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

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Location of Original Packerland Conference Members

The Packerland Conference was founded in 1970 by ten small- to medium-sized high schools in northeastern Wisconsin. It started with a five-school group informally referred to as the "Nuclear Five" (Algoma, Kewaunee, Luxemburg-Casco, Southern Door and Sturgeon Bay), which were the odd schools out during the flurry of conference realignment that took place in the region.^[1] Three Nuclear Five schools (Algoma, Kewaunee and Sturgeon Bay) were former members of the Northeastern Wisconsin Conference and two schools (Luxemburg-Casco and Southern Door) previously belonged to the Peninsula Conference, both of which ceased operations after the previous season.^[2] After an unsuccessful attempt to join the Bay Conference as a group,^[3] the Nuclear Five joined with five schools that were displaced by the ending of the Eastern Wisconsin Conference (Chilton, Kiel, New Holstein, Plymouth and Sheboygan Falls) to form the original roster of the Packerland Conference.^[4] Due to the large geographic footprint of its member schools, the conference was partitioned into Northern and Southern Divisions for most sports:

Northern Division	Southern Division
Algoma	Chilton
Kewaunee	Kiel
Luxemburg-Casco	New Holstein
Southern Door	Plymouth
Sturgeon Bay	Sheboygan Falls

1979-present

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.^[5] Gibraltar and Sevastopol, two Door County high schools left without affiliation after the collapse of the Bay-Lakes Conference,^[6] replaced the five outgoing schools and the conference ended divisional play. The conference expanded to nine schools in 1984 when Oconto and Oconto Falls joined after leaving the Central Wisconsin Conference.^[7] 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.^[8] Replacing them were former Olympian Conference members Denmark and Northeastern Wisconsin Lutheran, formerly of the Midwest Classic Conference.^[9][10] In 2007, Denmark and Luxemburg-Casco exited the Packerland Conference for membership in the new Eastern Valley Conference.^[11] The Packerland Conference would continue with eight schools for ten years until Peshtigo left the Marinette & Oconto Conference to join in 2017,^[12] bringing the roster to its current total of nine schools.

List of conference members

Current members

School[13]	Location	Affiliation	Enrollment	Mascot	Colors	Joined
Algoma	Algoma, WI	Public	219	Wolves		1970[4]
Gibraltar	Fish Creek, WI	Public	182	Vikings		1979[6]
Kewaunee	Kewaunee, WI	Public	298	Storm		1970[4]
N.E.W. Lutheran	Green Bay, WI	Private (Lutheran, WELS)	145	Blazers		1999[10]
Oconto	Oconto, WI	Public	282	Blue Devils		1984[7]
Peshtigo	Peshtigo, WI	Public	339	Bulldogs		2017[12]
Sevastopol	Sturgeon Bay, WI	Public	180	Pioneers		1979[6]
Southern Door	Brussels, WI	Public	323	Eagles		1970[4]
Sturgeon Bay	Sturgeon Bay, WI	Public	394	Clippers		1970[4]

Former members

School	Location	Affiliation	Enrollment	Mascot	Colors	Joined	Left	Conference Joined	Current Conference
Chilton	Chilton, WI	Public	401	Tigers		1970[4]	1979[5]	Eastern Wisconsin
Kiel	Kiel, WI	Public	453	Raiders		1970[4]	1979[5]	Eastern Wisconsin
Luxemburg-Casco	Luxemberg, WI	Public	610	Spartans		1970[4]	2007[11]	Bay	North Eastern
New Holstein	New Holstein, WI	Public	319	Huskies		1970[4]	1979[5]	Eastern Wisconsin
Plymouth	Plymouth, WI	Public	746	Panthers		1970[4]	1979[5]	Eastern Wisconsin	East Central
Sheboygan Falls	Sheboygan Falls, WI	Public	513	Falcons		1970[4]	1979[5]	Eastern Wisconsin
Oconto Falls	Oconto Falls, WI	Public	521	Panthers		1984[7]	1999[8]	Valley Eight	North Eastern
Denmark	Denmark, WI	Public	488	Vikings		1999[9]	2007[11]	Bay	North Eastern

