The North Suburban Conference (NSC) is an extra-curricular conference of eight high schools located in Lake County, Illinois, in the northern suburbs of Chicago. All of the schools are members of the Illinois High School Association (IHSA). History Founded in 1948, seven schools located in the northern suburbs of Chicago banded together to create the North Suburban Conference, not to be confused with the Northwest Suburban Conference which was formed in 1925. The original members included Crystal Lake, Grayslake, Lake Forest, Libertyville, Gurnee Warren, Woodstock and Zion-Benton. In 1952, Grayslake and Barrington would switch conferences with Grayslake heading to the Northwest Suburban and Barrington joining the North Suburban. In 1953, McHenry joined the league and Dundee entered in 1957. In the same year, Lake Forest and Gurnee Warren would leave and join the Northwest Suburban. Similar to the previous mentioned switch, Palatine would join the conference from the Northwest Suburban, also in 1957 but eventually leave for the Tri County Conference in 1964. To replace Palatine, North Chicago left the Tri County to join the North Suburban, also in 1964. For 10 years, the league would remain constant, however, in 1973, Woodstock left and Lake Forest would make their return. In addition to Lake Forest, the conference also welcomed Dundee-Crown and Mundelein that same year, taking the total number of schools to 10. Five schools would leave the conference in the late 1970's, Dundee in 1976, Barrington in 1977 and Crown, Crystal Lake and McHenry all exiting for the newly formed Fox Valley Conference in 1978. Unfortunately the league could only add Maine North, from the O'Hare Suburban Conference, as a replacement school to keep the total at six. The following year, in 1979, as the conference pushed to expand, Fenton, from the O'Hare Suburban, Niles North, from the Central Suburban and West Leyden, from the Des Plaines Valley, all joined the league. As the 1980's began, the conference totaled 9, however, in 1981, Maine North would close and West Leyden consolidated with East Leyden who was a member of the Des Plaines Valley, taking the total back down to 7 schools. Stevenson joined in 1982 and Antioch in 1983. Gurnee Warren made their return in 1983 as well. For the remainder of the 1980's the conference stayed status quo at 10 schools. After the 1991 school year, Niles North would leave and Fenton would do the same in 1995.