Independent School League (New England)

The Independent School League (ISL) is an athletic conference of sixteen private college-preparatory schools in Greater Boston. Its parent organization is the New England Preparatory School Athletic Council (NEPSAC). Founded in 1948, the ISL sponsors competitions in twenty-five sports.

The ISL hosts some of the nation's oldest high school athletic rivalries, including Milton-Nobles and Groton-St. Mark's, both of which date back to 1886.

Composition
In 1948, administrators at Belmont Hill, Brooks, Browne & Nichols (now BB&N), Governor Dummer (now The Governor's Academy), Milton, Noble & Greenough, St. Mark's, and Tabor established the Private School League. From the start, the ISL contained a mix of day and boarding schools, as well as religious and nonsectarian schools. The league changed its name to the Independent School League in 1974.

In the 1960s and 1970s, Middlesex, Groton, St. Sebastian's, Roxbury Latin, St. Paul's, Lawrence, Rivers, and St. George's joined the league. Tabor left the league in 1972 and St. Paul's left in 2017, at which point Tabor rejoined the league.

Stance on scholarships and postgraduates
The ISL forbids member schools from providing athletic scholarships (or any other scholarships not based strictly on the student's financial need), a policy that has been met with some controversy. In 2011, the ISL found that Lawrence Academy had granted excessive financial aid to some of its football players, in addition to scheduling too many football practices in the off-season; as a result, the ISL stripped Lawrence of its 2009 and 2010 football conference titles and imposed a three-year bowl ban. Previously, St. George's (which Lawrence had defeated 48-15 the previous year) "made national headlines" by forfeiting its conference football game against Lawrence, asserting that the Lawrence team had such a large talent advantage over its conference rivals that playing Lawrence was a safety risk to its own athletes. Citing this policy, St. Paul's left the ISL in 2017; it is now a joint member of the Six Schools League and the Lakes Region League.

The ISL also forbids member schools from fielding postgraduate students on their sports teams. Accordingly, future NBA player Duncan Robinson was required to transfer from Governor's to Phillips Exeter for his postgraduate year.

Absence of rowing competition
The ISL does not sponsor rowing, even though eight of the sixteen ISL schools (Belmont Hill, Brooks, BB&N, Groton, Middlesex, Nobles, St. Mark's, and Tabor) have boys' and girls' crews. New England high school rowing is administered by the New England Interscholastic Rowing Association (NEIRA), which was founded in 1947 and predates the ISL by one year.

Since NEIRA began awarding team championships in 1984 (for boys) and 1989 (for girls), the crews of ISL member schools have won the boys' coxed fours team trophy 32 out of 37 years, and the girls' coxed fours team trophy 18 out of 32 years. With the exception of Tabor and the now-departed St. Paul's, ISL schools do not compete in boys' and girls' eights, where teams like Kent, Andover, and Exeter participate.

Sponsored sports
Member schools compete in the following sports:

Divisional play in boys' football and ice hockey
The ISL divides its football and boys' ice hockey teams into separate divisions (ISL 7/ISL 9 for football; Keller/Eberhart for hockey). The divisional structure generally separates the larger schools (by total boys' enrollment) from the smaller schools, paralleling NEPSAC's separation of the New England hockey playoffs into Large School and Small School brackets. However, the NEPSAC divisions are based strictly on the size of the student body (which may also vary from year to year), which occasionally generates discrepancies between the ISL and NEPSAC classifications. For example, at the 2023 New England boys' ice hockey championships, Keller Division teams Milton, Nobles, and Belmont Hill competed in the open (Top 8) bracket, Keller team St. Sebastian's competed in the Large School division, and Keller teams Lawrence and Governors competed with Eberhart teams St. Mark's and Brooks in the Small School division. Ironically, an Eberhart team (Brooks) won the Large School championship in 2015, and another Eberhart team (Rivers) made it to the New England semifinals in 2018.

Football
As of the fall 2023 season, the ISL was divided into the following divisions for football:


 * ISL 7 Division: Belmont Hill, BB&N, Governor's, Lawrence, Milton, St. Sebastian's, Thayer
 * ISL 9 Division: Brooks, Groton, Middlesex, Nobles, Rivers, Roxbury Latin, St. George's, St. Mark's, Tabor

Boys' ice hockey
As of the winter 2023-24 season, the ISL was divided into the following divisions for ice hockey:


 * Keller Division: Belmont Hill, Governor's, Lawrence, Milton, Nobles, St. Sebastian's, Thayer, Tabor
 * Eberhart Division: Brooks, BB&N, Groton, Middlesex, Roxbury Latin, Rivers, St. George's, St. Mark's