WCHS Conference Changes

High school sports are fun, educational, exciting, and, for many students, a considerable part of their secondary school experience.  Sports can sometimes tie a community together.  Behind the scenes, however, the scheduling and logistics of running a high school athletics program can be a headache.  One of the biggest headaches occurs when conference affiliation changes happen.  So many variables go into deciding whether to switch conferences or not.  When historically examining the conference changes a school has made, one cannot just look at that school.  One must look at what is happening in the whole conference, and sometimes other conferences, because these changes can and often do cause a domino effect. What follows is a narrative describing the motivations for Washington to go from the Corn Belt to the Heart of Illinois to the Mid State Ten to the Mid Illini in approximately ten years. 

CORN BELT TO HEART OF ILLINOIS

In 1970, Washington was a part of the Corn Belt Conference.  Affiliated schools besides Washington were Normal High (Unit 5 had not split into two high schools then), Normal U-High, Pontiac, Clinton, Bloomington Central Catholic, and Decatur St. Teresa.  The first domino fell in December of 1969 when St. Teresa announced it was leaving the Corn Belt Conference.  With an enrollment of around 350, it was roughly a quarter of the size of Washington at that time.  St. Teresa planned to leave the conference and go independent.  Officials at St. Teresa pointed to low gate receipts due to distant conference opponents and their small enrollment as reasons for the change.

About a year later, in October 1970, Normal High School started exploring options for an exit from the conference for the opposite reason: they were too large.  With their enrollment pushing around 1,600, they were the largest school in the conference.  The conference that Normal was in discussions with, the Capitol Conference, had teams that more suited their enrollment (Champaign Centennial, Decatur Eisenhower, Decatur MacArthur, Jacksonville, Springfield Griffin, Springfield Lanphier, & Springfield Southeast).  Normal felt there would be stricter competition in the larger conference and the opportunity to compete in swimming and tennis.  At the same time Normal was exploring this option, there were rumors that Pontiac was looking to bolt the Corn Belt and head north to a conference centered around the Ottawa and LaSalle area.

With Normal and St. Teresa departing, the Corn Belt had just five teams.  A bright spot was the upcoming opening of Olympia High School, which had committed to the Corn Belt Conference.  Despite Olympia’s addition, it was clear that the waters were churning throughout the conference.  In December 1970, word of discussions about a merger between the Corn Belt and Illio conferences came out, first proposed by Chillicothe IVC Athletic Director George Taylor.

The Illio Conference consisted of Metamora, Tremont, Farmington, Chillicothe IVC, Morton, Eureka, and Monmouth.  Peoria Heights had just been admitted in October 1970 as an eighth member upon its opening for the 1971-1972 school year.  Another school involved in these merger discussions was Canton, who was participating as an independent at that time, without a conference.

Tremont of the Illio Conference was clear from the beginning that it had no interest in this merger, but all of the other schools were still listening at those first meetings, and two divisions had been drawn up in the initial draft.  The east division would include Eureka, Metamora, Pontiac, Clinton, U-High, Central Catholic, and Olympia.  The west division consisted of Canton, Peoria Heights, Chillicothe IVC, Washington, Morton, Farmington, and Monmouth.

Not long after these first meetings, Eureka removed themselves from talks of joining this merger.  Peoria Heights, Farmington, and Monmouth soon followed.

More meetings and discussions followed, and by May 1971, it was announced that the schools were officially forming a new conference to begin play during the 1972-73 school year in all sports except football, which would follow in 1973-74.  By October, new divisions were created.  The east would include Central Catholic, U-High, Pontiac, Clinton, and Olympia, and the west would have Washington, Canton, Metamora, Morton, and Chillicothe IVC.  The Corn Belt Conference would cease, and the Illio would be left with Tremont, Peoria Heights, Eureka, Farmington, and Monmouth.

Students from the member schools got to vote on the conference name.  Their choices were the Diamond Conference, the Premier Conference, the Constellation Conference, and the Heart of Illinois Conference.  In December of 1971, it was announced that the winning name was Heart of Illinois. 

HEART OF ILLINOIS TO THE MID-STATE TEN

The Heart of Illinois ran smoothly for four years.  By spring 1975, teams wanting to leave the conference began discussions.  A tremendous disparity in enrollments had only gotten worse since the conference started.  Washington was up to almost 1,700 students, while Central Catholic had less than 400.  Almost all the schools in the east division were smaller than those in the west division, and the east wanted to break off from the west.  Internally, Eureka was discussed multiple times as a potential addition to the east division, and Macomb was practically begging to be a member of the west division. Still, neither of those ideas could get enough votes for approval.  The 5-team Illio had broken up by this point, and Eureka was independent searching for a conference.  Macomb was also independent but was considered too far away to merit serious consideration.

