Cascade Conference (MHSAA) explained

The Cascade Conference is a Michigan high school athletic conference that was formed prior to the 1954 school year. The conference includes mostly Class C schools and one Class B school with the majority of its members being from Jackson County along with one member each from Calhoun, Hillsdale, Ingham, Lenawee, and Washtenaw counties.

History

Formation

The Cascades Conference was formed in 1954 with ten schools from the Jackson County League. The original members were: Brooklyn, Concord, East Jackson, Grass Lake, Hanover-Horton, Jackson Vandercook Lake, Michigan Center, Napoleon, Parma and Springport high schools.

Red and Blue

With the growth of suburbs, some Cascades Conference schools grew more rapidly than others. This led to the creation of the Red and Blue divisions. Between 1983 and 1996, four schools were listed as Cascades-Red Members: Jackson Lumen Christi, Jackson Northwest, Parma Jackson County Western and Brooklyn Columbia Central. In 1996, Jackson Northwest and Jackson Lumen Christi left the Cascades Red for the Capital-Circuit Conference.^[1] Brooklyn Columbia Central left the Cascades Red after 1995 and competed as an independent for two years, before joining the Lenawee County Conference at the start of the 1997 school year.^[2] Parma Jackson County Western left the Cascades Red after the 1995 school year and joined the Twin Valley Conference.^[3]

Expansion

In 2022, the Cascades Conference was looking to expand from eight to twelve schools for the 2022–23 school year. On June 13, Brooklyn Columbia Central of the Lenawee County Athletic Association accepted their invite to join the Cascades, which they were previously a member of from 1968 to 1996. A little over a week later, Leslie, a member of the Greater Lansing Athletic Conference accepted their invitation as well. Within a few weeks after Columbia Central and Leslie joined, two Big "8" members, Jonesville and Homer accepted their invitations to join the conference as well. All four schools will be joining the conference for the 2022–23 school year.^[4]

With the Cascades Conference expanding to twelve teams, the conference decided to split the league into two geographical divisions (East and West).^[5]

Cascades Conference Divisions

East	West
East Jackson	Addison
Grass Lake	Columbia Central
Leslie	Hanover-Horton
Manchester	Homer
Michigan Center	Jonesville
Napoleon	Vandercook Lake

Member schools

Current members

The following institutions are full members of the Cascade Conference for the 2022–23 school year:

School Name	Location	Nickname	Class	Enrollment	Joined	Colors	Previous Conference
		Panthers	C	229	1988		Lenawee County Athletic Association
		Golden Eagles	B	410	1968 2023		Lakeland "C" Conference Lenawee County Athletic Association
		Trojans	C	229	1954		Jackson County League
		Warriors	C	354	1954 1976		Jackson County League Southern Central Athletic Association
		Comets	C	297	1954 1960 (football) 1976		Jackson County League Independent Southern Central Athletic Association
Homer		Trojans	C	277	2023		Big "8" Conference
Jonesville		Comets	C	342	2023		Big "8" Conference
Leslie		Black Hawks	C	332	2023		Greater Lansing Athletic Conference
		Flying Dutchmen	C	281	1983		Lenawee County Athletic Association
		Cardinals	C	374	1954		Jackson County League
		Pirates	C	358	1954		Jackson County League
		Jayhawks	C	194	1954		Jackson County League

Notes:

Former members

School Name	Location	Nickname	Joined	Previous Conference	Left	Successive Conference	Current Conference
Brooklyn		Golden Eagles	1954	Jackson County League	1960	Mid-Southern Conference	Closed in 1967
Concord		Yellowjackets	1954	Jackson County League	1973	Big "8" Conference
		Titans	1983 1991 (football)	Independent	1996	Capital Circuit League	Interstate 8 Conference
		Mounties	1960 1983	Independent Twin Valley Athletic Association	1976 1996	Independent Capital Circuit League	Interstate 8 Conference
Parma		Panthers	1954	Jackson County League	1961	Closed in 1961
Parma Jackson County Western		Panthers	1961 1983	New school Southeastern Conference	1976 1996	Independent Twin Valley Athletic Association	Interstate 8 Conference
Springport		Spartans	1954	Jackson County League	1963	Independent (football) Cereal Center Conference	Big "8" Conference

Notes:

Membership timeline

DateFormat= yyyyImageSize= width:1250 height:auto barincrement:20Period= from:1954 till:2025TimeAxis= orientation:horizontalPlotArea= right:100 left:0 bottom:50 top:5 #> to display a count on left side of graph, use "left:20" to suppress the count, use "left:20"<#Colors= id:barcolor id:line value:black id:bg value:white id:Full value:rgb(0.742,0.727,0.852) # Use this color to denote a team that is a member in all sports (one division) id:FullB value:rgb(0.5,0.6,0.824) # Use this color to denote a team that was a member of the Blue Division id:FullR value:rgb(0.98,0.5,0.445) # Use this color to denote a team that was a member of the Red Division id:FullxF value:rgb(0.551,0.824,0.777) # Use this color to denote a team that is a non-football member id:FullRxF value:rgb(0.988,0.703,0.383) # Use this color to denote a team that was a non-football member of the Red Division id:OtherC value:rgb(0.996,0.996,0.699) # Use this color to denote a team that has moved in another conference

