Mississippi Valley Conference (Illinois) Explained

Mississippi Valley Conference
Color:black
Font Color:white
Founded:1971
Conference:IHSA
Teams:6
Region:Metro-East region of southwestern Illinois (Jersey, Madison, Monroe, and St. Clair counties)

The Mississippi Valley Conference is a high school athletic league in the Metro-East region of southwestern Illinois. It has schools from the counties of Jersey, Madison, Monroe, and St. Clair. All of its members are class "AA" in Illinois' two-class and three-class systems and "AAA" in the four-class system.

Member schools

SchoolLocationMascotColorsCountyEnrollmentYear JoinedPrevious Conference
Civic Memorial High SchoolBethalto, IllinoisEaglesMadison7661971Midwestern
Highland High SchoolHighland, IllinoisBulldogsMadison9671971Midwestern
Jersey Community High SchoolJerseyville, IllinoisPanthersJersey8981971Independent
Mascoutah Community High SchoolMascoutah, IllinoisIndiansSt. Clair9661971Cahokia
Triad High SchoolTroy, IllinoisKnightsMadison1,15019711
1993
Midwestern
South Central
Waterloo High SchoolWaterloo, IllinoisBulldogsMonroe8381997Cahokia
  1. Triad left to become an Independent in 1978. They joined the SCC in 1985 prior to returning to the MVC.

Former members

SchoolLocationMascotColorsCountyEnrollmentYear JoinedPrevious ConferenceYear LeftConference Joined
East Alton-Wood River High SchoolWood River, IllinoisOilersMadison5271971Southwestern1997South Central
O'Fallon Township High SchoolO'Fallon, IllinoisPanthersSt. Clair2,4731971Cahokia1993South Seven
Roxana High SchoolRoxana, IllinoisShellsMadison5381971Midwestern1997South Central

History

The Mississippi Valley Conference was formed in 1971 and has been one of the most stable conferences in Illinois high school athletics. The MVC was initially formed by Civic Memorial, Highland, Jersey Community, Mascoutah, O’Fallon, Roxana, Triad, and East Alton-Wood River High Schools. Ironically, the name Mississippi Valley had been used 2 times previous with the first occurrence happening in 1922 with teams from Macomb, Carthage, Pittsfield and Quincy from Illinois and Fort Madison and Keokuk in Iowa. This incarnation of the conference only lasted one season.[1] In 1957, the name was resurrected with teams from East Moline, Moline and Rock Island from Illinois joining an Iowa conference by the same name that included teams from Cedar Rapids and Davenport Iowa. This league is still in operation today in Iowa, however, the three Illinois schools left at the end of the 1969 school year.[2]

While most conferences in Illinois have gone through many changes in membership, with some conferences expanding while others have disappeared over the years, the MVC has been a beacon of stability. O’Fallon withdrew in 1993 due to a significantly increasing student enrollment and joined the South Seven Conference and ultimately ended up as members of the Southwestern Conference. Triad left the MVC in 1979, but rejoined in 1993. Roxana and East Alton-Wood River withdrew from the Mississippi Valley in 1998 due to decreasing enrollment and joined the South Central Conference, where Roxana remains, while EAWR is now a member of the Prairie State Conference. Waterloo joined the MVC in 1998 to take the place of Roxana and East Alton-Wood River. The MVC currently has six schools, of which five are Charter members. During the 40+ year history of the league, there has only been three instances of schools entering or leaving the conference. This is remarkable stability and something of which the MVC and its member schools are extremely proud.

Membership timeline

DateFormat = yyyyImageSize = width:1125 height:auto barincrement:20Period = from:1971 till:2023TimeAxis = orientation:horizontalPlotArea = right:20 left:0 bottom:50 top:5 #> to display a count on left side of graph, use "left:20" to suppress the count, use "left:20"<#Colors = id:barcolor id:line value:green id:bg value:white id:Full value:rgb(0.742,0.727,0.852) # Use this color to denote a team that is a member in all sports id:FullxF value:rgb(0.551,0.824,0.777) # 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 full member in a football coop id:AssocOS value:rgb(0.78,0.391,0.654) # Use this color to denote a team that was a member of the Northwest 8 Conference id:OtherC1 value:rgb(0.996,0.996,0.699) # Use this color to denote a team that was a member of the NWIC id:OtherC2 value:rgb(0.988,0.703,0.383) # Use this color to denote a team that was a member of the Mid Northern Conference id:OtherC3 value:rgb(0.253,0.63,0.146) # Use this color to denote a team that was a member of the SHARK Conference

