History
The Bay-Lakes Conference, named so for its proximity to Green Bay and the many lakes in northeastern Wisconsin, was formed in 1970 by a mix of seven small public and private schools in the region. [1] [2] Six of the seven schools were members of conferences that had disbanded prior to the 1970-71 school year: three from the Peninsula Conference (Gibraltar, Manitowoc Lutheran and Sevastopol), two from the Fox Valley Tri-County League (St. Lawrence Seminary and Winnebago Lutheran) and one from the Wisconsin Seminary League (Sacred Heart Seminary). [3] Stockbridge, the seventh member, was an independent prior to joining the conference, as they had competed without affiliation since the demise of the Kettle Moraine Conference in 1969. The conference kept the same membership over the course of its nine-year history with the exception of Sacred Heart Seminary's exit in 1976 due to its closing. [4] The Bay-Lakes Conference split up in 1979 with two public high schools moving to the Packerland Conference (Gibraltar and Sevastopol), two private schools joining the Classic Conference (St. Lawrence Seminary and Winnebago Lutheran), Stockbridge joined the Central Lakeshore Conference and Manitowoc Lutheran became an independent. [5]
