The South Shore Conference is a former high school athletic conference in Wisconsin, operating from 1970 to 1980 with its membership concentrated in Racine and Kenosha.

History

Prior to the creation of the South Shore Conference, the public high schools in Racine and Kenosha were part of the Big Eight, a conference of large high schools in southern Wisconsin that also included schools from Madison, Janesville and Beloit. As new schools were added to districts due to population growth, membership had experienced a net increase to twelve by the end of the 1960s. Tensions increased between the Madison-area schools and those in southeastern Wisconsin, and the South Shore Conference was formed in 1970 after the five schools in Racine and Kenosha were forced out by the rest of the Big Eight members. This was a move that was met with some opposition by the WIAA since a five-team conference was widely seen as inadequately sized. After several years of attempting to merge the South Shore Conference with several large conferences in southern Wisconsin (including a failed attempt to create a cross-border league with high schools in northern Illinois), the conference was dissolved in 1980. The five schools were spread out over four existing conferences before reconstituting as the Big Nine Conference (along with four high schools on the south side of Milwaukee) in 1985.

Conference membership history SchoolLocationAffiliationMascotColorsJoinedLeftConference JoinedCurrent ConferenceKenosha BradfordKenosha, WIPublicRed Devils 19701980BravelandSoutheastKenosha TremperKenosha, WIPublicTrojans 19701980Milwaukee AreaSoutheastRacine CaseRacine, WIPublicEagles 19701980ParklandSoutheastRacine HorlickRacine, WIPublicRebels 19701980SuburbanSoutheastRacine ParkRacine, WIPublicPanthers 19701980Milwaukee AreaSoutheast

Membership timeline

List of state champions

Fall sports +Boys Cross CountrySchoolYearDivision Kenosha Tremper1971Large Schools Racine Case1973Class A Racine Case1975Class A +Girls Cross CountrySchoolYearDivision Racine Case1979Class A +FootballSchoolYearDivision Kenosha Tremper1979Division 1 +Boys GolfSchoolYear Racine Case1974 Racine Case1975

Winter sports None

Spring sports +Boys GolfSchoolYearDivision Racine Park1973Single Division +Boys Track & FieldSchoolYearDivision Racine Park1974Class A +Girls Track & FieldSchoolYearDivision Racine Park1978Class A

List of conference champions Boys Basketball SchoolQuantityYears Kenosha Bradford31973, 1974, 1979 Racine Case31971, 1977, 1978 Racine Horlick21975, 1980 Racine Park21972, 1976 Kenosha Tremper0

Girls Basketball SchoolQuantityYears Racine Horlick11980 Racine Park11979 Kenosha Bradford0 Kenosha Tremper0 Racine Case0

Football SchoolQuantityYears Kenosha Tremper51970, 1971, 1973, 1977, 1979 Racine Horlick51972, 1975, 1976, 1977, 1978 Racine Case31974, 1977, 1978 Kenosha Bradford0 Racine Park0

References