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Appearances by Black Diamond Schools
the Diamond
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© 2001-2011 J. Williams | Zeigler-Royalton High School | Contact |
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History & Facts
Chester Joins BDC, Goreville Coming On- Board in 2011
In the latest change to affect the Black Diamond Conference, Goreville High School will join the BDC starting in the 2011-2012 school year. The Blackcats already compete as part of a co-op in football with conference member Vienna and will compete in the BDC West in those sports which are divided by division. Goreville is currently a member of the South Egyptian Conference. Carterville High School left the Black Diamond Conference at the end of the 2009-2010 school year and was replaced by Chester High School in a conference swap with the Southern Illinois River-to-River Mississippi Division. Carterville was a charter member of the Black Diamond as well as its forerunner, the Coal Belt Conference. Chester High School was an original member of the now-defunct Southwest Egyptian Conference before it restructured as part of the SIRR. Vienna High School joined the league in 2008, replacing former member Cairo. The Eagles completed their first varsity football season since the 1930’s in 2009.
Realignment of the Black Diamond Conference began with the 2003-2004 school year. New member schools joining at that time were Carmi-White County and Fairfield (from the now-defunct North Egypt Conference) and former conference member Trico. The realignment also brought in affiliate members Eldorado, Hamilton County and Cairo as full-time conference schools. Prior to the expansion, the last team to join the conference was Johnston City in 1976.
With the added schools, the BDC reorganized into two divisions– the Black Diamond West and East– in girls and boys basketball and girls volleyball. The geographical dividing line is Interstate 57. The divisions also kept the remaining original conference schools (Carterville, Christopher, Elverado, Sesser-Valier, and Zeigler-Royalton) in the same division in order to preserve tradition. Vienna now competes in the BDC-East division (replacing Cairo), while Chester will replace Carterville in the West division.
In football, the Black Diamond has a “closed” nine-game schedule. With only ten football programs involving the twelve schools ( Christopher and Zeigler-Royalton have co-op program as do Elverado and Trico), the Diamond football race is contested in only one division with all members playing each other. The football schedule conducts “Rivals Week” during week five of the season.
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Black Diamond Conference Basketball & Volleyball Alignment |
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BDC West |
BDC East |
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Chester) |
Carmi/White Co. |
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Christopher |
Eldorado |
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Elverado |
Fairfield |
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Sesser-Valier |
Hamilton Co. |
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Trico |
Johnston City |
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Zeigler-Royalton |
Vienna |
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2010-2011 BDC Enrollments By School |
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Carmi/White Co. |
416 |
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Chester |
323 |
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Christopher |
249 |
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Eldorado |
340 |
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Elverado |
165 |
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Fairfield |
477 |
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Hamilton Co. |
416 |
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Johnston City |
373 |
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Sesser-Valier |
231 |
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Trico |
265 |
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Vienna |
388 |
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Zeigler-Royalton |
200 |
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2010 BDC Football Enrollments |
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Carmi/White Co. |
416 |
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Chester |
362 |
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CZR |
449 |
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Eldorado* |
442 |
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Elverado/Trico* |
430 |
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Fairfield |
477 |
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Hamilton Co. |
416 |
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Johnston City |
373 |
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Sesser-Valier* |
542 |
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Vienna* |
599 |
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* Participates in Co-op Program
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Black Diamond History and Facts |
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¨ The Black Diamond Conference originated as a football-only conference in 1949. The original schools were members of the Coal Belt Conference for other sports along with Hurst-Bush (now defunct) which did not play football at that time. |
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¨ The original Black Diamond schools were Carterville, Christopher, Sesser, and Zeigler. |
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¨ The first Black Diamond basketball race was in 1956 when the conference began full-time play in all sports offered. |
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¨ IHSA State Football Champions from the BDC are Zeigler-Royalton (1982-Class 1A) and Carterville (1996-Class 3A). |
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¨ Current members McLeansboro (now Hamilton County-1984) joined Johnston City (1929) as Illinois State Boys Basketball champions. |
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¨ Sesser-Valier (2nd place, 2010) became the first Diamond school to win a trophy in the 4-class boys state tourney. |
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¨ The only other charter BDC schools reaching the IHSA boys state tournament were Zeigler (1936, 1937, 1939) and Carterville (1987). Former member Carbondale University High placed 4th in 1915. |
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¨ Eldorado is the only current conference member to have won an IHSA State Boys Track & Field Championship (1925). Former member Cairo won championships in 1983, 1985, 1988, 1990 and 1992. |
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¨ Carterville’s Lady Lions (charter members until 2010-2011) won the IHSA Class 2A State Softball Championship in 2008. Johnston City placed 2nd in 1998, 3rd in 1999, and 2nd in 2010, and recent new member Vienna placed 4th in 1994 and 3rd in 1995. |
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¨ The Johnston City Lady Indians have currently won or shared BDC softball titles for an astounding 20 consecutive seasons, a record for any conference school in any sport. |
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¨ The Carmi Bulldogs boys golf team won an amazing five consecutive IHSA State Golf Team Championships from 1975 to 1979. |
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¨ Do you have other interesting facts about the Black Diamond Conference to contribute to the web site? Send us E-mail. |