BHS is joining the Prairie Conference

By Reed Anfinson
Benson High School will be a member of the Prairie Conference starting with the 2025-2026 school year. Its schools are all northeast of Benson.
Monday night’s unanimous vote by the District 777 Board of Education to join the Prairie Conference ends its efforts to leave the West Central Conference and find a new home.
The move to the Prairie Conference will have BHS competing against schools more its own size rather than some that are twice the student population.
In the 1960s and early 1970s, Benson’s class sizes were nearly three times what they are today. Class sizes reached 180. In 1971, at the peak of the high school’s student population, there were nearly 560 kids in grades 10 through 12. Those large class sizes meant a lot more students to choose from for athletics.
But during the following decades, Benson High School saw its student population steadily fall while other communities in the West Central Conference grew. BHS grades 10 through 12 now have a population of 151 as of July’s enrollment report. Class sizes between grades kindergarten through 9th range in size from 44 to 64.
West Central Conference schools Melrose, Sauk Centre, and Minnewaska schools have been growing as Benson schools have stabilized population loss but remain at numbers far below some of its sports competitors.
Benson has been a member of the West Central Conference (WCC) since the mid-1930s. It was embedded in the identity of BHS students and fans. It was a competitive conference with schools cherishing their rivalries.
Through the first decades of competition in the WCC, student populations weren’t a factor for state tournaments with all schools in one class. Benson played the much larger schools of Willmar, Litchfield and Alexandria and could hold its own despite the difference in school sizes.
But today, BHS sports teams with their small numbers struggle to achieve a .500 record in most sports as they compete against larger schools.
For several years, the school district was trying to join the Camden Conference, but its schools repeatedly denied Benson membership.
Athletic Director Jill Lipp told the school board that the current members of the Prairie Conference are:
- Browerville-Eagle Valley
- Long Prairie-Grey Eagle
- Osakis
- Saint John’s Prep
- Swanville
- Upsala

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