Western Peninsula Athletic Conference
- SportingFlyer, most of the athletic conferences in Indiana have articles, even the non-extant ones. That being said, most of them suck. I've not ever messed with them due to walled garden issues and the fact that they have utility. Some older conferences might have enough accumulated passing mentions over decades to survive AfD, most not. But as I said, they do serve a purpose. John from Idegon (talk) 03:20, 16 November 2018 (UTC)
The Western Peninsula Athletic Conference is a high school sports league located in the Upper Peninsula, and as of 2018 is currently the largest high school athletic conference in the region. It is a member of the Michigan High School Athletic Association.
History[edit]
The West PAC was formed from the former Copper Country Conference, which at the time consisted of Calumet, Hancock, Houghton, L'Anse, and Ontonagon high schools, taking on two independent schools, Ironwood, and Iron River West Iron County. The CCC then changed its name to the Western Peninsula Athletic Conference, and started play in the 1990-91 school year. After its initial formation, the conference remained mostly the same, with only two changes to its membership in 20 years: those being Ontonagon leaving in 1997 for the Great Western Conference and independent Stephenson joining in 2002.
However, the start of the 2010s proved to shake up the conference significantly. The first change was in 2010, when Stephenson left for the Mid-Eastern Football Conference, and Wisconsin-based Eagle River Northland Pines joining the same year. This was followed by another Wisconsin-based school, Hurley, joining from the Great Western Conference in 2016. Its biggest membership change, though, came in 2018, when both the Mid-Eastern Football Conference and the Mid-Peninsula Athletic Conference were disbanded. The West PAC took all but two of the former members of the school (Newberry, from the MEFC, had already left to join the Northern Michigan Football League, while Gladstone, from the MPAC, opted to return to the Great Northern UP Conference). Due to this sudden influx of members, the conference changed from a single division conference to a two division conference, entitled A and B divisions. Eagle River Northland Pines and Hurley also left voluntarily the same year due to travel concerns to the newer schools.[1][2][3]
Member Schools[edit]
Current Members[edit]
*-Bessemer co-ops on football with Ironwood and Wakefield-Marenisco high schools, and the combined team is locally known as the Gogebic Miners
*-Hancock co-ops on football with Dollar Bay, Chassell, and Painesdale Jeffers high schools
*-Ishpeming Westwood co-ops on football with Republic Michigamme School
*-L'Anse co-ops on football with Baraga High School
*-Manistique co-ops on football with Cooks Big Bay de Noc high school
Former members[edit]
| Team | Location | Colors | Joined | Previous Conference | Departed | Successive Conference |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ontonagon Gladiators | Ontonagon | Maroon and White | 1990 | Copper Country Conference | 1997 | Great Western Conference |
| Stephenson Eagles | Stephenson | Blue and White | 2002 | Independent | 2010 | Mid-Eastern Football Conference |
| Eagle River Northland Pines Eagles | Eagle River, Wisconsin | Red and Blue | 2010 | Independent | 2018 | Independent |
| Hurley Midgets | Hurley, Wisconsin | Orange and Black | 2016 | Great Western Conference | 2018 | Independent |
Football Conference Champions[edit]
| # | Team | W-PAC Championships |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Calumet | 1994-1999, 2005-2006, 2009-2010, 2015-2016 |
| 2 | Iron River West Iron County | 1999-2001, 2008, 2011, 2013-2014, 2017 |
| 3 | Ontonagon | 1990-1993, 1995 |
| 4 | Stephenson | 2002-2004, 2007 |
| 5 | Hancock | 1995 |
| L'Anse | 2007 | |
| Eagle River Northland Pines | 2012 |
References[edit]
- ↑ Angeli, Burt (June 24, 2017). "Lake Linden-Hubbell making move to West-PAC for football in 2018". mininggazette.com. Retrieved September 24, 2018.
- ↑ Derouin, Bryce (October 19, 2017). "Five schools preliminarily approved to join West-PAC". mininggazette.com. Retrieved September 24, 2018.
- ↑ Juno, Jason (November 30, 2017). "Hurley, Northland Pines out of the West-PAC, Manistique is in for football". mininggazette.com. Retrieved September 24, 2018.
External Links[edit]
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