NEC to vote today on whether to combine with GBL, Masco

Principals from the 11 Northeastern Conference schools will vote today whether to absorb the four remaining Greater Boston League schools, along with Masconomet Regional, to form a 16-team league.The vote was to take place at 9 a.m. today at Lynn Classical.The GBL was once a powerful league consisting of urban schools on the northern rim of metropolitan Boston. At its height, it consisted of Everett, Revere, Peabody, Malden, Medford, Arlington, Somerville, Cambridge and Waltham.Over the years, the GBL?s numbers have eroded. Peabody and Revere joined the NEC while Arlington and Waltham joined the Dual County League. As of the end of this year, Cambridge is also opting out.This leaves only four: Everett, Malden, Medford and Somerville. Along with Masco (currently in the Cape Ann League), that would give the new league 16 teams, and, as Classical principal Gene Constantino says, alleviate the yearly chore of trying to find non-league opponents to fill vacant dates.Constantino, who is in favor of the plan, says the new league, with its number of urban schools, would be beneficial for schools such as Classical because it would even the playing field in some of the sports where the Rams historically have trouble.?I?ll give you an example,” he said. “We had a golf match against Somerville (Wednesday) that we won, but it was a great match. Very competitive.”English principal Tom Strangie, on the other hand, would prefer to keep the league as it is and work toward bringing it back to the days when it was “one of the best leagues around.?I see this as being like a great, big omnibus bill,” he said. “There?s everything in there, and we?re trying to appease everybody. To me, I?d rather solve the problems we have, one problem at a time, rather than compound them.”Strangie cites the uncertainty over the newly-installed football post-season format (?we don?t even know what?s going to happen with that,” he says), and the issue of one defection, and possibly a second, to the Cape Ann League as another factor.?The Northeastern Conference used to be a great league,” he said, “and then it got splintered. And we had Saugus not wanting to play certain sports against us (the Sachems this year joined the Cape Ann League, and Winthrop has discussed doing that as well). It?s kind of like the league is falling apart. I?d like to see if we could fix that.”Constantino says that the athletic directors who have written the proposal “have done a fantastic job, and they?ve done their best to address a lot of the concerns schools raised the last time this was voted on (and defeated).?There?s no perfect scenario,” said Constantino. “We play a lot of the GBL teams now in different sports.”?And,” says Strangie, “we can continue playing them. It?s not like we don?t want to play them. I just want to keep the league as intact as possible, and to keep the rivalries we?ve established alive.”