The Centralia High School Board of Education will meet tonight to discuss and possibly vote on leaving the South Seven Conference and accepting the invitation from the Cahokia Conference. Centralia was a charter member of the conference that has been around for 85 years.
Superintendant Chuck Lane has said that enrollment decline at CHS will play a major role in their decision making to ensure the best for Centralia Athletics. Centralia (887) is the second to smallest school currently in the South Seven behind Mt. Vernon (1217), Marion (1122), and Carbondale (1019) and ahead of Cahokia (764). Highland, who will join the conference in 2026-27, has an enrollment of 832. If CHS makes the jump they would be the largest school in the Mississippi Division of the Cahokia.
Should Centralia choose to leave, the South Seven would remain with tough football scheduling with five teams, while the new eight-team Cahokia Mississippi would only need to find two non-conference games.
