User:DM1693/Lehigh Valley League (pre-1976)

The Lehigh Valley League (known informally as the Lehigh Valley League, or LVL) was an athletic conference comprising high schools from Lehigh, Northampton, Carbon, and Monroe counties in the Lehigh Valley region of Pennsylvania, in the United States. It was part of District XI of the Pennsylvania Interscholastic Athletic Association.

History
The Lehigh Valley League was founded in 1920, with six founding members: Allentown, Bethlehem, Catasauqua, Easton, Northampton, and Tamaqua High Schools. For the 1921-22 seasons, Palmerton High School and Slatington High School joined, and the league would remain at eight members for almost the rest of its existence. The Bethlehem/Liberty boys basketball website shows these schools playing a double round robin scheduole for 1922-23, 1923-24, and 1924-25, with Reading possibly joining the loop for 1924-25. In the mid-1920s, the larger schools (Allentown, Bethlehem, Easton, and Tamaqua) departed the league and were replaced by Emmaus, Lehighton, Stroudsburg, and Whitehall High Schools. League membership would then remain stable for over forty years.

At the end of the 1974-75 school year there was a large-scale reorganization of scholastic leagues in the Lehigh Valley. Two new leagues were founded (the Colonial League and Centennial League); five of the LVL's members dispersed among the two new leagues. The remaining schools (Emmaus, Whitehall, and Northamption) would admit Parkland to the LVL for its final 1975-76 season and the four would then join the expanding East Penn Conference.

Wrestling
A separate Lehigh Valley League was formed in 1950 for scholastic wrestling, which comprised all of the area schools with wrestling programs. The initial wrestling schools were Allentown, Bethlehem, Easton, Northampton, Nazareth, and Phillipsburg for the 1950-51 season.

Schools added later:
 * Southern Lehigh (program started and began league play 1956-57)
 * Emmaus (program srarted 1956-57, began league play 1957-58)
 * Wilson (program started 1956-57, began league play 1957-58)
 * Whitehall (program started and began league play 1957-58)
 * Notre Dame (program started 1958-59, began league play 1959-60)
 * Dieruff (program started and began league play 1959-60)
 * Parkland (program started 1959-60, began league play 1960-61)
 * Palisades (program started 1955-56, began league play 1961-62)
 * Slatington (program started 1959-60, began league play 1961-62)
 * Hellertown (program started 1960-61, began league play 1961-62)
 * East Stroudsburg (program started 1961-62, began league play 1963-64)
 * Stroudsburg (program started 1961-62, began league play 1963-64)
 * Pocono Mountain (program started 1962-63, added to LNL 67-68)
 * Catasauqua (program started 1963-64, began league play 1964-65)
 * Salisbury (program started 1963-64, added to LNL 67-68)
 * Ashland (PS 64-65)
 * Bangor (PS 64-65, added to LNL 65-66)
 * Jim Thorpe (PS 64-65, added to LNL 71-72)
 * Northwestern (PS 64-65, added to LNL 65-66)
 * Pen Argyl (PS 64-65, added to LNL 65-66)
 * Bethlehem Catholic (PS and added to EPL 65-66)
 * Lehighton (PS and added to LVL 65-66)
 * Neshaminy (added to EPL 65-66, left EPL after 73-74)
 * Pennsbury (added to EPL 65-66, left EPL after 73-74)
 * Allentown Central Catholic (PS 66-67, added to EPL 74-75)
 * Freedom (PS and added to EPL 67-68)
 * Palmerton (PS and added to LVL 68-69)
 * Pleasant Valley (PS 69-70, added to LNL 71-72)

For the 1961-62 season the league divided the now 16-team league into two divisions. In the summer of 1963 the wrestling league split into three "league divisons" largely lining up with the schools' league affiliations for baseball and basketball. The LVL wrestling schools for 1963-64 were Emmaus, Northampton, Slatington, Stroudsburg, and Whitehall. (Catasauqua began a wrestling program for this season but did not compete in league matches until 1964-65.) The other two LVL schools began wrestling programs later in the decade (Lehighton in 1965-66, Palmerton in 1968-69).

Swimming
The Lehigh Valley League does not appear to have sponsored swimming. Those Lehigh Valley high schools with swimming programs before 1974 appear to have been in the East Penn Swimming League; LVL member Emmaus won the EPSL championship in 1969 and 1971-74. LVL member Whitehall is cited as winning an East Penn match in December 1968 against East Stroudsburg, then a member of the Lehigh-Northampton League for most sports.

High schools
For most of its existence, the 8 high school teams in the Lehigh Valley League (and their locations) were:


 * Catasauqua High School Rough Riders (Catasauqua).
 * Emmaus High School Green Hornets (Emmaus).
 * Lehighton High School Indians (Lehighton).
 * Northampton Area High School Konkrete Kids (Northampton).
 * Palmerton High School Blue Bombers (Palmerton).
 * Slatington High School Bulldogs (Slatington).
 * Stroudsburg High School Mountaineers (Stroudsburg).
 * Whitehall High School Zephyrs (Whitehall Township).

As of early 2015, Stroudsburg, Emmaus, Northampton, and Whitehall are now members of the Eastern Pennsylvania Conference; prior to 2014-15 Stroudsburg had been in the Mountain Valley Conference (MVC) with the latter three in the Lehigh Valley Conference (not the same league as the LVL). Catasauqua, Palmerton, and Northern Lehigh (successor to Slatington HS) are members of the Colonial League. Lehighton had been in the MVC but switched to the Schuylkill League starting in 2014-15; in January 2023 Lehighton announced they would be joining the Colonial League starting with the 2024-25 school year.