Packerland Conference


The Packerland Conference is an athletic conference of high schools located in northeastern Wisconsin. Formed in 1970, the conference and its member schools are affiliated with the Wisconsin Interscholastic Athletic Association.

History

1970-1979

The Packerland Conference was founded in 1970 by ten small- to medium-sized high schools in northeastern Wisconsin. It started with a group informally referred to in the local media as the "Nuclear Five", which were the odd schools out during the flurry of conference realignment that took place in the region. Three Nuclear Five schools were former members of the Northeastern Wisconsin Conference and two schools previously belonged to the Peninsula Conference, both of which ceased operations after the previous season. After an unsuccessful attempt to join the Bay Conference as a group, the Nuclear Five joined with five schools that were displaced by the ending of the Eastern Wisconsin Conference to form the original roster of the Packerland Conference. Due to the large geographic footprint of its member schools, the conference was partitioned into Northern and Southern Divisions for most sports:
Northern DivisionSouthern Division
AlgomaChilton
KewauneeKiel
Luxemburg-CascoNew Holstein
Southern DoorPlymouth
Sturgeon BaySheboygan Falls

1979-2007

In 1979, the five schools of the Southern Division, along with Two Rivers from the Fox Valley Association and Valders from the Olympian Conference, left the Packerland Conference to reform the Eastern Wisconsin Conference. Gibraltar and Sevastopol, two Door County high schools left without affiliation after the collapse of the Bay-Lakes Conference, replaced the five outgoing schools and the conference ended divisional play. The two Door County schools would not be members of the Packerland for football, however. They traded affiliations with Denmark and Mishicot of the Olympian Conference for five seasons before returning as a cooperative program in 1984. That same year, the conference expanded to nine schools when Oconto and Oconto Falls joined after leaving the Central Wisconsin Conference. Membership in the Packerland Conference remained stable for the next fifteen years before Oconto Falls left to become charter members of the Valley 8 Conference in 1999. Replacing them were former Olympian Conference members Denmark and Northeastern Wisconsin Lutheran, formerly of the Midwest Classic Conference.

2007-present

In 2007, Denmark and Luxemburg-Casco exited the Packerland Conference for membership in the new Eastern Valley Conference. The conference also entered into a partnership with the Olympian Conference to create the new Olympian-Packerland Conference for football. This arrangement ended when the Olympian was dissolved after the 2014-2015 school year, and the Packerland returned to football sponsorship with five members. The Packerland Conference would continue with eight schools for ten years until Peshtigo left the Marinette & Oconto Conference to join in 2017, bringing the roster to its current total of nine schools. Football sponsorship was also ended that year, as the Packerland entered into a conglomeration with the Marinette & Oconto and Northern Lakes Conferences, forming the Marinette & Oconto-Northern Lakes-Packerland Conference.

Football (since 2020)

In February 2019, the WIAA and the Wisconsin Football Coaches Association released a sweeping football-only realignment for Wisconsin to start in 2020 with a two-year competition period between realignments. As part of this, the MONLPC Football Conference's two 11-player divisions were dissolved and the Packerland Conference was reinstated for football. Full members Kewaunee, Oconto, Peshtigo, Southern Door and Sturgeon Bay were part of the initial lineup, along with schools from the Big East Conference, the Central Wisconsin Conference, and the North Eastern Conference. Two years later, Clintonville left to join the Northwoods Football Conference with Marinette moving over from the North Eastern Conference as their replacement. This alignment remained in place through the 2024-2025 competition cycle. For the 2026-2027 cycle, Mishicot is slated to join their primary home in the Big East Conference with Oconto Falls leaving the Northwoods Football Conference to keep membership at eight schools.

