Coulee Conference
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
The Coulee Conference was formed in 1926 by six small high schools in west central Wisconsin: Bangor, Galesville, Holmen, Mindoro, Onalaska and West Salem. 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 and eight in 1942 when Melrose became members. After Galesville's merger with Ettrick in 1949, the Coulee Conference's roster remained consistent for sixteen years until Melrose and Mindoro merged in 1965, with the new school taking on the membership of its two predecessors. Arcadia moved over from the original Mississippi Valley Conference to keep membership at eight schools. In 1971, Gale-Ettrick merged with Trempealeau to create the new Gale-Ettrick-Trempealeau High School, 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.1977-1987
In 1977, the Coulee Conference lost three members to conference realignment in the region: two to the Dairyland Conference: and one to the Scenic Central Conference Replacing the three exiting schools were Black River Falls from the South Central Conference and two schools from the Scenic Central Conference. 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. 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. The next year, the Coulee Conference accepted its first out-of-state member, adding La Crescent from Minnesota as Royall's replacement.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. 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. Both schools left to become charter members of the new Mississippi Valley Conference in 1989 with former members of the Big Rivers and South Central Conferences. 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. They began conference play the next year, 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, bringing the Coulee Conference to its current alignment of seven schools. In 2020, Aquinas High School joined the Coulee Conference for football only.Football
The Coulee Conference sponsored football for the first time with the 1959 season, and six conference members comprised the initial roster: Bangor, Gale-Ettrick, Holmen, Onalaska, Trempealeau and West Salem. By the 1964 season, all eight Coulee Conference members were football participants, and aside from a few schools that briefly left the conference, membership for football mirrored membership for all other sports. For the 2019 season, the Coulee Conference was dissolved as a football entity, with schools dispersed to the South Central Conference, Southwest Wisconsin Activities League and Southwest Wisconsin Conference. Around this time, the WIAA and Wisconsin Football Coaches Association collaborated on a massive realignment of Wisconsin's high school football conferences to be reviewed on a two-year competition cycle. The initial 2020-2021 alignment revived the Coulee Conference for football, with five full members joining associate members Altoona and Aquinas to round out the seven-member group. For the 2022-2023 cycle, the Coulee Conference was expanded to eight football-playing members with the return of West Salem from the Mississippi Valley Conference. Luther rejoined the Coulee Conference for the 2024-2025 realignment, replacing Altoona after their shift to the Middle Border Conference. This alignment will remain in place through at least the 2026-2027 competition cycle.List of member schools
Current members
Current associate members
Current co-operative members
Former members
Former football-only members
Membership timeline
Full members
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
id:line value:black
id:bg value:white
PlotData=
width:15 textcolor:black shift: anchor:from fontsize:m
bar:1 color:tan1 from:1926 till:1977 text:Bangor
bar:2 color:tan1 from:1926 till:1949 text:Galesville
bar:3 color:tan1 from:1926 till:1989 text:Holmen
bar:4 color:tan1 from:1926 till:1965 text:Mindoro
bar:5 color:tan1 from:1926 till:1989 text:Onalaska
bar:6 color:tan1 from:1926 till:2030 text:West Salem
bar:7 color:tan1 from:1936 till:1971 text:Trempealeau
bar:8 color:tan1 from:1942 till:1965 text:Melrose
bar:9 color:tan1 from:1949 till:1971 text:Gale-Ettrick
bar:10 color:tan1 from:1965 till:2030 text:Arcadia
bar:11 color:tan1 from:1965 till:1977 text:Melrose-Mindoro
bar:12 color:tan1 from:1971 till:1977 text:Cochrane-Fountain City
bar:13 color:tan1 from:1971 till:2030 text:Gale-Ettrick-Trempealeau
bar:14 color:tan1 from:1977 till:2030 text:Black River Falls
bar:15 color:tan1 from:1977 till:1979 text:Royall
bar:16 color:tan1 from:1977 till:2030 text:Westby
bar:17 color:tan1 from:1980 till:2007 text:La Crescent
bar:18 color:tan1 from:1987 till:2030 text:Viroqua
bar:19 color:tan1 from:1997 till:2030 text:Luther
ScaleMajor = gridcolor:line unit:year increment:10 start:1926
Football members
DateFormat = yyyy
ImageSize = width:900 height:auto barincrement:20
Period = from:1959 till:2030
TimeAxis = orientation:horizontal
PlotArea = right:30 left:0 bottom:50 top:5
Colors = id:barcolor value:rgb
id:line value:black
id:bg value:white
PlotData=
width:15 textcolor:black shift: anchor:from fontsize:m
bar:1 color:lavender from:1959 till:1974 text:Bangor
bar:2 color:lavender from:1959 till:1971 text:Gale-Ettrick
bar:3 color:lavender from:1959 till:1989 text:Holmen
bar:4 color:lavender from:1959 till:1989 text:Onalaska
bar:5 color:lavender from:1959 till:1971 text:Trempealeau
bar:6 color:lavender from:1959 till:2014 text:West Salem
bar:6 color:lavender from:2022 till:2030 text:
bar:7 color:lavender from:1960 till:1965 text:Melrose
bar:8 color:lavender from:1964 till:1965 text:Mindoro
bar:9 color:lavender from:1965 till:2019 text:Arcadia
bar:9 color:lavender from:2020 till:2030 text:
bar:10 color:lavender from:1965 till:1977 text:Melrose-Mindoro
bar:11 color:lavender from:1971 till:1977 text:Cochrane-Fountain City
bar:12 color:lavender from:1971 till:2019 text:Gale-Ettrick-Trempealeau
bar:12 color:lavender from:2020 till:2030 text:
bar:13 color:lavender from:1977 till:2019 text:Black River Falls
bar:13 color:lavender from:2020 till:2030 text:
bar:14 color:lavender from:1977 till:1979 text:Royall
bar:15 color:lavender from:1977 till:2019 text:Westby
bar:15 color:lavender from:2020 till:2030 text:
bar:16 color:lavender from:1980 till:2007 text:La Cresent
bar:17 color:lavender from:1987 till:2019 text:Viroqua
bar:17 color:lavender from:2020 till:2030 text:
bar:18 color:lavender from:1997 till:2004 text:Luther
bar:18 color:lavender from:2011 till:2019 text:
bar:18 color:lavender from:2024 till:2030 text:
bar:19 color:lavender from:2020 till:2024 text:Altoona
bar:20 color:lavender from:2020 till:2030 text:Aquinas
ScaleMajor = gridcolor:line unit:year increment:5 start:1959
Membership map
Sanctioned sports
List of state championships
Fall sports
Winter sports
| School | Year | Division |
| Onalaska | 1985 | Class B |
Spring sports
| School | Year | Division |
| Onalaska | 1982 | |
| Gale-Ettrick-Trempealeau | 1994 | Division 2 |
| Arcadia | 2010 | Division 3 |
| School | Year | Division |
| Arcadia | 1991 | Division 3 |
| Arcadia | 1992 | Division 3 |
| Arcadia | 1994 | Division 3 |
| Arcadia | 1995 | Division 3 |
| Arcadia | 1998 | Division 3 |
| Arcadia | 1999 | Division 3 |
| Arcadia | 2004 | Division 3 |