History
1958-1971
The Scenic Central Conference was originally formed in 1948 as a football-only conference among four small schools in western Wisconsin: Hillsboro, New Lisbon, Westby and Wonewoc. [1] Ten years later, the Scenic Central became an all-sports conference when two previously established conferences merged: the Juneau County League (Elroy, Hillsboro, New Lisbon, Westby and Wonewoc) and the Monroe-Vernon Conference (Cashton, Kendall, Norwalk, Ontario and Wilton). [2] [3] Both conferences had experienced loss of members due to consolidation and defection to other conferences, and merged to preserve the athletic future of their member schools. After formation of the conference, consolidation continued to have its effect on schools in the Driftless Area, with Elroy and Kendall merging to create Royall in 1959 [4] and Norwalk and Ontario merging to form Brookwood in 1960. [5] The conference also lost Wilton in 1963 to consolidation into the Royall School District, [6] they were replaced by Weston (formerly of the I-W League) to keep membership at eight schools. [7] A ninth school was added when Kickapoo joined the Scenic Central Conference in 1965. [8] A year later, New Lisbon and Royall left the Scenic Central to help form the short-lived Vacationland Conference. [9] De Soto and North Crawford joined from the Kickapoo Valley League to take their place. [10] Two years later, La Farge High School followed their Kickapoo Valley brethren into the Scenic Central Conference, [11] and New Lisbon and Royall rejoined the Scenic Central after the Vacationland Conference disbanded in 1970. [12]
1971-1979
1971 saw the Scenic Central Conference add three new members: Ithaca, Seneca and Wauzeka. All three schools came from the Kickapoo Valley League, which had disbanded after the previous school year. To accommodate the rapid growth of the Scenic Central into a fifteen-member loop, members were subdivided into Northern and Southern Divisions: [13]
| Northern Division | Southern Division |
|---|---|
| Cashton | Brookwood |
| De Soto | Ithaca |
| Hillsboro | La Farge |
| Kickapoo | Seneca |
| New Lisbon | Wauzeka |
| North Crawford | Weston |
| Royall | Wonewoc-Center |
| Westby |
The conference would continue with this alignment for six seasons before Royall and Westby left to join the Coulee Conference in 1977. [14] They exchanged conference affiliations with Bangor, who joined the Scenic Central for the last two years of its existence. Brookwood, Weston and Wonewoc-Center also exchanged divisions with De Soto, Kickapoo and North Crawford: [15]
| Northern Division | Southern Division |
|---|---|
| Bangor | De Soto |
| Brookwood | Ithaca |
| Cashton | Kickapoo |
| Hillsboro | La Farge |
| New Lisbon | North Crawford |
| Weston | Seneca |
| Wonewoc-Center | Wauzeka |
The Scenic Central split into two conferences after the 1978-79 school year, with the seven schools in the Southern Division plus Weston forming the Ridge & Valley Conference [16] and six remaining schools in the Northern Division joining with Necedah and former Scenic Central member Royall to create the Scenic Bluffs Conference. [17]
