Marinette & Oconto Conference

The Marinette & Oconto Conference is a high school athletic conference in northeastern Wisconsin. Founded in 1927, the conference and its members are affiliated with the Wisconsin Interscholastic Athletic Association.

The Marinette & Oconto Conference was formed in 1927 by seven small high schools in Marinette and Oconto Counties in northeastern Wisconsin: Coleman, Crivitz, Lena, Marinette Normal, Our Lady of Lourdes, Peshtigo and Wausaukee.^[1] In 1929, the M&O lost Marinette Normal and Our Lady of Lourdes, with Niagara joining to bring the conference to six members.^[2] Peshtigo left the loop in 1931,^[3] with Gillett moving over from the Northeastern Wisconsin Conference in 1932 to take their place.^[4] The membership roster for the Marinette & Oconto Conference increased to nine in 1933 when Florence, Mountain and Suring entered the league.^[5] Peshtigo would return to the M&O in 1934,^[6] and Florence and Niagara left a year later, bringing the conference to eight schools.^[7] In 1938, Mountain and Wausaukee exited the conference,^[8] and along with Amberg and Pembine they formed the new Nicolet Conference.^[9][10] Bonduel spent a short stint in the conference during World War II, joining in 1941^[11] and leaving two years later.^[12] After numerous changes in the conference's first two decades, the circuit entered a period of stability that would last until the 1950s.

In 1951, the four-member Granite Valley Conference merged with the six members of the Marinette & Oconto Conference: Amberg, Crivitz, Pembine and Wausaukee. Crivitz was previously a member of both conferences, and Wausaukee reentered the M&O after a thirteen-year absence.^[13] With the addition of Goodman, the Marinette & Oconto Conference became a ten-member group, but this arrangement would end up being short-lived. In 1954, Amberg, Goodman, Pembine and Wausaukee split off to reform the Granite Valley Conference, leaving the conference with six member schools.^[14] Wausaukee rejoined the Marinette & Oconto Conference for a third time in 1961 after displacement by the Granite Valley's dissolution in 1960.^[15] In 1968, Niagara left the Menominee Range Conference in the upper peninsula of Michigan to rejoin as the M&O's eighth member.^[16] The Marinette & Oconto Conference entered a three-decade period of stability after Niagara's return.

In 1999, Marinette Central Catholic (formerly Our Lady of Lourdes) came back to the Marinette & Oconto Conference^[17][18] after the dissolution of the Fox Valley Christian Conference, a result of the merger between the Wisconsin Independent Schools Athletic Association and the WIAA that was finalized in 2000.^[19] The school became St. Thomas Aquinas Academy in 2005 after changing its enrollment model from high school to K-12.^[20] The Oneida Nation High School joined the M&O in 2015, its first conference membership in their twenty-year history.^[21] With Peshtigo's exit in 2017 to join the Packerland Conference,^[22] the Marinette & Oconto Conference became the nine-member league that currently exists.

 Northern Division  Southern Division

• Marinette & Oconto Conference (official website)