Marinette & Oconto Conference


The Marinette & Oconto Conference is a high school athletic conference in northeastern Wisconsin. Founded in 1927, the conference and its members are affiliated with the Wisconsin Interscholastic Athletic Association.

History

1927-1951

The Marinette & Oconto Conference was formed in 1927 by seven small high schools in Marinette and Oconto Counties in northeastern Wisconsin: Coleman, Crivitz, Lena, Marinette Normal, Our Lady of Lourdes, Peshtigo and Wausaukee. In 1929, the M&O lost Marinette Normal and Our Lady of Lourdes, with Niagara joining to bring the conference to six members. Peshtigo left the loop in 1931, with Gillett moving over from the Northeastern Wisconsin Conference in 1932 to take their place. The membership roster for the Marinette & Oconto Conference increased to nine in 1933 when Florence, Mountain and Suring entered the league. Peshtigo would return to the M&O in 1934, and Florence and Niagara left a year later, bringing the conference to eight schools. Football was first sponsored by the Marinette & Oconto Conference in 1937, with five schools participating in the six-player variant. In 1938, Mountain and Wausaukee exited the conference, and along with Amberg and Pembine they formed the new Nicolet Conference. Bonduel spent a short stint in the conference during World War II, joining in 1941 and leaving two years later. The M&O transitioned to sponsoring eight-player football in 1944, and two years later the conference unanimously voted to adopt eleven-player football for the 1946 season. After numerous changes in the conference's first two decades, the circuit entered a period of stability that would last until the 1950s.

1951-1999

In 1951, the four-member Granite Valley Conference merged with the six members of the Marinette & Oconto Conference: Amberg, Crivitz, Pembine and Wausaukee. Crivitz was previously a member of both conferences, and Wausaukee reentered the M&O after a thirteen-year absence. With the addition of Goodman, the Marinette & Oconto Conference became a ten-member group, but this arrangement would end up being short-lived. In 1954, Amberg, Goodman, Pembine and Wausaukee split off to reform the Granite Valley Conference, leaving the conference with six member schools. Wausaukee rejoined the Marinette & Oconto Conference for a third time in 1961 after displacement by the Granite Valley's dissolution in 1960. In 1968, Niagara left the Menominee Range Conference in the upper peninsula of Michigan to rejoin as the M&O's eighth member. The Marinette & Oconto Conference entered a three-decade period of stability after Niagara's return.

1999-present

In 1999, Marinette Central Catholic came back to the Marinette & Oconto Conference after the dissolution of the Fox Valley Christian Conference, a result of the merger between the Wisconsin Independent Schools Athletic Association and the WIAA that was finalized in 2000. The school became St. Thomas Aquinas Academy in 2005 after changing its enrollment model from high school to K-12. The Oneida Nation High School joined the M&O in 2015, its first conference membership in their twenty-year history. With Peshtigo's exit in 2017 to join the Packerland Conference, the Marinette & Oconto Conference became the nine-member league that currently exists. Football sponsorship was ended that season as well, as the M&O partnered with the Northern Lakes and Packerland Conferences to form the MONLPC Football Conference.

Membership timeline

Full members


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ImageSize = width:900 height:auto barincrement:20
Period = from:1927 till:2030
TimeAxis = orientation:horizontal
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id:line value:black
id:bg value:white
PlotData=
width:15 textcolor:black shift: anchor:from fontsize:m
bar:1 color:tan1 from:1927 till:1951 text:Coleman
bar:1 color:skyblue from:1951 till:1954 text:
bar:1 color:tan1 from:1954 till:2030 text:
bar:2 color:tan1 from:1927 till:1951 text:Crivitz
bar:2 color:blue from:1951 till:1954 text:
bar:2 color:tan1 from:1954 till:2030 text:
bar:3 color:tan1 from:1927 till:1951 text:Lena
bar:3 color:skyblue from:1951 till:1954 text:
bar:3 color:tan1 from:1954 till:2030 text:
bar:4 color:tan1 from:1927 till:1929 text:Marinette Normal
bar:5 color:tan1 from:1927 till:1929 text:Our Lady of Lourdes
bar:5 color:tan1 from:1999 till:2030 text:Marinette Central Catholic, St. Thomas Aquinas
bar:6 color:tan1 from:1927 till:1931 text:Peshtigo
bar:6 color:tan1 from:1934 till:1951 text:
bar:6 color:skyblue from:1951 till:1954 text:
bar:6 color:tan1 from:1954 till:2017 text:
bar:7 color:tan1 from:1927 till:1938 text:Wausaukee
bar:7 color:blue from:1951 till:1954 text:
bar:7 color:tan1 from:1961 till:2030 text:
bar:8 color:tan1 from:1929 till:1935 text:Niagara
bar:8 color:tan1 from:1968 till:2030 text:
bar:9 color:tan1 from:1932 till:1951 text:Gillett
bar:9 color:skyblue from:1951 till:1954 text:
bar:9 color:tan1 from:1954 till:2030 text:
bar:10 color:tan1 from:1933 till:1935 text:Florence
bar:11 color:tan1 from:1933 till:1938 text:Mountain
bar:12 color:tan1 from:1933 till:1951 text:Suring
bar:12 color:skyblue from:1951 till:1954 text:
bar:12 color:tan1 from:1954 till:2030 text:
bar:13 color:tan1 from:1941 till:1943 text:Bonduel
bar:14 color:blue from:1951 till:1954 text:Amberg
bar:15 color:blue from:1951 till:1954 text:Goodman
bar:16 color:blue from:1951 till:1954 text:Pembine
bar:17 color:tan1 from:2015 till:2030 text:Oneida Nation
ScaleMajor = gridcolor:line unit:year increment:10 start:1927

Football members


DateFormat = yyyy
ImageSize = width:900 height:auto barincrement:20
Period = from:1937 till:2017
TimeAxis = orientation:horizontal
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id:line value:black
id:bg value:white
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width:15 textcolor:black shift: anchor:from fontsize:m
bar:1 color:lavender from:1937 till:2017 text:Coleman
bar:2 color:lavender from:1937 till:1942 text:Crivitz
bar:2 color:lavender from:1946 till:2017 text:
bar:3 color:lavender from:1937 till:2017 text:Gillett
bar:4 color:lavender from:1937 till:2003 text:Lena
bar:5 color:lavender from:1937 till:1942 text:Peshtigo
bar:5 color:lavender from:1946 till:2017 text:
bar:6 color:lavender from:1938 till:2017 text:Suring
bar:7 color:lavender from:1947 till:1949 text:Wausaukee
bar:7 color:lavender from:1950 till:1955 text:
bar:7 color:lavender from:1961 till:2017 text:
bar:8 color:lavender from:1950 till:1955 text:Goodman
bar:9 color:lavender from:1950 till:1955 text:Pembine
bar:10 color:lavender from:1966 till:2005 text:Niagara
bar:11 color:lavender from:2003 till:2014 text:Lena/St. Thomas Aquinas
ScaleMajor = gridcolor:line unit:year increment:5 start:1937

List of state champions

Fall sports

SchoolYearDivision
Niagara1991Division 4

Winter sports

SchoolYearDivision
Lena1980Class C

Spring sports

SchoolYearDivision
Wausaukee1996Division 3
Peshtigo2010Division 3