Heart O'North Conference

The Heart O'North Conference is a high school athletic conference with its membership base in northwestern Wisconsin. Founded in 1928, the conference and its member schools are affiliated with the Wisconsin Interscholastic Athletic Association.

The Heart O'North Conference (also known as the Heart o' the North Conference in its early years) was formed in 1928 by ten small- to medium-sized high schools in northwestern Wisconsin: Barron, Bloomer, Cameron, Chetek, Clayton, Cumberland, Ladysmith, Rice Lake, Shell Lake and Spooner.^[1] One year later, the league added New Auburn and Turtle Lake to its roster, bringing membership up to twelve schools.^[2] In 1934, membership in the Heart O'North was cut in half after the exit of its six smallest schools (Cameron, Chetek, Clayton, New Auburn, Shell Lake and Turtle Lake). Five of these schools joined with Clear Lake and Weyerhaeuser to form the Lakeland Conference.^[3] The six remaining schools continued for twelve years before Hayward was admitted as the Heart O’North’s seventh member in 1946.^[4] Chetek's return to the conference from the Lakeland Conference in 1957 increased the membership ledger to eight schools, a level it would remain at for seventeen years.^[5] In 1974, Northwestern High School in Maple joined the Heart O'North Conference after their longtime membership in the Michigan-Wisconsin Conference ended the year prior when the organization ceased operations.^[6]

After Northwestern joined the Heart O'North in 1974, the conference continued with a nine-member roster for fifteen years, until Bloomer and Rice Lake left in 1989. Bloomer joined the Middle Border Conference,^[7] and Rice Lake became members of the larger Big Rivers Conference as an all-sport member^[8] (they had previously been football-only members since 1986).^[9] After five years in the Middle Border, Bloomer rejoined the Heart O'North Conference in 1994.^[10] Membership remained stable until 2010, when Chetek High School merged with Weyerhaeuser High School of the Lakeland Conference to form the new Chetek-Weyerhaeuser High School.^[11] The new school inherited Chetek's place in the Heart O'North Conference.^[12] In 2019, Cameron rejoined the Heart O'North after leaving the conference eighty-five years ago to help form the Lakeland Conference, which they were still members of at the time of their exit.^[13] Two years later, the Heart O'North Conference accepted two new members and bid farewell to a longtime member. Bloomer exited the conference for a second time in 2021, this time to join the Cloverbelt Conference.^[14] Ashland and St. Croix Falls became Heart O'North members that same year; St. Croix Falls joined from Lakeland Conference^[15] and Ashland were previously members of the Minnesota-based Lake Superior Conference.^[16]

• Heart O'North Conference (official website)