Membership timeline

Membership map

Packerland Conference

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9

8

7

6

5

4

3

2

1

   

Location of Packerland Conference full members:

1

Algoma

2

Gibraltar

3

Kewaunee

4

N.E.W. Lutheran

5

Oconto

6

Peshtigo

7

Sevastopol

8

Southern Door

9

Sturgeon Bay

List of state champions

Fall sports

Boys Cross Country

School	Year	Division
Sturgeon Bay	2001	Division 2

Girls Cross Country

School	Year	Division
Luxemburg-Casco	1982	Class B
Luxemburg-Casco	1987	Class B
Luxemburg-Casco	1989	Class B
Gibraltar	1994	Division 3
Gibraltar	1995	Division 3
Luxemburg-Casco	1998	Division 2
Luxemburg-Casco	2000	Division 3
Sevastopol	2006	Division 3

Football

School	Year	Division
Plymouth	1976	Division 3
Plymouth	1978	Division 3
Southern Door	1989	Division 4
Oconto Falls	1997	Division 3
Sturgeon Bay	2004	Division 4
Kewaunee	2010	Division 4

Boys Soccer

School	Year	Division
Sturgeon Bay	2015	Division 4
Sturgeon Bay	2019	Division 4

Girls Swimming & Diving

School	Year	Division
Sturgeon Bay/Sevastopol	2009	Division 2

Girls Volleyball

School	Year	Division
Sevastopol	1984	Class C
Sevastopol	1991	Division 3

Winter sports

Boys Basketball

School	Year	Division
Sheboygan Falls	1974	Class B
Sheboygan Falls	1975	Class B

Girls Basketball

School	Year	Division
Algoma	1981	Class B
Algoma	1986	Class C
Luxemburg-Casco	1988	Class B
Luxemburg-Casco	1994	Division 2
Luxemburg-Casco	2004	Division 2
Kewaunee	2012	Division 3
Algoma	2013	Division 4
Kewaunee	2013	Division 3

Boys Swimming & Diving

School	Year	Division
Sturgeon Bay/Southern Door	2003	Division 2
Sturgeon Bay/Southern Door	2004	Division 2
Sturgeon Bay/Southern Door	2005	Division 2
Sturgeon Bay	2006	Division 2

Boys Wrestling

School	Year	Division
Luxemburg-Casco	1992	Division 2
Luxemburg-Casco	1994	Division 2
Luxemburg-Casco	1996	Division 2
Luxemburg-Casco	1999	Division 2
Luxemburg-Casco	2001	Division 2
Luxemburg-Casco	2002	Division 2
Luxemburg-Casco	2003	Division 2
Luxemburg-Casco	2005	Division 2
Luxemburg-Casco	2006	Division 2

Spring sports

Baseball

School	Year	Division
Algoma	1983	Class B
Sevastopol	1985	Class C
Sturgeon Bay	1991	Division 2
Oconto	2013	Division 3

Softball

School	Year	Division
Luxemburg-Casco	1982	Class B
Southern Door	1992	Division 2
Southern Door	1994	Division 2
Sevastopol	2007	Division 3
Sevastopol	2008	Division 3
Algoma	2013	Division 4

Boys Track & Field

School	Year	Division
Sheboygan Falls	1975	Class B
Southern Door	1993	Division 2

Girls Track & Field

School	Year	Division
Sturgeon Bay	1972	Class B
Algom	2017	Division 3

Summer sports

Baseball

School	Year
Sheboygan Falls	1973

Olympian-Packerland

For football the Packerland and Olympian conferences once combined forming a small and large division. During the 2011 football season changes were made as Brillion and Manitowoc Roncalli joined the Large Division. The Large Division has ten teams and the small has seven. This arrangement ended in 2015 when the Olympian ceased to exist.

Large Division

• Chilton
• Kewaunee
• Mishicot
• Oconto
• Southern Door
• Sturgeon Bay
• Valders
• Wrightstown
• Roncalli
• Brillion

Small Division

• Algoma
• Gibraltar
• Hilbert
• Manitowoc Lutheran
• Reedsville
• St. Mary Catholic
• Sevastopol

External links

• Packerland Conference (official website)