{{Multiple issues, {{primary sources, date=December 2016{{one source, date=December 2016 The Central Athletic League, known colloquially as the Central League, is a

high school A secondary school describes an institution that provides secondary education and also usually includes the building where this takes place. Some secondary schools provide both '' lower secondary education'' (ages 11 to 14) and ''upper seconda ...

sports league located in the suburbs of

Philadelphia Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania#Municipalities, largest city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the List of United States cities by population, sixth-largest city i ...

. Currently, the league consists of twelve high schools primarily from Delaware County with additional constituency from Chester and Montgomery counties.

Schools

* Conestoga High School (

Tredyffrin/Easttown School District Tredyffrin/Easttown School District (T/E in short) is a school district based in Tredyffrin Township, Chester County, Pennsylvania. T/E School District serves the townships of Tredyffrin Township and Easttown Township, and is one of the se ...

) *

Garnet Valley High School Garnet Valley High School is a four-year public school in Glen Mills, Pennsylvania, U.S.A. It is part of Garnet Valley School District. Hi-Q Garnet Valley's Delco Hi-Q team won the championship in the 2010–2011, 2011–2012, and 2013– ...

( Garnet Valley School District) * Harriton High School ( Lower Merion School District) *

Haverford High School Haverford Senior High School is the public high school of Haverford Township, Pennsylvania, United States, operated by the School District of Haverford Township. It is at 200 Mill Road in Havertown. The school serves the entirety of Haverford T ...

(

School District of Haverford Township The School District of Haverford Township is a school district in Haverford Township, Delaware County, Pennsylvania, United States. It was created in 1944. The district serves all parts of the township, including Havertown. The current superinte ...

) *

Lower Merion High School Lower Merion High School is a public high school in Ardmore, a community in Philadelphia's Main Line suburbs. It is one of two high schools in the Lower Merion School District; the other one is Harriton High School. Lower Merion serves both Lo ...

( Lower Merion School District) *

Marple Newtown High School Marple Newtown School District (MNSD) is a public school district which serves Newtown Township and Marple Township in Delaware County, Pennsylvania. Marple Newtown School District encompasses approximately . According to 2000 federal census ...

( Marple Newtown School District) * Penncrest High School ( Rose Tree Media School District) *

Radnor High School Radnor High School is a public high school in Radnor, Pennsylvania. Of all high schools in Pennsylvania, Radnor is ranked 3rd by U.S. News & World Report, and 1st by the Pennsylvania Department of Education. Overview Radnor High School is the on ...

(

Radnor Township School District Radnor Township School District is a school district that serves Radnor Township, Pennsylvania and has 3 elementary schools, one middle school, and one high school. Due to the mostly affluent demographic of the Main Line that the Radnor Townshi ...

) * Ridley High School (

Ridley School District Ridley School District is a large, suburban public school district in southeastern Delaware County, Pennsylvania. It serves the residents of Ridley Township, and the boroughs of Ridley Park and Eddystone. Ridley School District encompasses appr ...

) * Springfield High School ( Springfield School District) * Strath Haven High School ( Wallingford-Swarthmore School District) *

Upper Darby High School Upper Darby High School (UDHS) is a four-year public high school located in Upper Darby Township, Delaware County, Pennsylvania, United States, as part of the Upper Darby School District. UDHS is also the oldest high school in Delaware County, ...

( Upper Darby School District)

Sports

The schools all compete in varsity high school sports in the

Pennsylvania Interscholastic Athletic Association The Pennsylvania Interscholastic Athletic Association, Inc., also known by its acronymn PIAA, is one of the governing bodies of high school and middle school athletics for the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, in the United States. The PIAA's main ...

, or the PIAA. Central League teams compete in

District 1 District 1 may refer to: * I District, Turku, in Finland * District 1, Düsseldorf, a district in Düsseldorf, Germany * Sector 1 (Bucharest), also known as District 1, in Bucharest, Romania * District I, Budapest in Budapest, Hungary * Distric ...

Fall

* Boys Cross Country * Girls Cross Country *

Field Hockey Field hockey is a team sport structured in standard hockey format, in which each team plays with ten outfield players and a goalkeeper. Teams must drive a round hockey ball by hitting it with a hockey stick towards the rival team's shooting ...

