The Frisco League is a

high school A secondary school describes an institution that provides secondary education and also usually includes the building where this takes place. Some secondary schools provide both '' lower secondary education'' (ages 11 to 14) and ''upper seconda ...

athletic conference An athletic conference is a collection of sports teams, playing competitively against each other in a sports league. In many cases conferences are subdivided into smaller divisions, with the best teams competing at successively higher levels. Confe ...

consisting of nine high schools in

Mid-Missouri Mid-Missouri is a loosely-defined region comprising the central area of the U.S. state of Missouri. The region's largest city is Columbia (population 121,717); the Missouri state capital, Jefferson City, and the University of Missouri are also l ...

. All the schools in the conference are Class 2 and 3, a norm for small rural schools in the area. The league takes its name from the St. Louis – San Francisco Railway (the Frisco), which was, and still is, a major presence in the area— especially before the birth of

Route 66 U.S. Route 66 or U.S. Highway 66 (US 66 or Route 66) was one of the original highways in the United States Numbered Highway System. It was established on November 11, 1926, with road signs erected the following year. The h ...

. The league officially offers championships for girls in

Basketball Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular Basketball court, court, compete with the primary objective of #Shooting, shooting a basketball (ball), basketball (appr ...

, Cross Country,

Softball Softball is a game similar to baseball played with a larger ball on a smaller field. Softball is played competitively at club levels, the college level, and the professional level. The game was first created in 1887 in Chicago by George Hanc ...

Track & Field Track and field is a sport that includes athletic contests based on running, jumping, and throwing skills. The name is derived from where the sport takes place, a running track and a grass field for the throwing and some of the jumping events ...

and

Volleyball Volleyball is a team sport in which two teams of six players are separated by a net. Each team tries to score points by grounding a ball on the other team's court under organized rules. It has been a part of the official program of the Summ ...

. And for boys the league officially sponsors championships in

Baseball Baseball is a bat-and-ball sport played between two teams of nine players each, taking turns batting and fielding. The game occurs over the course of several plays, with each play generally beginning when a player on the fielding tea ...

, Basketball, Cross Country, Soccer and Track & Field. Some schools sponsor sports that are not sponsored by the league but are sponsored by the

Missouri State High School Activities Association The Missouri State High School Activities Association (MSHSAA) is the governing body for high school activities throughout the state of Missouri. Approximately 580 high schools are members of MSHSAA. The MSHSAA conducts championship-level activi ...

, such as

Golf Golf is a club-and-ball sport in which players use various clubs to hit balls into a series of holes on a course in as few strokes as possible. Golf, unlike most ball games, cannot and does not use a standardized playing area, and coping wi ...

Tennis Tennis is a racket sport that is played either individually against a single opponent ( singles) or between two teams of two players each ( doubles). Each player uses a tennis racket that is strung with cord to strike a hollow rubber ball ...

and Girls soccer. The league is also somewhat unusual among those in Missouri in that it offers official fall baseball and spring softball competition.

List of member schools

*The class in which a school competes depends on the size of the school, and the particular sport or activity. Most activities (for example softball, track, cross country) compete in four classes, but basketball competes in five and football in six. Because basketball is by far the most popular sport in the state in regards to school participation, MSHSAA officially uses the five-class system to classify schools.

History

The league was organized in

Lebanon Lebanon ( , ar, لُبْنَان, translit=lubnān, ), officially the Republic of Lebanon () or the Lebanese Republic, is a country in Western Asia. It is located between Syria to the north and east and Israel to the south, while Cyprus li ...

in 1924 by future

governor of Missouri A governor is an politician, administrative leader and head of a polity or Region#Political_regions, political region, ranking under the Head of State, head of state and in some cases, such as governor-general, governors-general, as the head of ...

Phil M. Donnelly Philip Matthew Donnelly (March 6, 1891 – September 12, 1961) was an American politician serving as the List of governors of Missouri, 41st and 43rd Governor of Missouri. He was a United States Democratic Party, Democrat. Donnelly and Kit Bond, ...

, a Lebanon attorney. Teams in the league represented Lebanon, Stoutland, Richland, Crocker, Linn Creek, Conway, Niangua and Marshfield. That league was known as the Frisco High School Athletic Association. The league was composed of those area schools whose major sport was basketball, but who did not have an indoor court.http://www.friscoleague.com/History.html Another requirement was that none of the conference schools could have a football program because of obvious scheduling conflicts. Although this is no longer a rule today, none of the Frisco League schools currently have football teams. Iberia had a team in the late 1980s but it was disbanded in 1987. The Frisco High School Athletic Association gradually became known as the Frisco League. League competition branched out into baseball, academic areas and other areas.

State championships

Dixon * 1969 Boys Basketball (M) * 1976 Baseball (A) Iberia * 2001 Baseball (2A) Licking * 1975 Volleyball * 1979 Volleyball (1A-2A) * 1988 Baseball (2A) * 1989 Baseball (2A) * 1989 Boys Basketball (2A) * 2002 Boys Cross Country (2) Plato * 2005 Baseball (1) Richland * 1996 Academic Competition (2A) * 1997 Academic Competition (2A) * 1998 Academic Competition (2A) * 1999 Academic Competition (2A) * 2000 Academic Competition (2A) * 2001 Academic Competition (2A) * 2003 Academic Competition (2) * 2004 Academic Competition (2) * 2005 Academic Competition (2) * 2006 Academic Competition (2) * 2007 Academic Competition (2) * 2008 Academic Competition (2) * 2009 Academic Competition (2) * 2011 Scholar Bowl (2) * 2014 Scholar Bowl (2)

References

External links

Frisco League website
High school sports conferences and leagues in the United States Missouri high school athletic conferences