South Seven Conference Explained

South Seven Conference
Color:
  1. 000000
Font Color:
  1. FFFFFF
Founded:1939
Conference:IHSA
Teams:6
Region:Southern Illinois and Metro East

The South Seven Conference is a high school athletic conference comprising six schools in the southern Illinois.

History

The South Seven was formed in 1939 when Centralia and Mt. Vernon departed the North Egyptian Conference and joined Marion, Benton, Harrisburg, Herrin and West Frankfort (hence, the name of the conference since it only had 7 members). Carbondale joined the conference in 1965, but the name of the conference was not changed.[1]

In 1993, the four smallest schools (Benton, Harrisburg, Herrin and West Frankfort) departed for the River-to-River Conference. Edwardsville and O'Fallon were added, with the former being a short-term replacement while a permanent member was sought. In 1995, Edwardsville left for the Southwestern Conference and was replaced by Cahokia. Over the next couple of years, O'Fallon would continue to grow to the point that it was much larger than the rest of the schools, and in 2000 the Panthers also left for the Southwestern Conference, replaced by Belleville Althoff. Throughout the changes, the "South Seven" moniker has remained even though the conference never had exactly 7 member schools in almost 50 years. That was to change for the 2018-19 season, when Granite City was due to leave the Southwestern Conference and join the South Seven, but a vote in March 2018 (a 3-3 tie) denied Granite City's entry into the conference until at least 2020. This vote was based heavily on scheduling issues and the amount of traveling for most of the teams in the conference.[2] [3]

In 2023, Althoff Catholic High School left the conference to join the Gateway Metro Conference.

Member Schools

SchoolLocation
(Population)
Enrollment
(2017-18)
NicknameColorsYears MemberPrevious Conference
Cahokia High SchoolCahokia, Illinois
(15,241)
928Comanches Blue
White
1995–PresentIndependent
Carbondale Community High SchoolCarbondale, Illinois
(26,241)
988Terriers Black
White
1965–PresentSouthwest Egyptian Conference
Centralia High SchoolCentralia, Illinois
(13,034)
911Orphans/Orphan Annies Red
White
1939–PresentNorth Egypt Conference
Marion High SchoolMarion, Illinois
(17,193)
1,083Wildcats Navy
Gold
1939–PresentGreater Egyptian Conference
Mount Vernon Township High SchoolMount Vernon, Illinois
(15,277)
1,190Rams/Lady Rams Orange
Black
1939–PresentNorth Egypt Conference

Former members of the South Seven Conference

SchoolNicknameColorsLocationYears MemberCurrent Conference
Benton Consolidated High SchoolRangersBenton, IL1939–1993Southern Illinois River-to-River Conference
Edwardsville High SchoolTigersEdwardsville, IL1993–1995Southwestern Conference
Frankfort Community High SchoolRedbirdsWest Frankfort, IL1939–1993Southern Illinois River-to-River Conference
Harrisburg High SchoolBulldogsHarrisburg, IL1939–1993Southern Illinois River-to-River Conference
Herrin High SchoolTigersHerrin, IL1939–1993Southern Illinois River-to-River Conference
O'Fallon High SchoolPanthersO'Fallon, IL1993–2000Southwestern Conference
Althoff Catholic High SchoolCrusadersBelleville, Illinois2000–2023Gateway Metro Conference

Membership timeline

DateFormat = yyyyImageSize = width:1150 height:auto barincrement:20Period = from:1935 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:pink 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 member with 8-man football id:AssocOS value:rgb(0.78,0.391,0.654) # Use this color to denote a team that is a member in a football coop 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 consolidated id:OtherC3 value:rgb(0.5,0.691,0.824) # 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:OtherC4 value:rgb(0.6,0.791,0.924) # Use this color to denote a team that is a member in some sports, but not all (consider identifying in legend or a footnote) PlotData= width:15 textcolor:black shift:(5,-5) anchor:from fontsize:s

bar:1 color:Full from:1939 till:1993 text:Benton (1939-1993) bar:1 color:OtherC1 from:1993 till:end text:Southern Illinois River-to-River Conference

bar:2 color:Full from:1939 till:end text:Centralia (1939-Present)

bar:3 color:Full from:1939 till:1993 text:Harrisburg (1939-1993) bar:3 color:OtherC1 from:1993 till:end text:Southern Illinois River-to-River Conference

bar:4 color:Full from:1939 till:1993 text:Herrin (1939-1993) bar:4 color:OtherC1 from:1993 till:end text:Southern Illinois River-to-River Conference

bar:5 color:Full from:1939 till:end text:Marion (1939-Present)

bar:6 color:Full from:1939 till:end text:Mount Vernon (1939-Present)

bar:7 color:Full from:1939 till:1993 text:West Frankfort (1939-1993) bar:7 color:OtherC1 from:1993 till:end text:Southern Illinois River-to-River Conference

bar:8 color:Full from:1965 till:end text:Carbondale (1965-Present)

bar:9 color:Full from:1993 till:1995 text:Edwardsville (1993-1995) bar:9 color:OtherC2 from:1995 till:end text: bar:9 color:OtherC2 from:2002 till:end text:Southwestern Conference

bar:10 color:Full from:1993 till:2000 text:O'Fallon (1993-1995) bar:10 color:OtherC2 from:2000 till:end text: bar:10 color:OtherC2 from:2002 till:end text:Southwestern Conference

bar:11 color:Full from:1995 till:end text:Cahokia (1995-Present)

bar:12 color:Full from:2000 till:2023 text:Belleville Althoff (2000–2023)

ScaleMajor = gridcolor:line unit:year increment:5 start:1935TextData =

fontsize:L

textcolor:black

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

text:^"South Seven 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. <#

See also

Notes and References

  1. https://leopardfan.tripod.com/id349.html The Great Conferences/Illinois High School Glory Days
  2. Web site: Winston. Curtis. 2018-03-27. Granite City denied spot in South Seven Conference. 2021-10-13. The Daily Republican. en-US.
  3. https://www.bnd.com/sports/high-school/article149633534.html Belleville News-Democrat