Conference Timeline

• 1927

  The first year of competition for the Tri-County was 1927 with eight charter schools: Henry, Hopkins Township in Granville, Lostant, Magnolia, Senachwine Township in Putnam, McNabb Swaney, Tonica, and Varna.

• 1947

  The first two schools to consolidate were Henry and Senachwine Township High Schools. The new high school became known as Henry-Senachwine Consolidated High School beginning in the fall of 1947 and would be located in Henry, Illinois.

• 1966

  In 1966, two charter schools, Hennepin and Hopkins Township, would consolidate with previously consolidated Magnolia-Swaney High School to form Putnam County High School.

• 1970

  The 1970’s and 80’s found the conference stable with ten teams: Henry-Senachwine, Lostant, Lowpoint Washburn, Mid County, Putnam County, Roanoke Benson, Sparland, Toluca, Tonica, and Wenona. With that stability, many rivalries developed. The addition of the girls’ sports also added to the competition. But, no matter how intense the games became, friendships were still formed. Many of those rivals are still friend today.

• 1990

  The 1990’s saw many of the small schools disappear due to consolidation. This held true for the Tri County conference schools as well. Lostant dissolved into the neighboring schools. Tonica folded into the LaSalle Peru school district. Toluca and Wenona joined Minonk-Dana-Rutland to become the Fieldcrest school district. Mid County and Sparland joined to become Midland school district. The consolidations led to adding different schools to the conference which led to more travel times for competitions.

• 2000

  The 2000’s saw the conference volley between nine and ten teams for its conference membership. Eureka dropped out in 2004. Bureau Valley was only a member school for four years (1996-97 through 19999-2000). Peoria Christian joined the conference in 1999 but only stayed until 2020. Streator Woodland joined in the 2005-06 school year and is still a member in the conference.

• 2010

  Instability in the number of conference schools continued. The small school of DePue joined in 2008-09 and survived the conference until 2019-2020. Spring Valley Hall only stayed a couple of years in the conference (2011-2012 through 2012-2013). Henry-Senachwine, Lowpoint Washburn, Midland, Ottawa Marquette, Peoria Christian, Putnam County, Roanoke Benson, and Streator Woodland remained the core schools in the conference.

• 2020

  The core of conference schools remained somewhat stable with only a couple of changes. Seneca joined the conference in 2018. Peoria Christian dropped out after the 2019-2020 school year. The conference added Dwight and Peru St. Bede returned to the conference to bring the total number of schools to ten. Hopefully, these schools will remain in the conference for years to come.