Midland Empire Conference
The Midland Empire Conference (also called MEC) is a high school activity conference whose members are located in Missouri. The conference participates in the MSHSAA.
The League was created during a March 1962 meeting at Armstrong's Restaurant in Maryville, Missouri and took effect in the 1962-63 school year. The original five schools were four schools from St. Joseph, Missouri (Benton, Christian Brothers (which would fold into LeBlond), and Lafayette) and two other schools from northwest Missouri (Maryville and Savannah). The arrangement created a league of schools of comparable size (the St. Joseph schools earlier competed in the Pony Express Conference which included the much larger St. Joseph Central High School as well as larger suburban Kansas City schools while Savannah and Maryville competed in the Northwest Missouri Conference with much smaller schools.[1]
Discussions of creating a conference of larger comprable sized schools in northwest Missouri had been discussed since at at least 1925 but never quite materialized.[2]
Member schools
There are eight members of the Midland Empire Conference:
| School | Team Name | Colors | Town | County | Enrollment (2010-11 & 2011–12) | Primary MSHSAA class* | Football class |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Benton High School | (Lady) Cardinals | St. Joseph | Buchanan | 846 | 4 | 4 | |
| Bishop LeBlond High School | (Lady) Golden Eagles | St. Joseph | Buchanan | 314 | 3 | 2 | |
| Cameron High School | (Lady) Dragons | Cameron | Clinton | 503 | 3 | 3 | |
| Chillicothe High School (Missouri) | (Lady) Hornets | Chillicothe | Livingston | 638 | 4 | 3 | |
| Lafayette High School | Fighting Irish | St. Joseph | Buchanan | 801 | 4 | 4 | |
| Maryville High School | (Lady) Spoofhounds | Maryville | Nodaway | 473 | 3 | 3 | |
| Savannah High School | (Lady) Savages | Savannah | Andrew | 743 | 4 | 4 | |
| Smithville High School | (Lady) Warriors | Smithville | Clay | 727 | 4 | 4 |