River Valley Conference (Illinois)

The River Valley Conference is a high school sports Conference in northeastern and two high schools in a southern suburbs is "Illinois Lutheran and Beecher High School in Illinois, United States. The conference is part of the Illinois High School Association. The conference started around 1940 as the Kankakee Valley Conference, making up schools from the Kankakee County and Will County area. The conference had split into two divisions (Kan-Will and Will-Ro-Kee) in 1953 to make football scheduling more manageable, but maintained the conference in basketball and other sports.[1] With the Iroquois and Vermilion Valley conferences folding, the KVC took on some of their members, prompting the change to its current name. The biggest shift since then occurred in 2006, as its larger schools left to join schools with similar membership, leaving the RVC as a rural, smaller school conference. In 2020, Grace Christian became a full IHSA member, and joined the RVC. This brought the amount of teams up to 8. Momence and Clifton Central are set to join the RVC in 2021, due to the dissolving of the Sangamon Valley Conference. This will bring the conference up to 10 teams.

River Valley Conference
ConferenceIHSA
Founded1940
Sports fielded
  • 5
No. of teams10
RegionIllinois

Membership

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Current

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School Location Mascot Colors Areas County IHSA Enrollment Class Year Joined Previous Conference
Beecher Beecher Bobcats     South Suburbs Will 354 2A pre-1948
Clifton Central Clifton Comets     East Illinois Iroquois 292.5 2A 2021 Sangamon Valley
Donovan Donovan Wildcats     East Illinois Iroquois 69.5 1A 1989 Iroquois
Gardner-South Wilmington Gardner Panthers     Northeast Illinois Grundy 179.5 1A 1989 Vermilion Valley
Grace Christian Academy Kankakee Crusaders     East Illinois Kankakee 73.5 1A 2020
Grant Park Grant Park Dragons     East Illinois Kankakee 139 1A pre-1948
Illinois Lutheran Crete Chargers     South Suburbs Will 104 1A 2006 Tollway
Momence Momence Redskins     East Illinois Kankakee 307 2A 2021 Sangamon Valley
St. Anne St. Anne Cardinals     East Illinois Kankakee 175 1A pre-1948
Tri-Point Cullom Chargers     East Illinois Livingston 111.5 1A 2011 Sangamon Valley

Former

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Note: records before 1948-49 are incomplete. Some teams may have played in the conference before the date recorded, other schools may have played in the conference's early years.

School Location Mascot Colors County Year Joined Previous Conference Year Left Conference Joined
Bonfield Bonfield Braves     Kankakee pre-1940 1941 none (consolidated into Reddick)
Crete-Monee1 Crete Warriors     Will 1940 none (new school) 1962 Southeast Suburban
R.U.C.E.2 Reddick Bulldogs     Kankakee 1944 1956 Northeast
Bishop McNamara3 Kankakee Irish     Kankakee pre-1948 1989 Chicago Catholic
Bradley-Bourbonnais Bradley Boilermakers     Kankakee pre-1948 1962 Southeast Suburban
Gilman Gilman Owls     Iroquois pre-1948 1962 Vermilion Valley
Manteno Manteno Panthers     Kankakee pre-1948 2006 Interstate 8
Momence Momence Redskins     Kankakee pre-1948 2006 Sangamon Valley
Peotone Peotone Blue Devils     Will pre-1948 2006 Interstate 8
Central Clifton Comets     Iroquois 1950 none (new school) 1980 Wauseca
Herscher4 Herscher Tigers     Kankakee 1950 Vermilion Valley 2006 Interstate 8
  1. Known as Crete until 1948.
  2. Known as Reddick until 1950.
  3. Known as St. Patrick until 1955.
  4. Herscher played concurrently in the KVC and VVC from 1950 to 1954.

See also

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References

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  1. ^ Illinois HS Glory Days (2005-01-30). "The Great Conferences". Retrieved 2014-02-10.
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Official website