After decades of competing as an independent and trying to change that, Bemidji High School will join the Central Lakes Conference.

The Lumberjacks, who were approved in a vote by representatives of the conference’s schools earlier this month, will begin play in the 11-team conference in fall 2026.

“I’m super excited about it, and the coaches are excited, too,” Bemidji activities director Kristen McRae told the Bemidji Pioneer. “It’s nothing out of the blue for us. We’ve been trying to get into the CLC for years.”

Bemidji had first applied to the Central Lakes Conference in 1999. It applied again 10 years later.

In 1999, Bemidji applied to the Central Lakes Conference and the North Suburban Conference. After being turned down by both, Bemidji asked the Minnesota State High School League (MSHSL) for placement assistance. The MSHSL is required by state law to place a school in a conference, if the school has made a “good faith” effort to join a conference.

In September 1999 the MSHSL tabled a vote on placing Bemidji in a conference and told Bemidji to check into forming a new conference with schools from the Iron Range and Lake Superior conferences before it would intervene.

Ultimately, Bemidji reached a scheduling agreement with the Central Lakes Conference as a regular nonconference opponent. That agreement was renewed in 2005 and again in 2009, after the Central Lakes Conference again turned down Bemidji’s request to become a member.

In 2024, after Detroit Lakes was accepted into the conference, Bemidji again sought to join Central Lakes and this time was accepted. If the Lumberjacks had been rejected, they could have appealed again to the MSHSL for placement.

Bemidji does have a conference history. In the late 1940s, the school played in the Central Seven Conference along with Aitkin, Brainerd, Crosby-Ironton, Little Falls, Staples and Wadena. Bemidji withdrew from the Central Seven in 1951.

In 1955, Bemidji, along with Crookston, East Grand Forks, Fergus Falls and Thief River Falls, formed the Northwest Conference for football. In the mid-1960s, the conference added other sports. It disbanded in 1980.

According to the MSHSL, Bemidji, which has seen its enrollment for grades 9-12 grow in the past two years to 1,331, will be the second-largest school in the conference by enrollment, following Brainerd (1,577). Five other conference schools have enrollments above 1,000: Alexandria (1,204), Sartell (1,173), St. Cloud Tech (1,164) and Sauk Rapids (1,163). They are followed by St. Cloud Apollo (952), Willmar (928), Rocori (743), Detroit Lakes (692) and Fergus Falls (628).

Alexandria, Brainerd, Little Falls, St. Cloud Apollo, St. Cloud Tech and Willmar were the charter members of the conference, which was formed in December 1975. Little Falls left the conference in 2011 to join the Granite Ridge Conference. Cambridge-Isanti, Elk River and Monticello have also been members of the Central Lakes Conference.