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By Jim Wieners

Say “good bye” to the Suburban North Conference. Say “hello” to the Suburban XII (12) North Conference.

St. Louis area prep Suburban Conferences have gone from four to six with the reduction in size of conference from as many as nine teams then to now as many as five or six teams in each Suburban Conference beginning this fall.

Since the mid-1960s the Suburban North Conference was formed with Hazelwood, McCluer, Normandy, Pattonville, Ritenour, Riverview Gardens and St. Charles as original members. During the 1970s McCluer North, Hazelwood East and Hazelwood West were added, Hazelwood became Hazelwood Central and St. Charles left to start the Suburban West Conference and is now a part of the Gateway Athletic Conference North Division. About a decade ago Normandy, now a Collaborative, left the Suburban North and was part of the Suburban East.

Today six of the remaining eight Suburban North Conference members are now a part of the Suburban XII North. They are Hazelwood Central, Hazelwood East, Hazelwood West, McCluer North, McCluer and Riverview Gardens. Five of the six had played in at least one state football title game with four of them winning at least once (Hazelwood West has not been to a state football final).

The other two former Suburban North members, Pattonville and Ritenour, are now a part of the Suburban XII South and will compete against Kirkwood, Parkway North, Rockwood-Summit and Webster Groves.

While the three Hazelwood Schools and two Ferguson-Florissant Schools are part of the Suburban XII North the third Ferguson-Florissant School, McCluer South-Berkeley is now a part of the Suburban Central A Conference and joins former Suburban East rivals Jennings, Normandy and Affton as well as Maplewood-Richmond Heights, who had played football in the Mississippi Area Football Conference Blue Division.

AAA FOOTBALL SWAP-DuBOURG, RITTER-The Archdiocesan Athletic Association has made a change with two schools changing football conferences and not because of enrollment. Bishop DuBourg, a Class Three school is now in the Small Division with two Class Two schools, Trinity Catholic and Lutheran St. Charles, as well as O’Fallon Christian (Class Three) and John F. Kennedy (Class Four) — who will have players from Valley Park, a school with no Football, as a co-op. Cardinal Ritter, a Class Two school, is now in the Large Division with Duchesne (Class Three) and Three Class Four schools — St. Dominic, St. Francis Borgia and St. Mary’s (an All-Boys School).

Also joining the AAA is Notre Dame (St. Louis-Lemay) the second All-Girls School.

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