The Little Okaw Valley Conference is a high school conference in central Illinois, in the United States. The conference participates in athletics and activities in the Illinois High School Association. The conference comprises five small public high schools with enrollments between 80 and 270 students in Coles, Champaign, Douglas, Moultrie, and Piatt counties.

History Also known as the LOVC, the Little Okaw Valley Conference was founded in 1970 with schools from Arthur, Atwood, Bement, Cerro Gordo, Hammond, Homer, Newman, Oakland, and Villa Grove, Illinois.

Seven of the eight charter members were small schools from the Okaw Valley Conference and they included: Arthur, Atwood-Hammond,Atwood High SchoolHammond High School Bement, Cerro Gordo, Newman,Newman High School Oakland, and Villa Grove High Schools. Additionally, the league included a school from the East Central Conference, Homer High School.Homer High School

As the conference moved through the 1970s the number of teams remained the same, however, after the 1980 school year, Homer, Newman and Oakland would leave for the newly formed East Okaw Conference. However, Arcola and Lovington would join that same year.

The conference would include only six schools for the remainder of the 1980s with the next change occurring in 1994 as Atwood-Hammond and Bement would join forces as the South Piatt Coop during the football season, however, they would compete as individual schools for all other sports. Additionally that same year, Tuscola would join the league from the now defunct Meridian Conference. This, however, gave the league an odd number for all other sports beyond football.

Two years later, in 1996, the conference expanded with the addition of Broadlands Heritage, Hume Shiloh, IlliopolisIlliopolis High School Niantic-HarristownNiantic-Harristown and the return of Oakland High School. This would put the league at 12 schools for all sports except football where there were 11 teams. The number of football teams were reduced for the 1997 season when Heritage and Shiloh began a football coop known as East Central. The league would stay nearly the same as the 1990s came to a close.

As the 2000s began, the league remained stable with very few changes. BethanyBethany High School and Findlay High SchoolsFindlay High School consolidated into Okaw ValleyOkaw Valley High School and joined the league in 2001, the same year the Meridian Conference would cease to exist. In 2004, the high schools from Niantic-Harristown and Illiopolis consolidated, becoming Sangamon Valley High School. This again reduced the number of schools competing in the conference. However, the conference was not done growing and by 2006 the list of schools included 12 teams: Arcola, Arthur, Atwood-Hammond, Bement, Cerro Gordo, Heritage, Hume Shiloh, Lovington, Okaw Valley, Sangamon Valley, Tuscola, and Villa Grove.LOVC Standings (2006-2014) However, this would be the final year for Tuscola, they would leave for the Okaw Valley Conference at the end of the 2006–07 school year. In 2009, Martinsville,Martinsville High School joined the league, increasing the number of schools to 13. The conference would remain status quo until 2014 where an expansion would take place as nine schools would leave the Okaw Valley Conference.

Argenta-Oreana, Decatur LSA, Hutsonville/Palestine (coop), Oblong, and Toledo Cumberland would join in 2014. This increase in schools created a two division football conference prior to the 2016 season. Those divisions were the Northwest and Southeast. The Northeast included: Arcola, Argenta-Oreana, Arthur-Lovington-Atwood-Hammond, Cerro Gordo-Bement, Decatur LSA, and Sangamon Valley. The Southeast included: Cumberland, Martinsville, Oblong, Palestine-Hutsonville, Tri-County, and Villa Grove.Digital Scout In 2018, another new member would join the LOVC, Blue Ridge High School.

Unfortunately, even before Blue Ridge joined the league, an uprising had begun based on the distance required to travel between schools as well as maintaining a closed football conference. Because of situation, in December 2017, 15 of the conference schools announced their intention to leave the LOVC. These schools were moving to a new conference, the Lincoln Prairie. The only schools not moving to the new league were Martinsville, Hutsonville, Palestine and Oblong.

The most recent school to join the conference is Bridgeport Red Hill High School. As of 2023, the conference maintains five high schools: Bridgeport Red Hill, Hutsonville, Oblong, Palestine, and Martinsville.IHSA.org Conference Affiliated Schools None of the current schools are charter members.

