Hoosier North Athletic Conference


The Hoosier North Athletic Conference is an IHSAA-sanctioned conference in northwestern Indiana, that began in 2015. The conference contains eight schools in six counties, but may expand to include more schools in the future.

History

  • 2015: The Hoosier North Athletic Conference was formed by schools from the Northern State Conference, Midwest Conference, and then independent North Judson-San Pierre. The HNAC was formed in an effort to shorten travel distances and increase competition among member schools. The exodus of the 4 Northern State Conference teams caused that conference to fold, and forced other teams from Bremen, Jimtown, John Glenn, and New Prairie to join the Northern Indiana Conference.
  • 2017: The West Central school board approved a measure to leave the Hoosier North Athletic Conference and re-join the Midwest conference, a move that, in accordance with HNAC bylaws, will be completed by the end of the 2018–19 school year.
  • 2023: Knox and LaVille both announced their intentions to leave the Hoosier North Athletic Conference and join 3 teams from the Northern Indiana Conference and a team from the Three Rivers Conference to form the Indiana Northern State Conference that will begin play in the 2024–2025 season.
  • 2023: South Central announced their intention to join the Hoosier North Athletic Conference as an affiliate member for football only starting in 2024 or 2025, leaving the Greater South Shore Conference and remaining in the Porter County Conference for all other sports.
  • 2023: The Hoosier North Athletic Conference announced on May 18 that Argos and Oregon-Davis would be joining the conference. It is important to note that neither of these schools has a football program and would participate in all other sports aside from football.
  • 2023: It was announced that North Miami will join the Hoosier North Athletic Conference in 2024, bringing the conference to 8 schools for football and 9 schools for all other sports.

Members

^-Football only member

Former members

  1. Played concurrently in HNAC and MWC 2018–19.

Membership timeline


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bar:6 color:skyblue from:2015 till:end text:Pioneer
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bar:8 color:skyblue from:2015 till:end text:Winamac
bar:9 color:skyblue from:2015 till:2019 text:West Central
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Conference champions

Football

  • 2020: No champion because of the COVID-19 pandemic. Several games were not played. Pioneer finished in the standings at first with a record without playing LaVille or Winamac.
  • 2021: There was no formally declared conference champion in 2021 anywhere on the official HNAC website. This was because of the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. AlmanacSports.com does cite that there was a three-way conference champion between Winamac, Pioneer, and North Judson-San Pierre. The top four schools in the conference standings at the end of the regular season were as follows:
1. Winamac : Did not play LaVille or North-Judson San Pierre.

2. Pioneer : Loss to Winamac.

3. North-Judson-San Pierre : Loss to Pioneer and did not play Winamac.

4. LaVille : Losses to Pioneer and North Judson-San Pierre; did not play Winamac.
  • Interestingly, LaVille avenged a loss to conference foe Pioneer in their respective sectional. LaVille beat Pioneer 41–0 in the Class 2A Sectional 34 Championship, avenging their 12–7 loss in the regular season. Additionally, North Judson-San Pierre triumphed over Winamac 40–13 in the Class 1A Sectional 41 Semifinal. This was their only meeting in 2021 because their regular season matchup was cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
According to John Harrell, Pioneer was given credit for the 2020 conference championship with a record, and Winamac was given credit for the 2021 conference championship with a record, without it being shared with Pioneer and North Judson.

Boys basketball

Pioneer and Winamac were co-champions in 2016.

State championships

Pioneer (6)

  • 2017 Football
  • 2018 Softball
  • 2018 Football
  • 2020 Volleyball
  • 2021 Girls' Basketball
  • 2021 Softball

North Judson (1)

2018 Volleyball

Math contest

The Conference hosts a math tournament every school year at different schools within the conference. The 2018 tournament will be held at Knox.