St. Louis Park High School Joins New Metro West Conference

St. Louis Park is one of seven high schools that will be part of a newly formed “Metro West Conference,” the district announced.

The School Board voted unanimously Tuesday morning to leave the North Suburban Conference and join four other school districts in starting the new conference beginning in the fall of 2014, according to a news release.

The conference currently includes:

• Bloomington Jefferson and Bloomington Kennedy from Bloomington Public Schools,
• Chanhassen and Chaska from Eastern Carver County Schools,
• Richfield,
• Robbinsdale Cooper and
• St. Louis Park.

The conference is still accepting applications from other schools that want to join.

“Getting the right group of schools was important, we are excited to be with schools that share similar demographics and athletic, arts and activities programming,” the release quoted St. Louis Park High School Athletic Director Andrew Ewald. “The opportunity to partner with six other schools that share the same philosophy and desire to provide a comprehensive experience with competitive balance is really exciting.”  

The new conference aims to “align mid-size high schools from the Twin Cities west and south metro,” the release stated.

Location also was a major factor. The new conference will nearly halve the average one-way trip time—dropping from 22 miles in the North Suburban Conference to 12 miles in the Metro West Conference.

“This will make week night, away contests more manageable for our participants with homework and studying and hopefully increase the number of fans that travel to support our teams,” the news release quoted Ewald.  

The Metro West conference will have “a full complement of Minnesota State High School League-sponsored activities and athletics.”