No expansion in the cards for NEC

At a meeting on Thursday, the Northeastern Conference voted not to admit the Greater Boston League and Masconomet Regional High School into the conference at Calitri’s Restaurant in Danvers.”We would just have a bigger league,” NEC secretary-treasurer Dick Baker said. “I think the league felt it would rather keep it the way it is.”Baker also said, “Masconomet has a very high percentage of athletes participating. I think some schools felt they wouldn’t be able to compete.”The 12 NEC school principals voted not to admit the GBL by a 6-6 vote. They voted not to admit Masco by a 3-9 margin. Neither measure gained the required two-thirds majority.”They just voted,” Baker said. “They’d already discussed it all. There was very little discussion (Thursday). They voted.”Three of the 12 schools voted to admit both the GBL and Masco: Lynn English, Marblehead and Peabody. Swampscott, Lynn Classical and Revere joined them in voting to admit the GBL, but not Masco.Beverly, Danvers, Gloucester, Salem, Saugus and Winthrop voted no on both counts.”I called the school’s name, and they would vote in favor or not,” Baker said. “We had a lot of other things. This was the first item on the agenda.”In 2008, the NEC had invited schools that wanted to join the conference to apply.”We stated last year that anyone interested should apply to the NEC,” Baker said. “They applied, and the NEC didn’t vote them in.”