Draft:Merrimack Valley Conference

The Merrimack Valley Conference (MVC) is a dual county high school athletic conference located in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts and is named after the Merrimack River Valley, where all of the league schools are located. The conference contains schools from Middlesex County and Essex County. The conference is a member in District 4 of the Massachusetts Interscholastic Athletic Association (MIAA), which is a member of the National Federation of State High School Associations (NFHS). The conference has long been considered one of the best and most competitive leagues on a state level.

League History
The MVC formed out of the old Lowell Suburban League (LSL), which sponsored football and boys & girls basketball, and the Merrimack Valley Suburban League (MVSL), which sponsored baseball only. The LSL began as a basketball-only league in 1935 and began sponsoring football in 1940. In 1955, the LSL and MVSL reformed into the more organized Lowell Suburban Conference (LSC). The LSC was renamed the Merrimack Valley Conference (MVC) in 1965.

1940-1955 - Lowell Suburban League and Merrimack Valley Suburban League

After four years of sponsoring basketball only from 1935 to 1939, the LSL made the decision to begin sponsoring football at a meeting at Tewksbury High School on Thanksgiving Eve in 1939. The 8 schools invited to attend were Acton High School (now Acton-Boxborough Regional High School), Burlington High School, Chelmsford High School, Dracut High School, Howe High School (now Billerica Memorial High School), Johnson High School (now North Andover High School), Tewksbury High School and Wilmington High School. Acton chose not to attend, as they were going to drop football after the 1940 season due to low participation and small crowds at their games. [Acton did in fact drop football after 1940, after which they tried to bring back in 1944 but failed. Football returned to Acton for good in 1965 when Acton-Boxborough Regional High School was formed]. At the meeting, the remaining 7 invitees agreed to terms to form a league and begin play in 1940. A full round robin schedule was unable to be arraigned, as most teams had their 1940 schedules set. It was announced shortly after Thanksgiving that one additional school was invited to join the league: Concord High School (now Concord-Carlisle High School), who dropped out of the old Middlesex League.

The league started its existence in 1940 as a conference consisting of 8 league member schools: Burlington, Chelmsford, Concord, Dracut, Howe (Billerica), Johnson (North Andover), Tewksbury, and Wilmington. However, the fledgling conference struggled to survive through its early years during World War II. Ultimately the war forced Concord and Johnson (North Andover) to drop out of the conference in 1941, fearing they wouldn’t have a team to field. After the war, the LSL was referred to as a “mythical league,” as the smaller schools would not play the larger schools. Very rarely was there a full round robin schedule. This went on for 10 years and by the early 1950s, Billerica was down to playing just 2 league members (Chelmsford and Tewksbury) out of the total of 6 league member schools.

1955-1965 - Lowell Suburban Conference

In the spring of 1955, Dracut head football coach Ed Murphy called for a reorganization of the LSL and the MVSL into a more solid, unified league. Burlington, Dracut, and Wilmington refused to invite Billerica into the new iteration of the league and instead brought in Ayer High School (now Ayer Shirley Regional High School).

In the fall of 1955, the newly reorganized conference was renamed the Lowell Suburban Conference (LSC) and began play with 6 league members with Ayer, Burlington, Chelmsford, Dracut, Tewksbury, and Wilmington participating. In 1957, Ayer left the league after just 2 years. In 1958, the league re-invited founding member Billerica back into the league after a 3 year hiatus. The league also re-invited founding member North Andover back to rejoin the league that they had previously departed back in 1941. Both schools accepted the invitations and re-joined the league in 1959, with the league now consisting of 7 member schools.

1965-Present - Merrimack Valley Conference

The 1960s saw the conference get stronger with the additions of Methuen High School in 1964 and Andover High School in 1965. This prompted another change in the name of the league in 1965 to its current name, the Merrimack Valley Conference (MVC). The total number of league members was now at 9 schools.

