Thursday afternoon, the Greater Boston League voted unanimously, 6-0, to accept Lynn Classical and Lynn English as full members for the 2021-2022 season, beginning in September 2021.
“It was an easy decision and we are thrilled as a league that Lynn Classical and Lynn English wanted to become part of the Greater Boston League,” said Malden High School principal and GBL president Chris Mastrangelo. “We will become a stronger, eight-team league with these two great additions.Moving forward, we believe the GBL will be the premier, urban-based league in Massachusetts.”
“The GBL has always been a league that understands the importance of healthy interscholastic competition and the role that it plays in providing student-athletes with crucial supports that are needed to achieve academic success,” Mastrangelo added.
English Director of Athletics Dick Newton and Classical Director of Athletics Bill Devin, who have been working on this move for some time, were enthusiastic about the decision.
“We’re really happy that it was a unanimous decision on the part of the GBL,” said Newton. “We’re really excited to get started over there and we feel like these new horizons are the right fit for us. There are certainly no hard feelings for the NEC and we really enjoyed our time there, but we’re excited for this new direction.”
“First and foremost, the Lynn schools’ move to the GBL would give us competitive balance for all our teams, not just a select few — especially our girls programs,” said Devin. “Secondly, the GBL is a perfect fit for English and Classical. The schools have similar enrollments. All of the schools have tremendous diversity. The proximity and the location of the schools works for Lynn. The GBL also has great facilities.”
With the addition of Lynn English and Lynn Classical, the GBL would move forward as an eight-team league in September, 2021, When the league was reconstituted in June 2019, it included Everett, Malden, Medford and Somerville, Revere left the Northeastern Conference shortly afterward and joined the GBL for the 2019-20 school year.
Chelsea High School is an independent school for athletics this year and will join the GBL as a full member in September, 2021. The addition of Lynn Classical and Lynn English would make it an eight-team league.
“This is a dream addition for us,” said Revere Director of Athletics Frank Shea. “That was part of the vision a couple of years ago when we broke away from the Northeastern Conference. If we add Chelsea and the two Lynn schools, it gives us an excellent urban league.”
Malden Director of Athletics Charlie Conefrey echoed these sentiments. “The Lynn schools are a great fit for the Greater Boston League in so many ways. The diversity and demographics of these schools with our existing GBL is basically a match,” said Conefrey, who serves as GBL Commissioner for the league. The Malden AD is also a member of the MIAA Board of Directors, as well as MIAA District 5 chairperson.
“Over the past several years we have developed an affinity with Lynn Classical and Lynn English, their ADs, coaches and players, over mutual and similar challenges we face, and goals we seek to achieve as urban-based schools and athletic programs,” Conefrey added.
The next step towards this merger will take place on Nov. 20, when the principals and athletic directors of the Northeastern Conference come together to hold a vote that could allow Classical and English to officially leave the NEC and join the GBL.