The Upstate Eight Conference (''UEC'', ''U8C'', or ''Upstate 8'') is an organization of ten high schools in northeastern

Illinois Illinois ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern United States. Its largest metropolitan areas include the Chicago metropolitan area, and the Metro East section, of Greater St. Louis. Other smaller metropolita ...

, representing ten communities in

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...

's suburbs. These high schools are all members of the

Illinois High School Association The Illinois High School Association (IHSA) is an association that regulates competition of interscholastic sports and some interscholastic activities at the high school level for the state of Illinois. It is a charter member of the National Fed ...

. The high schools of the Upstate Eight Conference are located in Kane County, Cook County, and DuPage County. Originally, the conference had eight member schools, but over time the membership has varied from six to as many as sixteen schools without any change of name.

History

Formed in 1963 its charter members were DeKalb High School, East Aurora High School, Elgin High School,

Larkin High School Larkin High School, also known as LHS, is a public four-year high school located in Elgin, Illinois, in the United States. It is part of Elgin Area School District U46, which also includes Elgin High School, Bartlett High School, South Elgin Hi ...

, Glenbard East High School, Naperville Community,

West Aurora High School West Aurora High School, or WAHS, is a public four-year high school located in Aurora, Illinois. It is part of West Aurora Public School District 129. The school is also referred to as "West," and "West High,". History High school classes were ...

and Wheaton Community high schools. That next year Wheaton Community was renamed Wheaton Central when the district split. In 1965 Glenbard East left to join the Des Plaines Valley League and was replaced by St. Charles High School. Naperville Community and Wheaton Central left in 1975 to join the newly formed

DuPage Valley Conference The DuPage Valley Conference (DVC) is an organization of six high schools in northeastern Illinois, representing seven communities in Chicago's suburbs. These high schools are all members of the Illinois High School Association. The Conference, or ...

Lake Park High School Lake Park High School is a four-year public high school occupying two campuses, both located in Roselle, Illinois, a western suburb of Chicago. Freshmen and sophomores attend the East Campus (the original campus built in 1956), located near Med ...

and newly opened

Streamwood High School Streamwood High School, or SHS, is a public four-year high school located in Streamwood, Illinois, a northwest suburb of Chicago, in the United States. It is part of Elgin Area School District U46, which also includes Bartlett High School, Larki ...

were added in 1979, which led to a stable lineup for the next 12 years.

Waubonsie Valley High School Waubonsie Valley High School (WVHS) is a public four-year high school in Aurora, Illinois, United States. It was established in 1975 and it is one of 3 high schools in Indian Prairie School District 204, along with Neuqua Valley High School and M ...

, located in Aurora, joined in 1991.

left in 1997 to join the

. Newly opened schools Bartlett High School and

Neuqua Valley High School Neuqua Valley High School (NVHS) is a public four-year high school located near the corner of Illinois Route 59 and 95th Street in Naperville, Illinois, a western suburb of Chicago, Illinois, in the United States. Neuqua Valley is the counterpar ...

located in

Naperville Naperville ( ) is a city in DuPage and Will counties in the U.S. state of Illinois. It is in the Chicago metro area, west of the city. Naperville was founded in 1831 by Joseph Naper. The city was established by the banks of the DuPage river, ...

joined in 1998. St. Charles High School split into St. Charles East and St. Charles North in 2000, with St. Charles North joining in 2001.

South Elgin High School South Elgin High School (SEHS), opened August 24, 2005, is a four-year high school located in South Elgin, Illinois, a northwest suburb of Chicago, Illinois, in the United States. It is part of Elgin Area School District U46. The school is located ...

joined upon opening in 2005, preemptively taking DeKalb's place, as they left in 2006. Batavia High School and Geneva High School joined in 2010 following the dissolution of the

Western Sun Conference The Western Sun Conference (WSC) was an organization of eight high schools in northern Illinois, representing eight communities in that part of the state. These high schools are all members of the Illinois High School Association. The conference be ...

