Conference History
The Tri-County was started in the 1926-27 school year. It was originally called the Tri-County High School League. It had eight original teams: Henry, Hopkins (Granville), Lostant, Magnolia, Putnam, John Swaney (McNabb), Tonica, and Varna. Sparland was originally going to join the conference, but didn’t end up joining until the 1941-42 school year. Henry had a scheduling conflict the first year, so they had Hennepin play the basketball tournament in their place. The name originated from the three counties – LaSalle, Marshall, and Putnam signifying the locations of the member schools. Lostant and Tonica were in LaSalle County; Henry, Sparland, and Varna were in Marshall county; and Granville, Magnolia, and John Swaney were in Putnam county.
The conference had those eight teams only for the first year. The 1927-28 school year had Putnam drop out and they added Dana. In the 1928-29 season, Dana dropped out of the conference and they added Wenona. Henry, Hopkins, Lostant, Magnolia, Swaney, Tonica, Varna, and Wenona comprised the conference until the 1941-42 season. They then added four more schools: Lacon, Rutland, Toluca, and Sparland to bring the conference to twelve teams.
It stayed at the twelve member schools until the consolidation of schools began. Henry and Putnam joined to become Henry-Senachwine in 1947. In 1946, Magnolia joined with John Swaney playing as one team and officially became Magnolia Swaney in 1948. In 1949, Varna joined Lacon to become Mid County. Rutland dropped out of the conference in 1949. In 1966, Hopkins, Hennepin, and Magnolia-Swaney joined to form the Putnam County School district.
In 1955-56, they added Benson, Roanoke, and Lowpoint Washburn to the conference. Benson and Roanoke only participated that year, but joined the conference again as Roanoke-Benson in the 1970-71 season.
The conference kept the ten teams: Henry-Senachwine, Lostant, Lowpoint Washburn, Roanoke-Benson, Putnam County, Toluca, Tonica, Mid County, Wenona, and Sparland up into the late eighties. The early 1990’s saw Tonica fold into the LaSalle-Peru high school. It saw Toluca and Wenona join the Minonk-Dana-Rutland School to form Fieldcrest high school. Lostant dissolved into the neighboring districts, and Sparland joined Mid County to form the Midland school district.
Since that time, the conference has had many schools “pass through” its membership. They included Eureka, Depue, Ottawa Marquette, Bureau Valley, Bradford, Peoria Christian, Peru St. Bede, Streator Woodland, Spring Valley Hall, Seneca, and Dwight.
The conference originally offered boys baseball, boys basketball, and boys track. In the early years, some of the schools offered wrestling and football to their athletes, but they were not acknowledged as Tri-County sports. In the 1930’s, the conference recognized the sports of kittenball (a softball type game) and tennis. Both of these sports seemed to only last a few years as conference sports.
Along with the changes in membership also came the addition of a couple more sports. In 1966, they added boys golf and boys cross country. The only option for the girls at that time was an organization known as the Girls Athletic Association (GAA) which offered intramural type activities, but not any interscholastic competitive sports. They did add a cheerleading competition for the girls held during the boys basketball tournament.
Finally, in 1975-76 the girls got to participate in the interscholastic field. (Only 50 years behind the boys)! The conference added softball, girls basketball, and volleyball. Because the schools had to provide equal opportunities for both the boys and girls, they were “forced” to allow the girls to compete in golf, cross country, and track, too. However, many of the schools did not have enough female participants for each of the sports, so much of the information about the participants was included in the boys events. In the late 1990’s and early 2000’s, the girls track and cross country were strong in the conference competition. Girls golf has not had enough participants for a regular conference competition.
The conference has tried to keep at least ten teams in its membership. However, with the consolidation of many schools, it has led to farther and farther road trips to participate in its conference games.
The other factor affecting the conference is the number of students participating in each sport. There does not seem to be as many athletes as there once was involved in sports. Some of the schools combine their athletes to form a single team with one of the participating schools being designated as the “host” school for the contests. At least with this practice, the athletes get the opportunity to participate in their sport.
Some of the Tri-County schools have expanded their sports programs for their athletes, offering football, wrestling, or soccer. However, the conference has not added any additional sports to the conference in recent years.
