The Midland Empire Conference (also called MEC) is a high school athletic conference whose members are located in northwest Missouri. The conference participates in the MSHSAA.
The conference was created during a March 1962 meeting at Armstrong's Restaurant in Maryville, Missouri and took effect in the 1962-63 school year. The original five schools were four schools from St. Joseph, Missouri (Benton, Christian Brothers (which would fold into LeBlond), and Lafayette) and two other schools from northwest Missouri (Maryville and Savannah). The arrangement created a league of schools of comparable size (the St. Joseph schools earlier competed in the Pony Express Conference which included the much larger St. Joseph Central High School as well as larger suburban Kansas City schools while Savannah and Maryville competed in the Northwest Missouri Conference with much smaller schools since 1937 .[1] [2]
Discussions of creating a conference of larger comparable sized schools in northwest Missouri had been discussed since at least 1925 but never quite materialized.[3]
In 2018, Smithville left the conference for the Suburban Kansas City Conference and was replaced by St. Pius X in Kansas City.
| School | Mascot | Colors | City | County | School Type | Year Joined | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Benton | Cardinals | St. Joseph | Buchanan | Public | 1962 | ||
| Bishop LeBlond | Golden Eagles | St. Joseph | Buchanan | Private | 1962 | ||
| Cameron | Dragons | Cameron | Clinton | Public | 1998 [4] | ||
| Chillicothe | Hornets | Chillicothe | Livingston | Public | 1985[5] | ||
| Lafayette | Fighting Irish | St. Joseph | Buchanan | Public | 1962 | ||
| Maryville | Spoofhounds | Maryville | Nodaway | Public | 1962 | ||
| Savannah | Savages | Savannah | Andrew | Public | 1962 | ||
| St. Pius X | Warriors | Kansas City | Clay | Private | 2018[6] |
Colors = id:barcolor value:rgb(0.99,0.7,0.7) id:line value:black id:bg value:white
id:FullxF value:rgb(0.551,0.824,0.677) # Use this color to denote a team that is a member in all sports id:Full value:rgb(0.742,0.727,0.852) # Use this color to denote a team that is a member in all sports except for football id:AssocF value:rgb(0.98,0.5,0.445) # Use this color to denote a team that is a member for football only id:AssocOS value:rgb(0.3,0.691,0.824) # Use this color to denote a team that is a member in some sports, but not all (consider identifying in legend or a footnote) id:OtherC1 value:rgb(0.996,0.996,0.699) # Use this color to denote a team that has moved to another conference id:OtherC2 value:rgb(0.988,0.703,0.383) # Use this color to denote a team that has moved to another conference where OtherC1 has already been used, to distinguish the two
PlotData=
width:15 textcolor:black shift:(5,-5) anchor:from fontsize:s
bar:1 color:FullxF from:1962 till:2027 text:[Benton] (1962–present) bar:2 color:FullxF from:1962 till:1987 text:[Bishop LeBlond] (1962–1987) bar:2 color:FullxF from:2012 till:2019 text:(2012–2019) bar:2 color:Full from:2019 till:2027 text:(2019–present)
bar:3 color:FullxF from:1998 till:2027 text:[Cameron] (1998–present)
bar:4 color:FullxF from:1985 till:2027 text:[Chillicothe] (1985–present)
bar:5 color:FullxF from:1962 till:2027 text:[Lafayette] (1962–present)
bar:6 color:FullxF from:1962 till:2027 text:[Maryville] (1962–present)
bar:7 color:FullxF from:1962 till:2027 text:[Savannah] (1962–present) bar:8 color:FullxF from:2018 till:2027 text:[St. Pius X] (2018–present)
bar:9 color:FullxF from:1998 till:2007 text:[Platte County] (1998–2007)
bar:10 color:FullxF from:1998 till:2018 text:[Smithville] (1998–2018)
ScaleMajor = gridcolor:line unit:year increment:5 start:1962TextData = fontsize:M textcolor:black pos:(0,30) tabs:(400-center) text:^"Midland Empire Conference Membership History"