High School Football in the 618 Area Code

Why the 618 area code? The Southern area of Illinois is typically considered the area that includes "Southern 4" which is the the historic Black Diamond, the South Seven Conference and the new kids on the block which are the two divisions of the Southern Illinois River-to-River formed in 1993 from the South West Egyptian Conference and parts of the South Seven.

Teams in the Southern 4 conferences are the football teams predominantly covered by the regional print, radio, and television media. The most immediate coverage area includes some tremendous powerhouse football traditions, but why stop there? The newer version of the South Seven conference includes Belleville Altoff and Cahokia and the teams from that area are very strong including Southwestern Conference large schools like East St. Louis, which is not unique for them to be ranked in the countries top polls. Those are generally considered St. Louis Metro Illinois teams and that can include conferences like the Cahokia Conference, the Mississippi Valley and the newer combined South Central Conference.

We don't want to leave out the strong smaller schools in the Little Illini Conference, or the larger schools in the Apollo. The majority of teams are in the IHSA Class 2A-4A with a small group of teams in 5A and larger and only a small handful of 1A teams in the Western Illinois Valley South.

Illinois high school sports teams in this area could be considered out of Southern Illinois and we wanted to reach teams covered by local media and those that are in the gaps of different markets. The most important thing that we wanted to do was create a community. This is why the 618 area code is the separation point and the name of the online community is 618football.com, Where every Game Matters! We cover as many teams as we can in Illinois and sometimes get outside of the 618 area code. 618 Football can not do it without the fans helping out on facebook.com/618football and twitter.com/618football and talking in our forums. Sending us video, uploading photos and spreading the word, we thank you all!