Lake Michigan Conference


The Lake Michigan Conference was an interscholastic athletic conference affiliated with the Michigan High School Athletic Association. It was located in Northern Michigan and contained eight teams that encompasses six counties: Antrim County, Charlevoix County, Crawford County, Emmet County, Grand Traverse County, and Kalkaska County.

History

The Lake Michigan Conference traces it origins to the Great Northern Conference, which began play in 1990. The conference was split into four divisions, by geography and school size. The Lake Michigan Division consisted of Class C schools; East Jordan, Boyne City, Charlevoix, Elk Rapids, Kalkaska, Mancelona, Traverse City St. Francis and Harbor Springs. Kalkaska played in the Lake Huron Division for football only with: Lincoln-Alcona, Grayling, Whittemore-Prescott, Onaway and Rogers City.
In 1993, Mancelona dropped to the smaller Ski-Valley for all sports. The Great Northern Conference dissolved in 1997, with most of the divisions retaining all their league memberships. The Lake Michigan Division, re-branded as the Lake Michigan Conference, with Kalkaska joining for football. The membership stayed the same until 2003, when Grayling, a former Lake Huron Division Rival of Kalkaska, left the Northeast Michigan Conference. This gave the conference the 8 teams that it has today. In 2010, conference athletic directors voted to eliminate St. Francis from participating in football effective in 2012. Elk Rapids and Grayling agreed to continue their series, while St. Francis will play two other LMC teams on a three-year rotation. The LMC also extended an invitation to St. Ignace High School to join. On January 14, 2011, it was announced that St. Ignace would join the Ski-Valley Conference.
Following the 2013 season the LMC and the neighboring Northwest Conference merged for football only, creating the Northern Michigan Football League. The league was split into two divisions based on enrollment and competitiveness. The Leader division consisted of the larger and more accomplished programs including, St. Francis, Maple City-Glen Lake, Elk Rapids, Boyne City, Kingsley, Benzie Central and Grayling. The Legacy Division consisted of Frankfort, Charlevoix, Kalkaska, East Jordan, Suttons Bay and Harbor Springs. Mesick, an original member of the Northwest Conference, opted against joining the NMFL and instead joined the five schools of the Mid-State North Conference, creating the Northwestern Six Football League.
In 2023, amidst discussion of removing St. Francis from the conference for competitive balancing purposes, or Kalkaska possibly leaving the conference, East Jordan announced it would be joining the Ski-Valley Conference, citing its low enrollment being better suited amongst the smaller schools of the Ski-Valley. In April 2023 the Northern Shores Conference was announced, with Boyne City, Charlevoix, Elk Rapids, Grayling, Harbor Springs, and Kalkaska leaving the Lake Michigan Conference to form this new league with Cheboygan from the Straits Area Conference and Kingsley from the Northwest Conference.

Members

Full member institutions include: Departing Members are highlighted in pink.
Team & MascotSchoolLocationJoinedEnrollmentClassBoys ChampGirls ChampTotal Champ
Boyne City RamblersBoyne City High SchoolBoyne City, Michigan1997424B111223
Charlevoix RaydersCharlevoix High SchoolCharlevoix, Michigan1997282C463480
East Jordan Red DevilsEast Jordan High SchoolEast Jordan, Michigan1997226C13821
Elk Rapids ElksElk Rapids High SchoolElk Rapids, Michigan1997369B422567
Grayling VikingsGrayling High SchoolGrayling, Michigan2003432B17017
Harbor Springs RamsHarbor Springs High SchoolHarbor Springs, Michigan1997246C415899
Kalkaska BlazersKalkaska High SchoolKalkaska, Michigan1997432B111526
St. Francis GladiatorsSt. Francis High SchoolTraverse City, Michigan1997356C7677154

Former members

Membership timeline


DateFormat = yyyy
ImageSize = width:750 height:auto barincrement:20
Period = from:1990 till:2025
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:s
bar:1 color:yellow from:1990 till:1997 text: Lake Michigan Division
bar:1 color:powderblue from:1997 till:2024 text: Boyne City Ramblers
bar:2 color:yellow from:1990 till:1997 text: Lake Michigan Division
bar:2 color:powderblue from:1997 till:2024 text: Charlevoix Red Rayders
bar:3 color:yellow from:1990 till:1997 text: Lake Michigan Division
bar:3 color:powderblue from:1997 till:2024 text: East Jordan Red Devils
bar:4 color:yellow from:1990 till:1997 text: Lake Michigan Division
bar:4 color:powderblue from:1997 till:2024 text: Elk Rapids Elks
bar:5 color:yellow from:1990 till:1997 text: Lake Michigan Division
bar:5 color:powderblue from:1997 till:2024 text: Harbor Springs Rams
bar:6 color:red from:1990 till:1997 text: Non-Football
bar:6 color:powderblue from:1997 till:2024 text: Kalkaska Blue Blazers
bar:7 color:yellow from:1990 till:1997 text: Lake Michigan Division
bar:7 color:powderblue from:1997 till:2024 text: TC St. Francis Gladiators
bar:7 color:red from:2012 till:2014 text: Non-Football
bar:8 color:powderblue from:2003 till:2024 text: Grayling Vikings
bar:9 color:yellow from:1990 till:1993 text: Mancelona
ScaleMajor = gridcolor:line unit:year increment:5 start:1990
TextData =
fontsize:L
textcolor:black
pos: # tabs:
text:"LMC League Membership History"

Lake Michigan stopped sponsoring football in 2014.

Football

Conference champions
YearChampionRecord
1997St. Francis11-1
1998St. Francis11-2
1999St. Francis13-1 *
2000Charlevoix6-4
2001Boyne City12-1
2002St. Francis10-2
2003St. Francis14-0 *
2004St. Francis8-2
2005St. Francis13-1 *
2006St. Francis10-2
2007St. Francis12-2
2008St. Francis13-1 *
2009St. Francis14-0 *
2010Elk Rapids9-1
2011St. Francis11-2
2012Grayling9-1
2013Grayling9-2

*State champion

Teams in the final regular-season rankings

YearTeamDivisionRank
2023Charlevoix77th
2022Boyne City66th
2022St. Francis71st
2022Charlevoix79th
2021Boyne City66th
2021Grayling610th
2021St. Francis71st
2020Charlevoix76th
2018St. Francis62nd
2017Boyne City55th
2017St. Francis72nd
2016St. Francis71st
2015Boyne City67th
2014Boyne City65th
2012Grayling58th
2011Grayling58th
2011St. Francis84th
2010Elk Rapids52nd
2010Grayling510th
2010St. Francis77th
2009St. Francis71st
2008St. Francis76th
2007St. Francis74th
2006St. Francis75th
2005Boyne City66th
2005St. Francis75th
2004St. Francis73rd
2003St. Francis71st
2002St. Francis77th
2001Boyne City54th
1999St. FrancisC10th
1998St. FrancisC4th
1997St. FrancisC1st

Conference records

State championship results

'''Results by team'''

All-time playoff appearances

Traverse City St. Francis: 1983, 85-87, 1990-2011, 2013-23
Boyne City: 1993–94, 96, 2001–09, 2012-17, 2020-23
Grayling: 1990, 92, 2003–05, 2007, 2009-13, 2015-17, 2020-22
Charlevoix: 1992, 2000, 2005-06, 2008-09, 2014,16, 2019-23
Elk Rapids: 2006–10, 2013-14, 2017-18, 2020, 2022
East Jordan: 1993–94, 1999-2000, 2003, 2020-23
Harbor Springs: 1986, 1999-2000, 2015-16, 2018-20
Kalkaska: 2002, 2012-13, 2016, 2020