Remember when the old North Bay and Sonoma County leagues disbanded just over a year ago and went on to form what officials deemed a new “Super League”?
Well, after just one year in business, the super league is getting super-er all the time.
In addition to the 12 original schools — Analy, Cardinal Newman, El Molino, Elsie Allen, Healdsburg, Maria Carrillo, Montgomery, Piner, Rancho Cotate, Santa Rosa, Ukiah and Windsor — Roseland University Prep and Sonoma Academy also have teams that participate in individual sports.
Now add to the mix St. Vincent de Paul High. The small private school that most recently competed in the North Central II League in most sports has been given the go-ahead to join the NBL. The move, already approved by the North Coast Section, will go into effect for the 2020-21 school year, meaning all of the upcoming deliberations about which schools in which sports will be in the league’s two divisions just added a new, relatively unknown player.
“When we re-align, St. Vincent will be part of that conversation,” NBL Commissioner Jan Smith Billing said.
Currently in the North Central II League in all sports except football — which plays an independent schedule — St. Vincent will be by far the smallest school in the mix. With 230 students, St. Vincent is well smaller than Healdsburg at about 522 students or El Molino with approximately 569. Santa Rosa is the league’s largest school with nearly 2,000 students.
“You either step up to that level of competition or you stay comfortable playing at the level where you are kind of a big fish,” St. Vincent Principal Patrick Daly said, acknowledging that the Mustangs are now swimming in “a very large pond.”