Cloverbelt Conference

The Cloverbelt Conference is a high school athletic conference in the U.S. state of Wisconsin. It consists of 17 schools from west central Wisconsin, located between the Eau Claire – Chippewa Falls metropolitan area and the Marshfield-Wisconsin Rapids Micropolitan Statistical Area. It was formed in 1927-1928 with five members: Boyd High School, Cadott High School, Owen High School, Stanley High School, and Thorp High School.[1] The conference is a member of the Wisconsin Interscholastic Athletic Association (WIAA).

Cloverbelt Conference
Cloverbelt
Established1927
AssociationWIAA
Members17 - split into 2 divisions for several sports
CommissionerBob Houts
Websitehttp://www.cloverbeltconference.org/g5-bin/client.cgi?G5genie=159

Members

Former members
  • Abbotsford High School
  • Auburndale High School
  • Augusta High School
  • Cornell High School
  • Elk Mound High School
  • Lake Holcombe High School
  • Mosinee High School
  • Nekoosa High School
  • Dor-Abby High School (school split "Dor" - Dorchester, Wisconsin consolidated with Colby High School)
  • Stanley High School (school consolidated with Boyd High School)
  • Boyd High School (school consolidated with Stanley High School)
  • Owen High School (school consolidated with Withee High School)
  • Withee High School (school consolidated with Owen High School)

Historical timeline
  • 1927: Boyd, Cadott, Owen, Stanley, Thorp form conference
  • 1928: Cornell joins
  • 1933: Lake Holcombe, Gilman join
  • 1937: Withee joins
  • 1939: Cadott, Cornell, Thorp, Withee start 6 man football Cloverbelt Conference
  • 1944: conference switches to 8 man
  • 1945: Neillsville joins; Cadott, Cornell, Neillsville, Owen, Stanley, Thorp, Withee belong to the football version.
  • 1946: Lake Holcombe leaves; Altoona joins; Stanley leaves football conference replaced by Greenwood
  • 1947: conference starts playing 11 man football
  • 1948: Boyd leaves; Fall Creek joins; Greenwood drops out of football conference
  • 1950: Withee drops out of football conference
  • 1951: Conference starts playing baseball, Stanley rejoins football conference
  • 1953: Gilman joins football conference
  • 1955: Owen and Withee consolidate, form Owen Withee, join football as well
  • 1956: Elk Mound joins
  • 1962: Elk Mound leaves; Colby, Dor-Abby, Loyal, Greenwood join for all sports
  • 1964: Dor-Abby dissolves consolidation; Abbotsford joins, Conference splits into East and West for football as Altoona and Fall Creek are added
  • 1965: Stanley and Boyd consolidate to form Stanley-Boyd; Holcombe joins for all sports
  • 1966: Abbotsford leaves
  • 1970: Lake Holcombe leaves
  • 1975: Colby leaves
  • 1978: Auburndale, Colby, Mosinee, Nekoosa join
  • 1982: Nekoosa leaves
  • 1986: Osseo-Fairchild joins
  • 1990: Augusta joins
  • 1998: Cornell leaves
  • 2000: Auburndale leaves; Regis, McDonell join
  • 2008: Granton, Spencer, Columbus join
  • 2008-2009: Mosinee leaves
  • 2014: Augusta leaves

Fall sports

Football

In 1939, Cadott, Cornell, Thorp and Withee start playing 6 man football as the Cloverbelt Conference. In 1964, the Cloverbelt Conference was separated into two divisions, East and West. This was changed to Large and Small Divisions in 1978 when Auburndale, Colby, Mosinee, and Nekoosa joined the conference. At the end of the 2007-08 athletic season, the area underwent a major conference realignment. Some of the schools in the Cloverbelt Conference merged with some of the schools from the Marawood Conference to form the CloverWood Conference (football only). In 2016, McDonell Central opted to go to an 8 man football team that should start play in the 2018 season.[2]

Pre-realignment:

  • Large Cloverbelt: Altoona, Cadott, Colby, Fall Creek, Neillsville, Osseo-Fairchild, Stanley-Boyd, Mosinee
  • Small Cloverbelt: Augusta, Gilman, Greenwood, Loyal, McDonell, Owen-Withee, Regis, Thorp

Post-realignment:

  • Cloverbelt: Colby, Stanley-Boyd, Eau Claire Regis, Altoona, Osseo-Fairchild, Fall Creek, Spencer/Columbus Catholic, Neillsville/Granton, Cadott.
  • CloverWood: Abbotsford, Assumption, Athens, Gilman, Greenwood, Loyal, Owen-Withee, Thorp

