The Wisconsin Independent Schools Athletic Association traces its origin back to a predecessor organization formed in 1957, the
Wisconsin Catholic Interscholastic Athletic Association. Around the same time as the WCIAA was formed, many new non-Catholic private high schools opened in the state of Wisconsin, and in 1968, the forty-one member schools of the WCIAA added thirteen new members outside of the organization to form the initial WISAA roster: •
Fox Valley Lutheran High School (
Appleton) •
Luther High School (
Onalaska) •
Milwaukee Lutheran High School •
Northwestern Military & Naval Academy (
Lake Geneva) •
Queen of Apostles High School (
Madison) •
Racine Lutheran High School •
St. John's Military Academy (
Delafield) •
The Prairie School (
Wind Point) •
University Lake School (
Hartland) •
University School of Milwaukee (
River Hills) •
Wayland Academy (
Beaver Dam) •
Wisconsin Lutheran High School (
Milwaukee) In the early 1970s, WISAA became a leader in promoting interscholastic girls' athletics, sponsoring the first statewide girls' track meet in 1971, just over a year before
Title IX was written into law. The next year, WISAA admitted five all-girls high schools into the organization: four in
Milwaukee (
Divine Savior Holy Angels,
Mercy,
St. Joan Antida and
St. Mary's Academy) and
St. Joseph Academy in
Green Bay. Membership levels fluctuated over the course of WISAA's history, but the organization generally had between 50 and 65 member schools at any given time. By the 1990s, there were increasing calls to merge WISAA into the
WIAA to create a single statewide governing body for interscholastic athletics. This became a reality in 1997 when a merger agreement was reached between the two organizations, and it was finalized for the 2000–01 school year. The last remaining vestige of the organization is the
Midwest Classic Conference, which is the only WISAA-affiliated conference to move over to the WIAA after the merger. == Executive Directors ==