Masconomet Regional High School won't be leaving the Cape Ann League — not yet at least.
After being courted by the Merrimack Valley Conference and rampant speculation about a possible move to the Northeastern Conference, Masco has decided to stay put in the CAL for at least the 2012-13 school year.
"There were a lot of rumors about where we're going and what was going on, and we've come to the conclusion that what's best for us is spending another year in the CAL," Masconomet athletic director Jared Scarpaci said.
The MVC became a logical landing spot for the Chieftains when North Andover decided to join full time beginning next year. The Chieftains and Scarlet Knights are old rivals and were the two largest schools in the CAL; the departure of North Andover (and in recent years Wilmington) leaves Masconomet a big fish in a shrinking Cape Ann League pond.
According to the latest enrollment figures available on the Massachusetts Interscholastic Athletic Association's website, Masconomet has 1,328 students. That makes it the largest school in the CAL by a hefty margin, more than twice the size of some league schools and quite bigger than the mean enrollment of 650 of the rest of the conference.
"We know it's not the best fit for everybody; there are some schools where their school is the size of our freshman class. That's why the state has different divisions," Scarpaci said. "The CAL is a great league, a very competitive league, and we're happy with this conclusion."
If it had joined the MVC, Masco would have been the ninth-largest school in a 12-school structure and would actually have fewer students than the MVC mean enrollment of 1,734. Still, the MVC is a competitive league that had a lot to offer a Masconomet program looking for a landing spot.
"We met with the Merrimack Valley, and they were gracious hosts. We were very interested in them and they in us," Scarpaci said. "It's a great, well-run league, but the distance (of the various schools from Masconomet) and costs are major concerns."
The majority of the MVC is located around Route 495, and trips from Topsfield to schools such as Lowell, Billerica, Dracut, Chelmsford and Methuen could be costly both in terms of buses and inconvenience for parents.
"We have to look at the impact of putting kids on a bus for a game an hour each way, and that's what made me think a little harder about this," Scarpaci said. "A lot of our parents work south of here and right now can catch (our) games on the way home. But the 495 area might not be on the way home."
Geographically, the next most logical fit for the school is the Northeastern Conference.
Masconomet petitioned to join the NEC in 2009 but was voted down. The Chieftains would be the fifth-largest school in what would be a 13-team league, as the NEC's mean enrollment is 1,160.
Despite the rumors, it doesn't appear that the NEC is looking to expand.
"It's not viable right now. They're not open for business," said Scarpaci, adding that he hasn't formally addressed the issue with the NEC since 2009.
"The best thing for us would be find a league with schools closer to our size, but the problem is location. We can't move the school."
Even without North Andover, the NEC and CAL will remain merged for the 2012 football season in the four-tiered system it used for the first time this fall, giving the Chieftains' administration more time to look for a long-term solution.
"It buys us a year," Scarpaci said. "We'd definitely like to revisit this. It's a tough economy, and the financial impact of switching conferences is something we need to look at more closely."
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