By 1970, some smaller schools began to leave, and newer teams came in to replace them. In 1970 founding league member North Andover left the league for the second time, after previously leaving in 1941. Two years later in 1972, founding league member Burlington departed the conference, after a 32-year stay in the league. They were replaced in 1973 by two private Catholic Schools, Austin Preparatory School of Reading and Central Catholic High School of Lawrence. The following year in 1974, Lawrence High School joined the MVC. This made it a 10-school league, which it remained until 1980.

A big 4-school expansion took place in 1980 when Haverhill High School, Lowell High School, Greater Lawrence Technical School of Andover, and Greater Lowell Regional Vocational Technical High School (now Greater Lowell Technical High School) of Tyngsborough all joined the MVC. The league was now at an all-time high of 14 league member schools. This prompted the league to split into two divisions (East & West). All Middlesex County schools (Billerica, Chelmsford, Dracut, Lowell, Greater Lowell Vocational, Tewksbury and Wilmington) were in the West Division, except Austin Prep, which ended up in the East Division along with the Essex County schools (Andover, Central Catholic, Greater Lawrence Tech, Haverhill, Lawrence, and Methuen).

This expanded 14-school MVC didn't last long, as Austin Prep and Greater Lowell Vocational left in 1981. The two-division tiers went back to just one in 1982. Greater Lawrence Tech departed the conference in 1984. The conference was now at 11 league member schools and would stay that way for another decade.

As the 1980s went on, it looked like other teams might leave the league as well, but it wasn't until the mid-1990s that another school left the MVC. 1994 saw founding league member Wilmington exit the conference, after helping to found the league in 1940 for a total stay of 54 years in the MVC. The number of league member schools was again down to 10.

In 1996, the MVC added an associate member to the league with the addition of Academy of Notre Dame of Tyngsborough, a small private girls school with an enrollment hovering around 200; about 700 students fewer than the smallest MVC schools. Because Central Catholic was strictly an all-boys school at the time, the conference had been down to 9 member schools in girls sports after the departure of Wilmington. This eliminated the possibility of dividing into two 5-school divisions in girls sports. As such, the addition of Notre Dame appeared to be a natural fit. As a girls-only school, Notre Dame filled the scheduling and logistical void on the girls side created by Central Catholic only competing in boys sports. However, the same year Notre Dame entered the MVC, Central Catholic decided to accept female students for the first time, which in turn added another girls sports school to the league and would have brought both boys and girls sports to 10 schools. Thus, the addition of Notre Dame resulted in an odd fit within the league and now represented the 11th girls sport school. The league was at 11 total school members: 10 full members and 1 associate member.

The 2000s saw stability within the league. In 2009, the MVC again divided into 2 divisions, this time split between large schools and small schools. School enrollment and strength of program determined which team went to which division and adjustments were made a few times over the years.

By the start of the 2010s, the MVC was looking to merge with another league. The MVC had successfully merged with the Dual County League (DCL) in ice hockey during the mid-1990s and was looking to do so in all other sports. In 2011, the DCL indicated it would only accept the 5 MVC schools located in Middlesex County (Billerica, Chelmsford, Dracut, Lowell, and Tewksbury) and left the 5 Essex County schools out (Andover, Central Catholic, Haverhill, Lawrence, and Methuen). This was unacceptable to the MVC and the merger plans were dropped.

In 2012, the MVC re-added founding two-time former league member North Andover. North Andover helped found the league in 1940 before departing in 1941 due to WWII. After another later stay in the MVC for 11 years from 1959 to 1970, they joined the Cape Ann League (CAL) in 1971. In 2012 it all came back full circle, as North Andover departed the CAL after 41 years to rejoin the MVC. This brought the total number of MVC members to how it currently stands today with 12 member schools: 11 full members and 1 associate member.

League Sponsored Sports
The following sports are sponsored by the Merrimack Valley Conference.

League Member Schools
The MVC is made up of 11 full member schools, in addition to 1 associate member school. The full member schools are: Andover High School, Billerica Memorial High School, Central Catholic High School, Chelmsford High School, Dracut High School, Haverhill High School, Lawrence High School, Lowell High School, Methuen High School, North Andover High School and Tewksbury Memorial High School. The Academy of Notre Dame is an associate member of the conference.

Current Member Schools

Current Associate Member Schools

Former Member Schools