The North Eastern Conference is a high school athletic conference based in northeastern Wisconsin. Founded in 2015, the conference and its member schools are affiliated with the Wisconsin Interscholastic Athletic Association.
History The North Eastern Conference was founded in 2015 by ten medium-sized high schools in northeastern Wisconsin. Half of the conference's membership roster came from the disbanded Eastern Valley Conference (Clintonville, Fox Valley Lutheran, Freedom, Little Chute and Waupaca), four members were formerly in the Bay Conference (Denmark, Luxemburg-Casco, Marinette and Oconto Falls) and Wrightstown joined after the Olympian Conference ceased operations. There were no changes to conference membership for its first ten seasons, until it was announced that Fox Valley Lutheran will be joining with larger schools in the Bay Conference for the 2025–26 school year.
Football-only alignment Football has been sponsored by the North Eastern Conference for its entire history, with nine of the original ten members participating. Waupaca belonged to the Bay Conference as an associate member for football when the North Eastern Conference was formed and has not competed in its football alignment to date. In February 2019, the WIAA and Wisconsin Football Coaches Association unveiled a comprehensive realignment plan for Wisconsin high school football, subject to realignment every two years. The North Eastern Conference's football alignment under this plan kept six member schools (Denmark, Freedom, Little Chute, Luxemburg-Casco, Marinette and Wrightstown) with Clintonville and Oconto Falls becoming members of the MONLPC Football Conference and Fox Valley Lutheran joining the Bay Conference. Menominee High School, located just across the Menominee River from Marinette in the upper peninsula of Michigan, joined as its seventh member. Kingsford High School in Michigan joined as an eighth member for the 2021 season, before the realignment of the 2022-2023 competition cycle placed them back into Michigan-based conferences. Marinette was moved to the Packerland Conference, and was replaced by full members Fox Valley Lutheran, who were previously football-only members in the Bay Conference. Since the North Eastern Conference was now down to six members for football, they entered into a double-crossover scheduling partnership with the Bay Conference, who also stood at six participants. In 2024, Fox Valley Lutheran made their return to the Bay Conference as a football member (before joining as full members in 2025), coupled with Sheboygan Falls and Two Rivers moving over from the Eastern Wisconsin Conference. With both conferences now standing at seven members, the scheduling alliance with the Bay Conference continued as a mandatory single-crossover game for each school. For the 2026-2027 realignment cycle, Two Rivers will be exiting to rejoin the Eastern Wisconsin, exchanging affiliations with the Kohler/Sheboygan Christian/Sheboygan Lutheran football cooperative.
List of conference members
Current full members SchoolLocationAffiliationEnrollmentMascotColorsJoinedClintonvilleClintonville, WIPublic387Truckers 2015DenmarkDenmark, WIPublic491Vikings 2015FreedomFreedom, WIPublic495Irish 2015Little ChuteLittle Chute, WIPublic478Mustangs 2015Luxemburg-CascoLuxemburg, WIPublic664Spartans 2015MarinetteMarinette, WIPublic576Marines 2015Oconto FallsOconto Falls, WIPublic500Panthers 2015WaupacaWaupaca, WIPublic635Comets 2015WrightstownWrightstown, WIPublic426Tigers 2015
Current associate members SchoolLocationAffiliationMascotColorsPrimary ConferenceSport(s)KohlerKohler, WIPublicBlue Bombers Big EastFootballSheboygan FallsSheboygan Falls, WIPublicFalcons Eastern WisconsinFootball
Notes
Former full members SchoolLocationAffiliationMascotColorsJoinedLeftConference JoinedCurrent ConferenceFox Valley LutheranAppleton, WIPrivate (Lutheran, WELS)Foxes 20152025Bay
Former football-only members SchoolLocationAffiliationMascotColorsSeasonsPrimary ConferenceKingsfordKingsford, MIPublicFlivvers 2021Great Northern U.P.MenomineeMenominee, MIPublicMaroons 2020-2021Great Northern U.P.Two RiversTwo Rivers, WIPublicPurple Raiders 2024-2025Eastern Wisconsin
Membership timeline
Full members
Football members
Membership map
Sponsored sports +Clintonville●●●●●●●●●●●●●●Denmark●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●Freedom●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●Little Chute●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●Luxemburg-Casco●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●Marinette●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●Oconto Falls●●●●●●●●●●●●●Waupaca●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●Wrightstown●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●
List of state champions
Fall sports +Girls Cross CountrySchoolYearDivisionFreedom2017Division 2 +Girls VolleyballSchoolYearDivisionLuxemburg-Casco2019Division 2Luxemburg-Casco2020Division 2Luxemburg-Casco2021Division 2
Winter sports +Boys WrestlingSchoolYearDivisionLuxemburg-Casco2018Division 2Freedom2019Division 2Wrightstown2020Division 2Luxemburg-Casco2023Division 2Luxemburg-Casco2024Division 2
Spring sports +BaseballSchoolYearDivisionWaupaca2016Division 2Denmark2021Division 2Denmark2022Division 2Denmark2023Division 3 +SoftballSchoolYearDivisionFreedom2022Division 2Freedom2023Division 2 +Boys Track & FieldSchoolYearDivisionFreedom2016Division 2Freedom2019Division 2 +Girls Track & FieldSchoolYearDivisionFreedom2021Division 2Freedom2024Division 2
List of conference champions
Boys Basketball SchoolQuantityYearsWrightstown52016, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021Freedom42019, 2021, 2025, 2026Fox Valley Lutheran32022, 2023, 2024Luxemburg-Casco22016, 2017Denmark12019Little Chute12023Clintonville0Marinette0Oconto Falls0Waupaca0
Girls Basketball SchoolQuantityYearsFreedom62016, 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022, 2023Wrightstown42017, 2018, 2019, 2020Marinette22024, 2025Denmark12026Luxemburg-Casco12019Clintonville0Fox Valley Lutheran0Little Chute0Oconto Falls0Waupaca0
Football SchoolQuantityYearsFreedom42015, 2019, 2020, 2024Little Chute32018, 2022, 2025Luxemburg-Casco32016, 2021, 2023Wrightstown12017Clintonville0Denmark0Fox Valley Lutheran0Kingsford (MI)0KLC Football0Marinette0Menominee (MI)0Oconto Falls0Sheboygan Falls0Two Rivers0
External links
North Eastern Conference (official website)
References