, and joined newly opened

Metea Valley High School Metea Valley High School is a high school in Aurora, Illinois that opened in August 2009 in DuPage County. The school is one of four high schools operated by the Indian Prairie School District. Waubonsie Valley High School is also in Aurora, whil ...

in Aurora to bring conference membership to 14 schools. Lake Park left the conference to join the DuPage Valley Conference for the 2013–2014 season and was replaced by

West Chicago West Chicago is a city in DuPage County, Illinois, United States. The population was 27,086 at the 2010 census. It was formerly named Junction and later Turner, after its founder, John B. Turner, president of the Galena and Chicago Union Railroad ...

. Glenbard East High School and

will return to the Upstate Eight Conference for the 2014-2015 athletic season, leaving the

. For the 2015-2016 athletic season,

, and

leave the Upstate Eight conference for the

. Starting in the 2018–2019 school year, St. Charles North, St. Charles East,

Batavia Batavia may refer to: Historical places * Batavia (region), a land inhabited by the Batavian people during the Roman Empire, today part of the Netherlands * Batavia, Dutch East Indies, present-day Jakarta, the former capital of the Dutch East In ...

, and

Geneva Geneva ( ; french: Genève ) frp, Genèva ; german: link=no, Genf ; it, Ginevra ; rm, Genevra is the List of cities in Switzerland, second-most populous city in Switzerland (after Zürich) and the most populous city of Romandy, the French-speaki ...

will leave for the newly formed DuKane Conference along with Wheaton North, Wheaton Warrenville South, Glenbard North, and Lake Park from the

while new member,

Glenbard South High School Glenbard South High School (GSHS) is a public four-year high school located in Glen Ellyn, Illinois, United States. It is part of Glenbard Township High School District 87, and is the smallest of the four Glenbard Township High Schools. It contai ...

joins in and the River and Valley Divisions became eliminated. In 2019–2020 school year, Fenton will replace West Aurora when accepting to leave the conference for the

Southwest Prairie Conference The Southwest Prairie Conference (SPC) is an athletic and competitive activity conference consisting of twelve public high schools in Northern Illinois. These high schools are all members of the Illinois High School Association. History ...

Membership

Former members

* Naperville Community HS split into Naperville Central HS and Naperville North HS (which had no connection with the conference) in 1970.
** School renamed Wheaton Warrenville South HS in 1992. *** In 2000, St. Charles HS renamed St. Charles East when St. Charles North opened in 2001

Timeline

DateFormat = yyyy ImageSize = width:750 height:auto barincrement:20 Period = from:1963 till:2022 TimeAxis = orientation:horizontal PlotArea = right:30 left:0 bottom:50 top:5 Colors = id:barcolor value:rgb(0.99,0.7,0.7) id:line value:black id:bg value:white PlotData= width:15 textcolor:black shift:(5,-5) anchor:from fontsize:s bar:1 color:red from:1963 till:2006 text: DeKalb (1963-2006) bar:2 color:red from:1963 till:end text:

East Aurora East Aurora is a village in Erie County, New York, United States, southeast of Buffalo. It lies in the eastern half of the town of Aurora. The village population was 5,998 per the 2020 census. It is part of the Buffalo–Niagara Falls Met ...

(1963-present) bar:3 color:red from:1963 till:end text: Elgin (1963-present) bar:4 color:red from:1963 till:1965 text: Glenbard East (1963-1965, 2014-present) bar:4 color:red from:2014 till:end bar:5 color:red from:1963 till:end text: Larkin (1963-present) bar:6 color:red from:1963 till:1970 text: Naperville Community (1963-1970) bar:7 color:red from:1963 till:1997 text: West Aurora (1963-1997, 2014-2019) bar:7 color:red from:2014 till:2019 bar:8 color:red from:1963 till:1964 text: Wheaton Community (1963-1964) bar:9 color:red from:1964 till:1975 text:Wheaton Central (1964-1975) bar:10 color:red from:1965 till:2018 text: St. Charles (1965-2018) bar:10 color:red from:2000 till:2018 text:St. Charles East (renamed in 2000) bar:11 color:red from:1970 till:1975 text:Naperville Central (1970-1975) bar:12 color:red from:1979 till:2013 text: Lake Park (1979-2013) bar:13 color:red from:1979 till:end text: Streamwood (1979-present) bar:14 color:red from:1991 till:2015 text: Waubonsie Valley (1991-2015) bar:15 color:red from:1998 till:end text:

