The Minnesota River Conference is a Minnesota high school sports conference that serves mainly the Southwestern Suburbs of the Twin Cities. Mayer Lutheran is furthest north while Tri-City United is furthest south.
The conference was formed in the late 1950s. In the 1960s and for most of the 70s, teams in the conference were Arlington-Green Isle, Belle Plaine, Jordan, Le Center, Le Sueur, Montgomery, New Prague and Norwood-Young America. New Prague left the conference beginning with the 1979-80 school year as it had grown much quicker than the other schools. Mankato Loyola replaced New Prague. For the years 1986 through 1989 Henderson High School was paired with Arlington-Green Isle, forming the Sibley East Bengals. In 1990, Henderson paired with Le Sueur, forming what was to become officially in 1992 as the Le Sueur-Henderson School District. Later, Arlington-Green Isle merged with Gaylord and became Sibley East in 1995.[1] As the other schools got larger, Mankato Loyola and Le Center had stagnate enrollment. In 2002, Mankato Loyola left and was replaced by Mayer Lutheran. The following year saw Le Center leave and was replaced by Holy Family Catholic. In 2011, Holy Family Catholic left and was replaced with Watertown-Mayer. Beginning with the 2012-2013 school year, Montgomery-Lonsdale consolidated with former conference member Le Center and became Tri-City United. In 2015, Watertown_Mayer left and returned to the Wright County Conference. In the 2018–19 school year, the Minnesota River Conference gained Southwest Christian High School, who previously competed in the Minnesota Christian Athletic Association. SWC left after the 2020-21 school year. At the conclusion of the 2019-2020 school year, Jordan left the conference. Lester Prairie joined beginning in the 2021-22 school year.
Colors = id:barcolor id:line value:black id:bg value:white
PlotData= width:20 textcolor:black shift:(5,-5) anchor:from fontsize:m
bar:1 color:powderblue from:1959 till:end text:Arlington-Green Isle / Sibley East (1959 - Present) bar:2 color:powderblue from:1959 till:end text:Belle Plaine (1959 - Present) bar:3 color:powderblue from:1959 till:2020 text:Jordan (1959 - 2020) bar:4 color:powderblue from:1959 till:2003 text:Le Center (1959 - 2003) bar:5 color:powderblue from:1959 till:end text:Le Sueur / Le Sueur-Henderson (1959 - Present) bar:6 color:powderblue from:1959 till:end text:Montgomery-Lonsdale / Tri-City United (1959 - Present) bar:7 color:yellow from:1959 till:1979 text:New Prague (1959 - 1979) bar:8 color:powderblue from:1960 till:end text:Norwood Young America (1960 - Present) bar:9 color:powderblue from:1979 till:2002 text:Mankato Loyola Catholic School (1979 - 2002) bar:10 color:powderblue from:2002 till:end text:Mayer Lutheran (2002 - Present) bar:11 color:powderblue from:2003 till:2011 text:Holy Family Catholic (2003 - 2011) bar:12 color:powderblue from:2011 till:2015 text:Watertown-Mayer (2011 - 2015) bar:13 color:orange from:2018 till:2021 text:Southwest Christian School (2018 - Present)ScaleMajor = gridcolor:line unit:year increment:10 start:1959
TextData = fontsize:L textcolor:black pos:(370,30) # tabs:(0-center) text:"Minnesota River Conference Membership History"
The Minnesota River Conference has had success on the big stage when competing in State Tournaments. Member Schools have won numerous State Championships throughout the years. The following is a list of Schools along with their respected State Championships:[2] [3] [4]
This list goes from 1959 through the 2014 season and includes former members, previous cooperatives and present members and lists all-time conference records, overall conference winning percentages, total football conference championships and either if they were solo or co championships and state championships. In 2015, the Minnesota State High School League created football districts instead of conferences.
Minnesota River Conference | Records | Pct. | MRC Championships | Solo | co-champions | State Champions | ||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | Tri-City United Titans (2012–Present) | 16-5-0 | .762 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | |
2 | Watertown-Mayer Royals (2011–Present) | 21-7-0 | .750 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 0 | |
3 | Le Sueur Giants (1959-1989) | 152-58-6 | .718 | 10 | 5 | 5 | 0 | |
4 | Holy Family Catholic School Fire (2003-2010) | 40-16-0 | .714 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | |
5 | Le Sueur-Henderson Giants (1990–Present) | 116-59-0 | .663 | 8 | 6 | 2 | 0 | |
6 | Le Center Wildcats (1959-2002) | 201-102-4 | .661 | 9 | 6 | 3 | 1 | |
7 | New Prague Trojans (1959-1978) | 88-45-6 | .655 | 6 | 4 | 2 | 2 | |
8 | Mankato Loyola Catholic School Crusaders (1979-2001) | 89-72-0 | .553 | 5 | 3 | 2 | 0 | |
9 | Belle Plaine Tigers (1959–Present) | 195-193-3 | .499 | 10 | 6 | 4 | 0 | |
10 | Sibley East Wolverines (1990–Present) | 87-88-0 | .497 | 3 | 1 | 2 | 0 | |
11 | Mayer Lutheran Crusaders (2002–Present) | 44-47-0 | .484 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | |
12 | Sibley East Bengals (1986-1989) | 13-15-0 | .464 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | |
13 | Jordan Hubmen (1959–Present) | 158-230-2 | .405 | 5 | 2 | 3 | 1 | |
14 | Montgomery-Lonsdale Redbirds (1959-2011) | 142-226-1 | .386 | 6 | 4 | 2 | 0 | |
15 | Arlington-Green Isle (1959-1985) | 61-122-4 | .337 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | |
16 | Norwood Young America Central Raiders (1960–Present) | 118-265-8 | .302 | 3 | 3 | 0 | 0 |
The following table lists the years when the different school members won the conference in terms of football.
School | Years | |
---|---|---|
Belle Plaine | 1970, 1978, 1979, 1980, 1992, 1993, 1996, 1998, 2009, 2013 | |
Le Sueur | 1960, 1961, 1962, 1967, 1968, 1972, 1977, 1978, 1985, 1987 | |
Le Center | 1963, 1964, 1968, 1969, 1982, 1986, 1994, 1999, 2000 | |
Le Sueur-Henderson | 1992, 1995, 1996, 2002, 2004, 2005, 2007, 2008 | |
Montgomery-Lonsdale | 1965, 1966, 1972, 1976, 1981, 1983 | |
New Prague | 1959, 1960, 1961, 1973, 1974, 1975 | |
Jordan | 1980, 1983, 1984, 1991, 2006 | |
Mankato Loyola Catholic School | 1986, 1988, 1989, 1990, 2000 | |
Norwood Young America Central | 2001, 2003, 2011 | |
Sibley East | 1991, 1997, 2012 | |
Watertown-Mayer | 2013, 2014 | |
Arlington-Green Isle | 1971 | |
Holy Family Catholic | 2010 | |
Mayer Lutheran | 2012 | |
Tri-City United | 2013 |