Established 1924 Region Chicagoland Headquarters Illinois | Members 28 Past names West Suburban League | |
Sports fielded 26 (13 boys', 13 girls') | ||
The West Suburban Conference is an athletic conference in DuPage County and Cook County in the state of Illinois. The conference was founded in 1924.
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Member schools
All of the schools are also members of the Illinois High School Association (IHSA). The conference is divided into two divisions.
History
The West Suburban Conference is the fourth oldest Illinois League that is in existence today. It was formed in the winter of 1924 and was the direct successor league of the DuPage County Conference that expired the previous year. Old DuPage County members Hinsdale, Glenbard, York, Downers Grove, and West Chicago, joined with Maine to form a new league. In 1928, Riverside (now Riverside-Brookfield) left the disintegrating old Suburban League and joined the West Suburban League.
As the western suburbs grew during the 1920s the schools grew in size. In 1935, Lyons Township (LaGrange) joined the league, and the following year West Chicago dropped out.
The league membership stayed stable until 1951, when Arlington joined the league. When it withdrew from the conference in 1966, Proviso West took its place. In 1972, charter member Maine East (which began as Maine) left the league. When the Suburban League broke up in the spring of 1975, two of those league members, Oak Park River Forest and Proviso East (which began as Proviso), joined the West Suburban League the following fall. In 1982, Riverside-Brookfield, with a declining enrollment that made the school increasingly noncompetitive, left the league.
The biggest change in the history of WSC occurred in the spring of 1986 with a major re-alignment. This took place between the conference and the Des Plaines Valley League with a vote of the Superintendents from the Inter-Suburban Association. This action combined the two leagues under one umbrella conference. The old West Suburban Conference became the Silver Division, and the DesPlaines Valley League became the Gold Division. Together the two divisions form the West Suburban Conference. In this reorganization Proviso East moved into the Gold Division. Each Division had seven teams. According to WSC folklore, the division names were finalized after many hours of deliberation, arguing and negotiation. Their final names were not arrived at with the intention of ranking one ahead of the other, but came from the color of hair of the athletic directors in each division. The Silver Division's athletic directors were primarily distinguished gray-haired professionals who all happened to have "silver hair locks", thus securing the name. Competition in the reorganized league began in the fall of 1986.