Bartlett Bartlett may refer to: Places *Bartlett Bay, Canada, Arctic waterway * Wharerata, New Zealand, also known as Bartletts United States * Bartlett, Illinois ** Bartlett station, a commuter railroad station * Bartlett, Iowa Bartlett is an uninc ...

(1998-present) bar:16 color:red from:1998 till:2015 text: Neuqua Valley (1998-2015) bar:17 color:red from:2001 till:2018 text: St. Charles North (2001-2018) bar:18 color:red from:2005 till:end text: South Elgin (2005-present) bar:19 color:red from:2010 till:2018 text:

(2010-2018) bar:20 color:red from:2010 till:2018 text:

(2010-2018) bar:21 color:red from:2010 till:2015 text: Metea Valley (2010-2015) bar:22 color:red from:2013 shift:(-23,-4) till:end text:

(2013-present) bar:23 color:red from:2018 shift:(-92,-4) till:end text: Glenbard South (2018-present) bar:24 color:red from:2019 shift:(-63,-3) till:end text: Fenton (2019-present) ScaleMajor = gridcolor:line unit:year increment:5 start:1963 TextData = fontsize:L textcolor:black pos:(175,30) # tabs:(0-center) text:"Upstate Eight Conference Membership History 1963-present"

Sports

The conference currently oversees a total of 17 sports. Young men and women may compete 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 ...

bowling Bowling is a target sport and recreational activity in which a player rolls a ball toward pins (in pin bowling) or another target (in target bowling). The term ''bowling'' usually refers to pin bowling (most commonly ten-pin bowling), though ...

Dance Dance is a performing art form consisting of sequences of movement, either improvised or purposefully selected. This movement has aesthetic and often symbolic value. Dance can be categorized and described by its choreography, by its repertoir ...

cheerleading Cheerleading is an activity in which the participants (called cheerleaders) cheer for their team as a form of encouragement. It can range from chanting slogans to intense physical activity. It can be performed to motivate sports teams, to ente ...

, cross country,

chess Chess is a board game for two players, called White and Black, each controlling an army of chess pieces in their color, with the objective to checkmate the opponent's king. It is sometimes called international chess or Western chess to disti ...

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 ...

gymnastics Gymnastics is a type of sport that includes physical exercises requiring balance, strength, flexibility, agility, coordination, dedication and endurance. The movements involved in gymnastics contribute to the development of the arms, legs, shou ...

soccer Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 players who primarily use their feet to propel the ball around a rectangular field called a pitch. The objective of the game is ...

, swimming &

diving Diving most often refers to: * Diving (sport), the sport of jumping into deep water * Underwater diving, human activity underwater for recreational or occupational purposes Diving or Dive may also refer to: Sports * Dive (American football), a ...

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 ...

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 ...

speech Speech is a human vocal communication using language. Each language uses Phonetics, phonetic combinations of vowel and consonant sounds that form the sound of its words (that is, all English words sound different from all French words, even if ...

, 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 ...

. Young men may compete 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 ...

, football, and

wrestling Wrestling is a series of combat sports involving grappling-type techniques such as clinch fighting, throws and takedowns, joint locks, pins and other grappling holds. Wrestling techniques have been incorporated into martial arts, combat ...

, while young women may compete in

badminton Badminton is a racquet sport played using racquets to hit a shuttlecock across a net. Although it may be played with larger teams, the most common forms of the game are "singles" (with one player per side) and "doubles" (with two players pe ...

and

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 ...

References

External links

Upstate Eight Conference

Illinois High School Association, Official Site
{{Illinois High School Association Illinois high school sports conferences