Red Wing, an original member of the Big Nine Conference in its second stint in the conference, has been accepted by the Hiawatha Valley League.

The Wingers, who rejoined the Big Nine Conference in 2014, will begin play in the Hiawatha Valley League in the 2026-27 school year after a unanimous 9-0 vote was announced by Pine Island High School on Tuesday.

The Wingers will become the 10th team in the southeastern Minnesota conference, joining Byron, Cannon Falls, Goodhue, Kasson-Mantorville, Lake City, Pine Island, Rochester Lourdes, Stewartville and Zumbrota-Mazeppa.

A post on the Pine Island Facebook page read: “The addition of Red Wing promises to be a great fit with the many Athletic and Fine Arts opportunities our league has to offer! Welcome Wingers!”

The Wingers were one of eight schools — along with Albert Lea, Austin, Faribault, Mankato, Owatonna, Rochester and Winona — included when the conference that became the Big Nine was founded as the Big Eight in 1928. The Wingers left the conference in 1982 to join the Missota Conference. The Missota disbanded after the 2013-14 school year. Red Wing and Northfield, which had been a member of the Big Nine from 1934 to 1969 before joining the Missota, then rejoined the Big Nine.

Red Wing, which had the smallest enrollment of the 12 members of the Big Nine Conference, will be fourth in enrollment in the Hiawatha Valley League.