* Football *

Golf Golf is a club-and-ball sport in which players use various clubs to hit balls into a series of holes on a course in as few strokes as possible. Golf, unlike most ball games, cannot and does not use a standardized playing area, and coping ...

* Boys Soccer * Girls Soccer * Girls

Tennis Tennis is a racket sport that is played either individually against a single opponent ( singles) or between two teams of two players each ( doubles). Each player uses a tennis racket that is strung with cord to strike a hollow rubber ball ...

* Girls

Volleyball Volleyball is a team sport in which two teams of six players are separated by a net. Each team tries to score points by grounding a ball on the other team's court under organized rules. It has been a part of the official program of the Sum ...

Winter

* Boys

Basketball Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular court, compete with the primary objective of shooting a basketball (approximately in diameter) through the defender's h ...

* Girls

Cheerleading Cheerleading is an activity in which the participants (called cheerleaders) cheer for their team as a form of encouragement. It can range from chanting slogans to intense physical activity. It can be performed to motivate sports teams, to ente ...

* Boys

Swimming Swimming is the self-propulsion of a person through water, or other liquid, usually for recreation, sport, exercise, or survival. Locomotion is achieved through coordinated movement of the limbs and the body to achieve hydrodynamic thrust that r ...

and

Diving Diving most often refers to: * Diving (sport), the sport of jumping into deep water * Underwater diving, human activity underwater for recreational or occupational purposes Diving or Dive may also refer to: Sports * Dive (American football), a ...

* Girls

and

* Boys

Indoor Track Track and field is a sport that includes athletic contests based on running, jumping, and throwing skills. The name is derived from where the sport takes place, a running track and a grass field for the throwing and some of the jumping event ...

* Girls

Wrestling Wrestling is a series of combat sports involving grappling-type techniques such as clinch fighting, throws and takedowns, joint locks, pins and other grappling holds. Wrestling techniques have been incorporated into martial arts, combat ...

Spring

Baseball Baseball is a bat-and-ball sport played between two teams of nine players each, taking turns batting and fielding. The game occurs over the course of several plays, with each play generally beginning when a player on the fielding t ...

* Boys

Lacrosse Lacrosse is a team sport played with a lacrosse stick and a lacrosse ball. It is the oldest organized sport in North America, with its origins with the indigenous people of North America as early as the 12th century. The game was extensiv ...

* Girls

Softball Softball is a game similar to baseball played with a larger ball on a smaller field. Softball is played competitively at club levels, the college level, and the professional level. The game was first created in 1887 in Chicago by George Hanc ...

* Boys

Track & Field Track and field is a sport that includes athletic contests based on running, jumping, and throwing skills. The name is derived from where the sport takes place, a running track and a grass field for the throwing and some of the jumping eve ...

* Girls

History

The Central League started on May 28, 1966 as a spin-off from the

Suburban League The Suburban League is an Ohio High School Athletic Association (OHSAA) athletics league made up of 15 high schools from Cuyahoga, Medina, Portage, and Summit counties in Northeast Ohio. It was formed in 1949 and expanded into two divisions in 20 ...

when nine schools, most of them along the Main Line, announced they were leaving the Suburban League to start the Central League, to begin play in the 1967 academic year. The schools that founded the league were Conestoga, Harriton, Haverford, Lower Merion, Marple, Penncrest, Radnor, Springfield and Upper Darby. Ridley joined in 1969 when Harriton joined the Suburban 3 League. Harriton rejoined the league in 2008. Strath Haven joined in 1983. Garnet Valley joined in 2008. At the end of the 1988 scholastic year, the Ches-Mont League was down to only four schools - Coatesville, Downingtown, West Chester East, and West Chester Henderson. Fearing that it could not operate as a four-team league, the remaining Ches-Mont schools applied for membership in the Central League, but they were rebuffed. The PIAA tried to force the Central League to add the teams, but the Central League sued and won. Thanks to the ruling in this suit, the PIAA has no power to re-align sports leagues. Only the leagues themselves can do so. (High school federations in many other states can re-shape sports leagues at will.)

References

External links

Central League online
High school sports conferences and leagues in the United States High school sports in Pennsylvania Pennsylvania high school sports conferences Chester County, Pennsylvania Sports leagues established in 1967 1967 establishments in Pennsylvania