PlotData= width:15 textcolor:black shift:(5,-5) anchor:from fontsize:s

bar:1 color:Full from:1954 till:1960 text:Brooklyn (1954–1960) bar:1 color:OtherC from:1960 till:1967

bar:2 color:Full from:1954 till:1973 text:Concord (1954-1973) bar:2 color:OtherC from:1973 till:end

bar:3 color:Full from:1954 till:1983 text:East Jackson (1954–present) bar:3 color:FullB from:1983 till:1996 bar:3 color:Full from:1996 till:end

bar:4 color:Full from:1954 till:1964 text:Grass Lake (1954–1964; 1976-Present) bar:4 color:OtherC from:1964 till:1976 bar:4 color:Full from:1976 till:1983 bar:4 color:FullB from:1983 till:1996 bar:4 color:Full from:1996 till:end

bar:5 color:FullxF from:1954 till:1960 text:Hanover-Horton (1954–1965; 1976-Present) bar:5 color:Full from:1960 till:1965 bar:5 color:OtherC from:1965 till:1976 bar:5 color:Full from:1976 till:1983 bar:5 color:FullB from:1983 till:1996 bar:5 color:Full from:1996 till:end

bar:6 color:Full from:1954 till:1983 text:Michigan Center (1954-Present) bar:6 color:FullB from:1983 till:1996 bar:6 color:Full from:1996 till:end

bar:7 color:Full from:1954 till:1983 text:Napoleon (1954-Present) bar:7 color:FullB from:1983 till:1996 bar:7 color:Full from:1996 till:end

bar:8 color:Full from:1954 till:1961 text:Parma (1954-1961)

bar:9 color:Full from:1954 till:1963 text:Springport (1954–1963) bar:9 color:OtherC from:1963 till:end

bar:10 color:Full from:1954 till:1983 text:Vandercook Lake (1954-Present) bar:10 color:FullB from:1983 till:1996 bar:10 color:Full from:1996 till:2020 bar:10 color:FullxF from:2020 till:2024 bar:10 color:Full from:2024 till:end

bar:11 color:Full from:1960 till:1976 text:Jackson Northwest (1960-1976; 1983-1996) bar:11 color:OtherC from:1976 till:1983 bar:11 color:FullR from:1983 till:1996 bar:11 color:OtherC from:1996 till:end

bar:12 color:Full from:1961 till:1976 text:Parma Jackson County Western (1961–1976; 1983-1996) bar:12 color:OtherC from:1976 till:1983 bar:12 color:FullR from:1983 till:1996 bar:12 color:OtherC from:1996 till:end

bar:13 color:Full from:1968 till:1983 text:Brooklyn Columbia Central (1968–1996; 2023-Present) bar:13 color:FullR from:1983 till:1996 bar:13 color:OtherC from:1996 till:2023 bar:13 color:Full from:2023 till:end

bar:14 color:FullRxF from:1983 till:1991 text:Jackson Lumen Christi (1983-1996) bar:14 color:FullR from:1991 till:1996 bar:14 color:OtherC from:1996 till:end

bar:15 color:FullB from:1983 till:1996 text:Manchester (1983-Present) bar:15 color:Full from:1996 till:end

bar:16 color:FullB from:1988 till:1996 text:Addison (1988-Present) bar:16 color:Full from:1996 till:end

bar:17 color:Full from:2023 till:end text:Homer (2023-Present)

bar:18 color:Full from:2023 till:end text:Jonesville (2023-Present)

bar:19 color:Full from:2023 till:end text:Leslie (2023-Present)

ScaleMajor= gridcolor:line unit:year increment:2 start:1954TextData = fontsize:L textcolor:black pos:(0,30) tabs:(600-center) text:^"Cascades Membership History"

1. > If the chart uses more than one bar color, add a legend by selecting the appropriate fields from the following six options (use only the colors that are used in the graphic.) Leave a blank line after the end of the timeline, then add a line with the selected values from the list, separated by a space. <#

Notes and References

1. Web site: Jackson Northwest Mounties All-Time Michigan High School Football Scores . Michigan-football.com . August 11, 2013.
2. Web site: Brooklyn Columbia Central Golden Eagles All-Time Michigan High School Football Scores . Michigan-football.com . August 11, 2013.
3. Web site: Parma Jackson County Western Panthers All-Time Michigan High School Football Scores . Michigan-football.com . August 11, 2013.
4. Web site: Ingles . Eric . New era on the horizon for Cascades Conference . MLive . 21 September 2022 . July 11, 2022.
5. News: Donnelly . Doug . Cascades Conference to divide in 2023-24 . 21 September 2022 . The Daily Telegram . September 1, 2022.