List of conference members

Current full members

Current associate members

Future football-only members

Former members

Former football-only members

Membership timeline

Full members


DateFormat = yyyy
ImageSize = width:900 height:auto barincrement:20
Period = from:1970 till:2030
TimeAxis = orientation:horizontal
PlotArea = right:60 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:blue from:1970 till:1979 text:Algoma
bar:1 color:tan1 from:1979 till:2030 text:
bar:2 color:skyblue from:1970 till:1979 text:Chilton
bar:3 color:blue from:1970 till:1979 text:Kewaunee
bar:3 color:tan1 from:1979 till:2030 text:
bar:4 color:skyblue from:1970 till:1979 text:Kiel
bar:5 color:blue from:1970 till:1979 text:Luxemburg-Casco
bar:5 color:tan1 from:1979 till:2007 text:
bar:6 color:skyblue from:1970 till:1979 text:New Holstein
bar:7 color:skyblue from:1970 till:1979 text:Plymouth
bar:8 color:skyblue from:1970 till:1979 text:Sheboygan Falls
bar:9 color:blue from:1970 till:1979 text:Southern Door
bar:9 color:tan1 from:1979 till:2030 text:
bar:10 color:blue from:1970 till:1979 text:Sturgeon Bay
bar:10 color:tan1 from:1979 till:2030 text:
bar:11 color:tan1 from:1979 till:2030 text:Gibraltar
bar:12 color:tan1 from:1979 till:2030 text:Sevastopol
bar:13 color:tan1 from:1984 till:2030 text:Oconto
bar:14 color:tan1 from:1984 till:1999 text:Oconto Falls
bar:15 color:tan1 from:1999 till:2007 text:Denmark
bar:16 color:tan1 from:1999 till:2030 text:N.E.W. Lutheran
bar:17 color:tan1 from:2017 till:2030 text:Peshtigo

ScaleMajor = gridcolor:line unit:year increment:5 start:1970

Football members


DateFormat = yyyy
ImageSize = width:900 height:auto barincrement:20
Period = from:1970 till:2030
TimeAxis = orientation:horizontal
PlotArea = right:60 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:1970 till:2007 text:Algoma
bar:1 color:lavender from:2015 till:2017 text:
bar:2 color:lavender from:1970 till:1979 text:Chilton
bar:3 color:lavender from:1970 till:2007 text:Kewaunee
bar:3 color:lavender from:2015 till:2017 text:
bar:3 color:lavender from:2020 till:2030 text:
bar:4 color:lavender from:1970 till:1979 text:Kiel
bar:5 color:lavender from:1970 till:2007 text:Luxemburg-Casco
bar:6 color:lavender from:1970 till:1979 text:New Holstein
bar:7 color:lavender from:1970 till:1979 text:Plymouth
bar:8 color:lavender from:1970 till:1979 text:Sheboygan Falls
bar:9 color:lavender from:1970 till:2007 text:Southern Door
bar:9 color:lavender from:2015 till:2017 text:
bar:9 color:lavender from:2020 till:2030 text:
bar:10 color:lavender from:1970 till:2007 text:Sturgeon Bay
bar:10 color:lavender from:2015 till:2017 text:
bar:10 color:lavender from:2020 till:2030 text:
bar:11 color:lavender from:1979 till:1984 text:Denmark
bar:11 color:lavender from:1999 till:2007 text:
bar:12 color:lavender from:1979 till:1984 text:Mishicot
bar:12 color:lavender from:2020 till:2026 text:
bar:13 color:lavender from:1984 till:2007 text:Oconto
bar:13 color:lavender from:2015 till:2017 text:
bar:13 color:lavender from:2020 till:2030 text:
bar:14 color:lavender from:1984 till:1999 text:Oconto Falls
bar:14 color:lavender from:2026 till:2030 text:
bar:15 color:lavender from:1984 till:2005 text:Sevastopol/Gibraltar
bar:16 color:lavender from:2005 till:2006 text:Sevastopol
bar:17 color:lavender from:2020 till:2030 text:Bonduel
bar:18 color:lavender from:2020 till:2022 text:Clintonville
bar:19 color:lavender from:2020 till:2030 text:Peshtigo
bar:20 color:lavender from:2022 till:2030 text:Marinette
ScaleMajor = gridcolor:line unit:year increment:5 start:1970

Membership map

Sanctioned sports

List of state champions

Fall sports

SchoolYearDivision
Luxemburg-Casco1982Class B
Luxemburg-Casco1987Class B
Luxemburg-Casco1989Class B
Gibraltar1994Division 3
Gibraltar1995Division 3
Luxemburg-Casco1998Division 2
Luxemburg-Casco2000Division 3
Sevastopol2006Division 3

SchoolYearDivision
Sturgeon Bay2015Division 4
Sturgeon Bay2019Division 4

SchoolYearDivision
Sevastopol1984Class C
Sevastopol1991Division 3

Winter sports

SchoolYearDivision
Algoma1981Class B
Algoma1986Class C
Luxemburg-Casco1988Class B
Luxemburg-Casco1994Division 2
Luxemburg-Casco2004Division 2
Kewaunee2012Division 3
Algoma2013Division 4
Kewaunee2013Division 3

SchoolYearDivision
Luxemburg-Casco1992Division 2
Luxemburg-Casco1994Division 2
Luxemburg-Casco1996Division 2
Luxemburg-Casco1999Division 2
Luxemburg-Casco2001Division 2
Luxemburg-Casco2002Division 2
Luxemburg-Casco2003Division 2
Luxemburg-Casco2005Division 2
Luxemburg-Casco2006Division 2