Member schools

School Location Mascot Colors Enrollment IHSA Classes 1/2/3/4 IHSA Football Class IHSA FootballType Coop/Team AffiliatedConference Red HillRed Hill High School Bridgeport, IL Salukis Red, White, Blue 264 A/1A/1A 1A 11-Man NoMidland Trail HutsonvilleHutsonville High School Hutsonville, IL TigersLady Tigers Orange, Black 105 A/1A/1A 2A 11-man Oblong (Host)Palestine None OblongOblong High School Oblong, IL PanthersLady Panthers Royal Blue, Gold 180 A/1A/1A 2A 11-Man HutsonvillePalestine None PalestineIllini Palestine High School Palestine, IL Pioneers Royal Blue, White 79 A/1A/1A 2A 11-Man Oblong (Host)Hutsonville None MartinsvilleMartinsville High School Martinsville, IL Blue Streaks Blue, White 100 A/1A/1A NA 8-Man No None

Previous Members

School Location Mascot Colors YearJoined YearDeparted ConferenceJoined CurrentConference ConsolidatedSchools Current High School Arthur Arthur, IL Knights Red, White 1970 2012 NA Lincoln Prairie Lovington(2012) ALAH Atwood-HammondAtwood-Hammond High School Atwood, IL RajahsRajenes Black, Gold 1970 2014 NA Lincoln Prairie Arthur-Lovington(2014) ALAH BementBement High School Bement, IL BulldogsLady Bulldogs Purple, White 1970 2019 Lincoln Prairie Lincoln Prairie No NA Cerro GordoCerro Gordo High School Cerro Gordo, IL Broncos Blue, Orange 1970 2019 Lincoln Prairie Lincoln Prairie No NA Homer Homer, IL Panthers Maroon, Gold 1970 1980 East Okaw School Closed (1988) Broadlands ABLBroadlands ABL High School(1989) Heritage Newman Newman, IL Redskins Red, White 1970 1980 East Okaw School Closed (1994) Hume Shiloh(1994) Shiloh OaklandOakland High School Oakland, IL TitansLady Titans Purple, Orange 19701996 19802019 East Okaw Lincoln Prairie No NA Villa GroveVilla Grove High School Villa Grove, IL Blue Devils Blue, Gold 1970 2019 Lincoln Prairie Lincoln Prairie No NA ArcolaArcola High School Arcola, IL Purple RidersLady Riders Purple, White 1980 2019 Lincoln Prairie Lincoln Prairie No NA LovingtonLovington High School Lovington, IL Panthers Purple, Gold 1980 2012 NA Lincoln Prairie Arthur(2012) ALAH TuscolaTuscola High School Tuscola, IL WarriorsLady Warriors Black, Gold 1994 2007 Okaw Valley Central Illinois No NA HeritageHeritage High School Broadlands, IL Hawks Navy Blue, Silver 1996 2019 Lincoln Prairie Lincoln Prairie No NA Shiloh Hume, IL TitansLady Titans Blue, Orange, Purple 1996 2019 Lincoln Prairie Lincoln Prairie No NA Illiopolis Illiopolis, IL Pirates Red, Black 1996 2004 NA Lincoln Prairie Niantic-Harristown(2004) Sangamon Valley Niantic-HarristownNiantic-Harristown High School Harristown, IL Indians Purple, Yellow 1996 2004 NA Lincoln Prairie Illiopolis(2004) Sangamon Valley Okaw ValleyOkaw Valley High School Bethany, IL Timberwolves Blue, Silver, Black 2001 2019 Lincoln Prairie Lincoln Prairie No NA Sangamon ValleySangamon Valley High School Niantic, IL Storm Navy Blue, Silver, Columbia Blue 2004 2019 Lincoln Prairie Lincoln Prairie No NA Arthur-Lovington Arthur, IL Knights Red, White 2012 2014 NA Lincoln Prairie Atwood-Hammond(2014) ALAH Argenta-OreanaArgenta-Oreana High School Argenta, IL Bombers Orange, Royal Blue 2014 2019 Lincoln Prairie Lincoln Prairie No NA Unity ChristianDecatur Lutheran Association High School Decatur, IL LionsLady Lions Red, White, Black 2014 2019 Lincoln Prairie Lincoln Prairie No NA CumberlandCumberland High School Toledo, IL PiratesLady Pirates Columbia Blue, Gold, White 2014 2019 Lincoln Prairie Lincoln Prairie No NA ALAHArthur-Lovington-Atwood-Hammond High School Arthur, IL Knights Red, Black, Vegas Gold 2014 2019 Lincoln Prairie Lincoln Prairie No NA Blue RidgeBlue Ridge High School Farmer City, IL KnightsLady Knights Royal Blue, Silver 2018 2019 Lincoln Prairie Lincoln Prairie No NA

Sources:IHSA Conferences, and IHSA Member Schools Directory

Membership timeline

References