Midland Empire Conference

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Banners of various high schools in Maryville, Missouri Mec-banners.jpg
Banners of various high schools in Maryville, Missouri

The Midland Empire Conference (also called MEC) is a high school athletic conference whose members are located in northwest Missouri. The conference participates in the MSHSAA.

Contents

The conference was created during a March 1962 meeting at Armstrong's Restaurant in Maryville, Missouri and took effect in the 1962-63 school year. The original five schools were four schools from St. Joseph, Missouri (Benton, Christian Brothers (which would fold into LeBlond), and Lafayette) and two other schools from northwest Missouri (Maryville and Savannah). The arrangement created a league of schools of comparable size (the St. Joseph schools earlier competed in the Pony Express Conference which included the much larger St. Joseph Central High School as well as larger suburban Kansas City schools while Savannah and Maryville since 1937 competed in the Northwest Missouri Conference with much smaller schools. [1] [2]

Discussions of creating a conference of larger comparable sized schools in northwest Missouri had been discussed since at least 1925 but never quite materialized. [3]

In 2018, Smithville left the conference for the Suburban Kansas City Conference and was replaced by St. Pius X in Kansas City.

Member schools

SchoolMascotColorsCityCountySchool TypeYear Joined
Benton Cardinals   St. Joseph Buchanan Public1962
Bishop LeBlond Golden Eagles   St. Joseph Buchanan Private1962
CameronDragons   Cameron Clinton Public1998 [4]
ChillicotheHornets   Chillicothe Livingston Public1985 [5]
Lafayette Fighting Irish   St. Joseph Buchanan Public1962
Maryville Spoofhounds   Maryville Nodaway Public1962
Savannah Savages   Savannah Andrew Public1962
St. Pius X Warriors   Kansas City Clay Private2018 [6]

Former members

Membership timeline

Midland Empire Conference

Full membersFull members (non-football)


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References

  1. "Midland Empire Conference formed March 30, 1962". The Maryville Daily Forum. March 30, 1962. p. 10 via newspapers.com.
  2. "29 Aug 1937, 12 - St. Joseph News-Press at Newspapers.com". Newspapers.com.
  3. "Northwest Missouri Conference Change January 27, 1925". The Chillicothe Constitution-Tribune. January 27, 1925. p. 1 via newspapers.com.
  4. "19 Sep 1997, 19 - St. Joseph News-Press at Newspapers.com". Newspapers.com.
  5. "15 Mar 1985, 15 - St. Joseph Gazette at Newspapers.com". Newspapers.com.
  6. "Midland Empire schedule preview - Prepskc". prepskc.com.
  7. Herald, Andy Meyer Smithville. "Smithville approves move to Suburban league". News-Press NOW.
  8. News-Press, Cody Thorn St Joseph. "Smithville could be leaving MEC". News-Press NOW.