The Tomahawk Conference and the Valley Conference have voted to merge the two conferences starting with the 2024-25 school year. Both conferences voted that this would be for a 2-year period with each conference voting at that time to either continue as the Tomahawk Valley Conference or to dissolve the merger. The Tomahawk Valley Conference schools will be in two divisions for some sports, with the champion in each division playing a championship game for the Tomahawk Valley Conference Championship. Members of the Tomahawk division will be Buffalo Lake/Hector/Stewart, Cedar Mountain, Gibbon/Fairfax/Winthrop, New Ulm Cathedral, Sleepy Eye Public, Sleepy Eye St. Mary’s, Springfield, and Wabasso. Members of the Valley division will be Alden Conger, Cleveland, Granade Huntley East Chain, Loyola Catholic, Martin County West, Martin Luther, Madelia, Nicollet, and Truman.
Sports that will be played in divisions will be Volleyball, Girls Basketball, Boys Basketball, Softball and Baseball. Cross Country, Wrestling, Golf, and Track may be in meets with any of the schools in the Tomahawk Valley Conference, but at the end of each season there will be a championship meet with the number of schools that are in that sport. It is anticipated that Knowledge Bowl, Speech, and One Act Play will be together for a conference meet.
Minnesota Valley Lutheran will be leaving the Tomahawk Conference at the end of the 2023-24 school year. When we look at track, that leaves the Tomahawk with 3 teams made up of 7 schools. There are also pairings in Cross Country and Boys and Girls Golf giving the conference less teams for competition in these meets. This merger will add teams to those sports, providing more competition.
Athletic Directors from both conferences are working on the Constitution and Policies for this new conference. They are scheduling dates for the championship games and meets for Cross Country, Golf and Track. There are still decisions that need to be made with this merger, so it is ready to go in the fall of 2024.