The Colonial League is an athletic conference consisting of 14

high school A secondary school, high school, or senior school, is an institution that provides secondary education. Some secondary schools provide both ''lower secondary education'' (ages 11 to 14) and ''upper secondary education'' (ages 14 to 18), i.e., ...

s mostly from the

Lehigh Valley The Lehigh Valley () is a geography, geographic and urban area, metropolitan region formed by the Lehigh River in Lehigh County, Pennsylvania, Lehigh and Northampton County, Pennsylvania, Northampton counties in eastern Pennsylvania. It is a co ...

portion of eastern

Pennsylvania Pennsylvania, officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a U.S. state, state spanning the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern United States, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes region, Great Lakes regions o ...

. It is part of District XI of the

Pennsylvania Interscholastic Athletic Association The Pennsylvania Interscholastic Athletic Association, Inc. (PIAA) is one of the governing bodies of Secondary school, high school and middle school athletics for Pennsylvania. PIAA's main office is located in the Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, Harri ...

. The Colonial League is designed for mid and small-size schools in the Lehigh Valley. The largest 18 schools in the

and Pocono region compete in the

Eastern Pennsylvania Conference The Eastern Pennsylvania Conference, known informally as EPC, EPC18, and East Penn Conference, is an athletic conference consisting of 18 large high schools from Lehigh, Monroe, Northampton, and Pike counties in the Lehigh Valley and Pocono ...

, one of the premiere athletic divisions in the nation.

History

In 1975, ten schools from the

region of eastern

merged to form the Colonial League. Since then, a total of seven teams have joined the league, with two teams leaving.

Charter members

The Colonial League was founded in 1975, with the following ten school teams as charter members: *

Bangor Area High School Bangor Area High School is a four-year public high school located in Bangor, Pennsylvania in Northampton County, Pennsylvania, in the Lehigh Valley region of eastern Pennsylvania. It is the only high school in the Bangor Area School District. As ...

Catasauqua High School Catasauqua High School is a public high school serving grades 9 through 12 in Northampton, Pennsylvania in the Lehigh Valley region of eastern Pennsylvania. As of 2023-24, the school had 447 students, according to National Center for Education St ...

Nazareth Area High School Nazareth Area High School is a public high school located in Nazareth, Pennsylvania in the Lehigh Valley region of eastern Pennsylvania. It is the only high school in the Nazareth Area School District and serves grades 9 through 12. Its mascot i ...

* Palisades High School * Palmerton Area High School * Pen Argyl Area High School * Salisbury High School * Saucon Valley High School *

Southern Lehigh High School Southern Lehigh High School is a four-year public high school located in Center Valley, Pennsylvania in the Lehigh Valley region of eastern Pennsylvania. It is the only high school in the Southern Lehigh School District. As of the 2023-24 school ...

* Wilson Area High School Prior to the 1975-76 school year, most of these schools were part of the Lehigh-Northampton League (L-N) for interscholastic activities. (Catasauqua was in the Lehigh Valley League aka the LVL, and Palisades had competed as an independent.) As years went on, the member schools of the LVL and L-N began to vary greatly in school sizes and athletic competition levels.. Some smaller schools of each league broke away and formed the Colonial League while others became members of the Centennial League. Some joined the East Penn Conference (an ancestor of the modern

), which includes the Lehigh Valley's largest high schools and a very high level of athletic competition.

1994 membership additions and departure

In 1994, four high school athletic programs, Northern Lehigh High School, Northwestern Lehigh High School, Notre Dame (Green Pond) High School, and Notre Dame High School in East Stroudsburg, joined the Colonial League, and one school,

Nazareth Nazareth is the largest Cities in Israel, city in the Northern District (Israel), Northern District of Israel. In its population was . Known as "the Arab capital of Israel", Nazareth serves as a cultural, political, religious, economic and ...

, departed the league to begin competing with larger high schools in the Mountain Valley Conference, and subsequently joined the

Lehigh Valley Conference The Lehigh Valley Interscholastic Athletic Conference, known informally as the Lehigh Valley Conference or LVC, was an athletic conference consisting of 12 of the largest high schools from Lehigh and Northampton counties in the Lehigh Valley regi ...

and

2014 addition and departure

In 2014,

Moravian Academy Moravian Academy is a preschool through 12th-grade independent, co-educational, college preparatory school in the Lehigh Valley region of eastern Pennsylvania. Moravian Academy is the ninth oldest independent school in the United States. ...

Bethlehem Bethlehem is a city in the West Bank, Palestine, located about south of Jerusalem, and the capital of the Bethlehem Governorate. It had a population of people, as of . The city's economy is strongly linked to Tourism in the State of Palesti ...

joined the Colonial League and Notre Dame High School in East Stroudsburg, departed it.

2024 additions

In early 2023, Lehighton Area High School was approved for membership, and Jim Thorpe Area High School soon followed. They began competition in the 2024-25 school year.

References

External links

Official website
{{Authority control Pennsylvania high school sports conferences Pennsylvania Interscholastic Athletic Association Bucks County, Pennsylvania Carbon County, Pennsylvania Lehigh County, Pennsylvania Northampton County, Pennsylvania Sports in the Lehigh Valley