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DVC, UEC schools to form new eight-team conference

Four schools from the DuPage Valley Conference and four from the Upstate Eight Conference have agreed to form a new eight-team conference beginning in the 2018-19 school year.

Wheaton North principal Matt Biscan confirmed the move in a statement released Sunday. Glenbard North, Lake Park, Wheaton North and Wheaton Warrenville South from the DVC, and Batavia, Geneva, St. Charles East and St. Charles North from the UEC made the decision official on Wednesday.

The new league will be called the DuKane Conference, Biscan said.

"All schools involved have communicated their intent to their current conferences with which they will maintain membership through the 2017-2018 school year," Biscan said.

Sensing a growing disparity in enrollment numbers in the DVC, Biscan and WW South principal Dave Claypool met last month with counterparts from the UEC. Also last month, the remaining five DVC members - Metea Valley, Naperville Central, Naperville North, Neuqua Valley and Waubonsie Valley - announced they were actively seeking to expand.

Metea Valley principal and DVC president Darrell Echols said on Saturday that the DVC has invited three unnamed schools to join the DVC in hopes of returning to an eight-team league.

To comply with DVC bylaws and be able to form the new conference in time for the 2018-19 school year, the four departing schools needed to inform the remaining DVC schools of their intention to leave by Dec. 1.

"This decision is the result of each school's desire to provide many conference-based opportunities for students in all levels of academic and athletic programs," Biscan said.

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