PlotData= width:15 textcolor:black shift:(5,-5) anchor:from fontsize:s

bar:1 color:Full from:1971 till:end text:Civic Memorial (1971-Present)

bar:2 color:Full from:1971 till:end text:Highland (1971-Present)

bar:3 color:Full from:1971 till:end text:Jersey Community (1971-Present)

bar:4 color:Full from:1971 till:end text:Mascoutah Community (1971-Present)

bar:5 color:Full from:1971 till:1993 text:O'Fallon Township (1971-1993) bar:5 color:white from:1993 till:end text:Left the conference for the South Seven Conference (1993)

bar:6 color:Full from:1971 till:1997 text:Roxana (1971-1997) bar:6 color:white from:1997 till:end text:Left the conference for the South Central Conference (1997)

bar:7 color:Full from:1971 till:1978 text:Triad (1971-1978) bar:7 color:white from:1978 till:1985 text:Independent (1978-1985) bar:7 color:OtherC1 from:1985 till:1993 text:South Central (1985-1993) bar:7 color:Full from:1993 till:end text:(1993-Present)

bar:8 color:Full from:1971 till:1997 text:Wood River (1971-1997) bar:8 color:white from:1997 till:end text:Left the conference for the South Central Conference (1997)

bar:9 color:Full from:1997 till:end text:Waterloo (1997-Present)

ScaleMajor = gridcolor:line unit:year increment:2 start:1971TextData =

fontsize:L

textcolor:black

pos:(0,30) tabs:(400-center)

text:^"Mississippi Valley Membership History"

  1. > If the chart uses more than one bar color, add a legend by selecting the appropriate fields from the following six options (use only the colors that are used in the graphic.) Leave a blank line after the end of the timeline, then add a line with the selected values from the list, separated by a space. <#

Sports

A listing of the sports and the seasons they are played in:Fall

Winter

Spring

In addition, schools compete in activities such as bass fishing, competitive cheerleading, competitive dance, and scholastic bowl - though none of those are organized at the conference level.

State Trophies

Bethalto (Civic Memorial)

Highland

Mascoutah

Troy (Triad)

Waterloo (H.S.)

All Conference Teams

Boys Basketball All Conference Teams
Player School YearTeam Position Misc.
Jaxon BrunaughJersey Junior1st Team Guard
Jake OttensmeierHighlandSenior 1st Team Guard
Garrin StoneHighland Junior1st Team
Jayden McCoo Mascoutah Junior 1st TeamGuard MVP
Miles NtekopMascoutah Senior 1st Team Center
Drew WinslowTriad Junior 1st Team
Braxdon Decker Highland2nd Team
Corey HarrisMascoutah Junior 2nd Team Guard
Ethan StewartTriadJunior 2nd Team Guard
Adam OgdenCivic MemorialJunior 2nd Team Guard
August FrankfordCivic MemorialJunior 2nd Team Forward
Francis Vogel Jersey Senior Honorable MentionGuard
Grant Fleming Highland JuniorHonorable MentionForward
Trey Koisher Highland Senior Honorable MentionGuard
Tyler Thompson Triad SophomoreHonorable MentionGuard
Landon Zawodniak Triad SeniorHonorable Mention
Jacob Jung Mascoutah SeniorHonorable MentionForward
Girls Basketball All Conference Teams
Player School YearTeam Position Misc.
Tessa Crawford Jersey Senior 1st Team Guard Co-MVP
Larissa Taylor Highland Senior 1st Team Center Co-MVP
Abby Schultz Highland Senior 1st Team
Lauren Maas Highland Senior 2nd Team
Jordan Bircher Highland Sophomore2nd Team
Meredith Gray Jersey Sophomore2nd Team Center
Ella Smith Jersey Junior Honorable MentionGuard
Sophie Schroeder Highland SophomoreHonorable Mention

External links

Notes and References

  1. https://leopardfan.tripod.com/id349.html Illinois High School Glory Days-The Great Conferences
  2. https://sites.google.com/site/iahsaasports/conferences/current-conferences/mississippi-valley-conference Iowa High School Sports-Mississippi Valley Conference