State champions

  • Cadott 1999(D-4); Colby 1998(D-4), 2008(D-5), 2011(D-5); Fall Creek 1993(D-5), 1994(D-5); Greenwood 1990(D-6); Mosinee 1980(D-4), 1981(D-4); Osseo-Fairchild 1996(D-5), 2000(D-5); Owen-Withee 1992(D-6), 1999(D-6), Regis 2003(D-7), 2016 (D-6); Stanley-Boyd 1991(D-5), 1995(D-5), 2013(D-5); Thorp 1993(D-6)

Boys' cross country
  • Altoona, Cadott, Colby/Abbotsford, Columbus Catholic, Fall Creek, Loyal/Greenwood, McDonell Central, Neillsville/Granton, Osseo-Fairchild, Owen-Withee, Regis, Spencer, Stanley-Boyd, Thorp

State champion

  • McDonell Central 2001(D-3)

Girls' cross country
  • Girls: Altoona, Cadott, Colby/Abbotsford, Columbus Catholic, Fall Creek, Loyal/Greenwood, McDonell Central, Neillsville/Granton, Osseo-Fairchild, Owen-Withee, Regis, Spencer, Stanley-Boyd, Thorp

State champions

  • Fall Creek 1997(D-3)

Volleyball
  • East Division: Colby, Columbus Catholic, Gilman, Greenwood, Loyal, Neillsville/Granton, Owen-Withee, Spencer
  • West Division: Altoona, Cadott, Fall Creek, McDonell Central, Osseo-Fairchild, Regis, Stanley-Boyd, Thorp

State champions

  • Loyal 1979(C), McDonell Central 2009(D-4), Regis 2013(D-3), Stanley-Boyd 2006(D-3)

Winter sports

Basketball
  • East Division: Colby, Columbus Catholic, Gilman, Granton, Greenwood, Loyal, Neillsville, Owen-Withee, Spencer
  • West Division: Altoona, Cadott, Fall Creek, McDonell Central, Osseo-Fairchild, Regis, Stanley-Boyd, Thorp

State champions-boys

  • Altoona 1939(C); Auburndale 1993(D-3), 2000(D-3); Fall Creek 1937(C), 1984(C), 1985(C); Greenwood 1988(C); McDonell Central 2015(D-5); Thorp 2014(D-5)

State champions-girls

  • Altoona 2011(D-3); Augusta 1996(D-4); Fall Creek 1985(C), 1987(C), 1988(C), 1996(D-3); Loyal 2017(D-5); Neillsville 2012(D-4); Regis 2011(D-4)

Wrestling

For wrestling, although there are three divisions in the WIAA, some small schools have merged programs to have enough students to compete. The Conference consists of Abbotsford/Colby, Cadott, Neillsville/Greenwood/Loyal, Osseo-Fairchild/Augusta/Fall Creek, Altoona/Regis, Spencer/Columbus Catholic, Stanley-Boyd/Owen-Withee, Thorp

State champions

  • Cadott 2001(D-3), 2007(D-3)

Spring sports

Baseball
  • East Division: Colby, Columbus Catholic, Gilman, Granton, Greenwood, Loyal, Neillsville, Owen-Withee, Spencer
  • West Division: Altoona, Cadott, Fall Creek, McDonell Central, Osseo-Fairchild, Regis, Stanley-Boyd, Thorp

State champions

  • Greenwood 1988(C), 1990(C), 2013(D-4)

Golf
  • Altoona, Cadott, Colby, Fall Creek, McDonell Central/Regis, Neillsville/Loyal, Osseo-Fairchild, Spencer/Columbus Catholic, Stanley-Boyd, Thorp

State champions

  • Mosinee 1995(D-2), Osseo-Fairchild 1994(D-3), 1995(D-3), 1996(D-3), 1999(D-3), 2000(D-3), 2003(D-3), 2004(D-3), 2006(D-3), 2013(D-3)

Softball
  • East Division: Colby/Abbotsford, Columbus Catholic, Gilman, Greenwood, Loyal, Neillsville/Granton, Owen-Withee, Spencer
  • West Division: Altoona, Cadott, Fall Creek, McDonell Central, Osseo-Fairchild, Regis, Stanley-Boyd, Thorp

State champions

  • Altoona 2001 (D-2); Loyal 1978(B), 1979(B), 1980(B); McDonell Central 2008 (D-4), 2017 (D-5); Thorp 2016(D-5)

References
  1. "Stanley retains Cloverbelt lead". Eau Claire Leader. January 24, 1928. p. 6.(subscription required)
  2. Brandon Berg. "McDonell opts to move to 8-man football". The Chippewa Herald, November 18, 2016.
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.