from:1954 till:1983 text:Napoleon
bar:7 color:FullB from:1983 till:1996
bar:7 color:Full from:1996 till:end
bar:8 color:Full from:1954 till:1961 text:Parma
bar:9 color:Full from:1954 till:1963 text:Springport
bar:9 color:OtherC from:1963 till:end
bar:10 color:Full from:1954 till:1983 text:Vandercook Lake
bar:10 color:FullB from:1983 till:1996
bar:10 color:Full from:1996 till:2020
bar:10 color:FullxF from:2020 till:2024
bar:10 color:Full from:2024 till:end
bar:11 color:Full from:1960 till:1976 text:Jackson Northwest
bar:11 color:OtherC from:1976 till:1983
bar:11 color:FullR from:1983 till:1996
bar:11 color:OtherC from:1996 till:end
bar:12 color:Full from:1961 till:1976 text:Parma Jackson County Western
bar:12 color:OtherC from:1976 till:1983
bar:12 color:FullR from:1983 till:1996
bar:12 color:OtherC from:1996 till:end
bar:13 color:Full from:1968 till:1983 text:Brooklyn Columbia Central
bar:13 color:FullR from:1983 till:1996
bar:13 color:OtherC from:1996 till:2023
bar:13 color:Full from:2023 till:end
bar:14 color:FullRxF from:1983 till:1991 text:Jackson Lumen Christi
bar:14 color:FullR from:1991 till:1996
bar:14 color:OtherC from:1996 till:end
bar:15 color:FullB from:1983 till:1996 text:Manchester
bar:15 color:Full from:1996 till:end
bar:16 color:FullB from:1988 till:1996 text:Addison
bar:16 color:Full from:1996 till:end
bar:17 color:Full from:2023 till:end text:Homer
bar:18 color:Full from:2023 till:end text:Jonesville
bar:19 color:Full from:2023 till:end text:Leslie
ScaleMajor= gridcolor:line unit:year increment:2 start:1954
TextData =
fontsize:L
textcolor:black
pos: tabs:
text:^"Cascades Membership History"
- > If the chart uses more than one bar color, add a legend by selecting the appropriate fields from the following six options Leave a blank line after the end of the timeline, then add a line with the selected values from the list, separated by a space. <#