With all this uncertainty in the Heart of Illinois, Washington found a new voice calling to them.  In the spring of 1975, there was a motion at the Mid-State Nine meeting in Peoria to extend an invitation to Washington to become the conference’s 10th member.  The Mid-State Nine consisted of the Peoria schools (Manual, Central, Woodruff, Spalding, Richwoods, and Bergan) and East Peoria, Limestone, and Pekin.  At a September 1976 WCHS school board meeting, it was unanimously approved that Washington apply for membership to the Mid-State Nine.

The problem from an optics standpoint was that Washington’s move toward another conference was made before any other Heart of Illinois schools made any such public move. It gave the impression that Washington was messing everything up in the Heart of Illinois when multiple schools left simultaneously.  This was evident two weeks after Washington’s application to the Mid-State Nine when the entire east division withdrew from the conference at their September 1976 meeting.  This left Metamora, Canton, IVC, and Morton as the only teams in the Heart of Illinois, although that conference would continue to exist until the end of the 1977-78 school year.

In September 1976, Washington was accepted by The Mid-State Nine, making it the Mid-State Ten.

MID-STATE TEN TO THE MID-ILLINI

Mid-State Ten play fully began during the 1978-79 school year.  Washington competed in both the Heart of Illinois and Mid-State Ten in some sports during the 1977-78 school year where the schedules would allow.

The first public inkling of any sign of trouble in the Mid-State Ten was in early 1981 when it came to light that East Peoria was doing internal research on their membership in the conference and whether it might be beneficial to look elsewhere.  The only reason given publicly was that East Peoria wanted to schedule more non-conference games, which was almost impossible due to the current conference landscape.

Behind the scenes, however, there was strife in the Mid-State-Ten meetings well before 1981.  Peoria schools seemed to vote together on everything, and there was a sense suburban schools were not treated equally.  Changes recommended by city schools were voted for and implemented, while suburban school recommendations were usually voted down.  This voting block was also apparent in the voting for all-conference teams.

Morton was also seeking admittance to the Mid-State Ten at that time.  If you add Morton, you must add a 12th team for scheduling purposes.  This would lead to divisions, something Washington just got out of in the Heart of Illinois.  Moreover, and very important to the story, it came to light that a few schools had been meeting somewhat informally in what one administrator called “Steak & Shake meetings” since at least 1980 to discuss the formation of a completely new conference.

The Mid-State Ten approved an expansion to 12 teams in February 1981 with two divisions.  The expansion was most likely approved because of the threat of the mystery new conference that was starting to get some press.  How those two divisions would be selected became controversial.  It was clear that the District 150 schools wanted the divisions to be determined by blind draw, which was eventually approved.  It was also clear that other schools had no interest in that, and some District 150 school administrators made criticisms of racism towards some of the suburban schools who did not favor a blind draw. 

As part of this expansion, the Mid-State Ten extended invitations to Morton, Canton, Bloomington, Galesburg, Metamora, Olympia, Normal, Lincoln, and IVC in March 1981 with an April 12 deadline.  None of those teams accepted the invitation.  Also, in April, Metamora withdrew from the Corn Belt conference.  It was reported around that time that Metamora, Olympia, Limestone, Morton, IVC, and Canton were going to form a new conference, with Washington and East Peoria giving the new conference strong consideration.  Olympia soon changed its mind and backed out, and later, Pekin was asked to attend meetings for the new conference for a short time.  Later that month, in April 1981, it was reported that Washington would leave the Mid-State Ten only if East Peoria or Limestone also left.

The final blow may have come from the Mid-State Ten itself.  At a District 150 school board meeting on April 20, 1981, School Superintendent Harry Whittaker said, as reported in the Peoria Journal Star: “As I understand it, there is a reluctance on specifically Limestone’s part to play the city schools…including Spalding and Bergan…Limestone officials, and possibly those from Washington and East Peoria, apparently believe their teams cannot win against District 150.”

The next day, Limestone voted for a new conference affiliation at their board meeting, with one board member specifically citing Whittaker’s comments as the reason for his vote.  Limestone’s exit from the Mid-State Ten also paved the way for Washington to get out.  East Peoria, however, was still noncommittal.  The Mid-Illini was formed over the next few months, and East Peoria finally sought membership in early 1982.  Mid-Illini play began during the 1982-83 school year with Washington, Metamora, Morton, IVC, Canton, and Limestone. East Peoria joined for the 1984-85 season.

In 1987, Spalding and Bergan were invited to join the Mid-Illini.  They declined.

Dunlap joined the conference starting in the 1998-99 season.

Pekin joined, and IVC left starting in the 2006-07 season.