Established 1984 Sports fielded 10 boys and 9 girls Country United States | Members 13 State Championships 49 | |
Classification OHSAA Division II, III, and IV | ||
The North Coast League (NCL) is a high school athletic conference for Catholic schools in Greater Cleveland, Ohio.
Contents
Member schools
The North Coast League was founded by six parochial high schools in 1984. Its original members were Cleveland Central Catholic, Holy Name. Lake Catholic, Padua Franciscan, St. Peter Chanel, and Trinity. Notre Dame-Cathedral Latin (1991) and Elyria Catholic (1995) joined the league shortly after it was founded. The schools were then separated into two four-team divisions based on enrollment. Villa Angela-St. Joseph joined the league in 2004 and Archbishop Hoban in 2005, but Cleveland Central Catholic left, creating unevenly sized divisions. Central Catholic re-joined the league in 2006, creating a balanced ten-team lineup.
In 2011, the NCL added Beaumont, Benedictine, Walsh Jesuit, and Warren John F. Kennedy high schools. Elyria Catholic left the league to join the West Shore Conference. Benedictine is an all-boys school and Beaumont is an all-girls school, so twelve schools compete in most sports, in two divisions of six schools each.
St. Peter Chanel left the North Coast League on July 1, 2013 due to the school's closing. St. Thomas Aquinas joined the North Coast League on that date. In 2014, Holy Name announced that they would be leaving the North Coast League for the new Great Lake Conference effective July 1, 2015. Later that year, Youngstown Christian School (later renamed Valley Christian School), which was independent of a league, was unanimously accepted to replace Holy Name. YCS is the first North Coast League school that is not operated by a Roman Catholic diocese or order. However, Valley Christian would only spend three years in the NCL, as it will be joining the Portage Trail Conference effective July 1, 2017.
The NCL is currently made up of 13 schools across 7 counties in northeast Ohio. The schools are separated into two divisions, based on their enrollment. The Blue Division consists of larger schools, while the White Division is made up of smaller schools.
Blue Division (larger schools)
A Beaumont (all girls) and Benedicine (all boys) compete as a tandem.
Rivalries
Archbishop Hoban vs. Walsh Jesuit
Benedictine vs. Cleveland Central Catholic
Benedictine vs. Lake Catholic
Benedictine vs. NDCL
Cleveland Central Catholic vs. VASJ
Lake Catholic vs. NDCL
Lake Catholic vs. Walsh Jesuit
Trinity vs. Cleveland Central Catholic
State championships
This chart only includes state championships won by the schools while in the North Coast League.
Football
During the season, every school must play five league games, one against every other school in its own division. They are generally played the final five weeks of the season. Schools are also allowed to schedule schools in the other division, however these games are considered independent and do not count in NCL standings. Prior to 2011, each school played an additional school in the other division in a "crossover" game. The crossover opponents rotated on two-year stints.
In 2013 only, the White Division only had five schools, as Chanel closed in July 2013 and St. Thomas Aquinas did not play a NCL football schedule until 2014. The schools in the White Division only played four league games that year. This will occur again beginning in 2017, after Valley Christian leaves the NCL for the Portage Trail Conference.
Other sports
In other sports, such as basketball and volleyball, where more games are played during the season, each school must play 10 games against NCL opponents. Every school plays every other school in its division twice (once home, once away) Schools are also allowed to schedule schools in the other division, however these games are considered independent and do not count in NCL standings. Prior to the 2011 expansion, schools played 13 games: a home-and-away series against division opponents and a single game against inter-division foes.
In other sports such as track and swimming where schools have "meets" instead of individual games, there is one NCL meet for all schools in the league. For ice hockey a tournament is played in December to determine the conference champion as teams do not play an NCL schedule during the regular season.