South Shore League

The South Shore League (SSL) is a high school athletic conference in District C of the Massachusetts Interscholastic Athletic Association. The league consists of 10 high schools, ranging from as far north as Hull, Massachusetts, to as far south as Harwich, Massachusetts. The South Shore League participates in Division 3 & 4 athletic competition in the state of Massachusetts for most sports, while football in the SSL competes in Divisions 5 & 6. There are currently 18 sports affiliated with the South Shore League.

Schools

There are currently 10 schools that compose and compete in the South Shore League. The school names and demographics are listed below.

Although the league is composed of these 10 teams, some teams choose not to participate in league play in certain sports due to a non-existent team, co-op program in other league, or more competitive league.

• In May 2009, The MIAA granted the approval in favor to allow Rockland Senior High School to become the newest member of the South Shore League. Rockland began play in the South Shore League during the 2010-2011 academic year and left the patriot league fisher division.

• In late 2010, a proposal between Harwich High School and Chatham High School to create a regional school district and regional high school was passed. This new regional high school is called Monomoy Regional High School and the schools mascot is the Sharks, and their school colors are Navy Blue & Silver. This proposal would combine the two towns into one joint regional high school. In November 2010, the school board elected to combine the Harwich and Chatham school districts into one regionalized school district. The new regional high school will continue to compete in the South Shore League beginning in the Fall of 2012, and also the construction of new and bigger high school to accommodate the larger school enrollment. As of April 2011, they plan to continue in the South Shore League as Monomoy Regional High School.

• Monomoy fielded its first varsity football team in 2011. Monomoy's varsity football team will begin competition in the South Shore League Small beginning in the 2013 Fall athletics season and will be eligible for all league and postseason games and awards.

• As of May 2011, The South Shore League is reviewing the applications of Hanover High School, Randolph High School, and Middleborough High School to join the South Shore League. Their applications are currently under review and a decision on whether they will be accepted into the league will be reached sometime in the near future.

• In May 2012, The MIAA granted permission for Randolph High School to join the South Shore League in only Football beginning the 2013 Fall athletic season. All other athletic teams at Randolph will continue to compete in the Patriot League. Middleborough High School and Hanover High School were denied acceptance into the South Shore League and will continue play in their current athletics conference (Patriot League). Randolph will become the 10th member of the South Shore League. Randolph only has a 1-year contract with the South Shore League for football and will be required to apply to a new athletic conference once the 2013 Football season is completed.

• In October 2012, the MIAA passed a new playoff proposal for football that will go into effect in the 2013 season. The new proposal states that all the football teams will be divided into 6 divisions (1 the highest, 6 the lowest) and will divide those divisions into North, South, East and West sections. Each section will have anywhere from 12-18 teams in each section and half of thoe teams in each section will make the playoffs. The playoff teams for each division will be selected by a ratings system, which uses a strength of schedule, record, and strength of teams played to determine which teams make the playoffs. All of the league's in the state will stay in place and Thanksgiving Games & Rivalries will also still be played. The regular season will be 8 weeks instead of 11. After those 8 weeks, the top half teams will be selected to participate in the post-season based on the ratings system and the first round of playoffs would begin the following week after the regular season has ended. After the first two rounds of playoffs have been played, all teams will participate in their annual Thanksgiving Day Game, which does not count towards playoffs. Once the Thanksgiving games have been played, the playoffs will resume the following week until a State Champion has been crowned in all 6 divisions. Also, if a team loses in the first two rounds of playoffs, they are not eliminated, but they are not eligible to win the state championship. The playoff format resembles a round robin format and teams that lose will be placed in a losers bracket and play other teams in the losers bracket to fill in the remaining two weeks of their schedule before their Thanksgiving Day game. The winners move on and depending on their seed, play the highest or lowest remaining seed left in the tournament. This continues until a true state champions have been crowned in all 6 divisions. The past playoff system did not crown true state champions, only regional state champions (Eastern, Western, Central). This playoff proposal will determine a true state champion in all 6 divisions and eliminate the regional state championship format. Based on the new state playoff proposal and alignments, the schools in the South Shore League will no longer all be in the same division due to the South South League splitting into Large & Small divisions. This new alignment is based on level of competition and school enrollment sizes, along with the new Large & Small split. Currently, the SSL-Large division will consist of Randolph, Norwell, Rockland, Abington, and East Bridgewater. The SSL-Large teams will compete in Division 5 South. The SSL-Small will consist of Mashpee, Carver, Cohasset, Hull, and Monomoy and they will compete in Division 6 South. Each the Large & Small divisions will receive 2 automatic qualifying berths into the new MIAA Football State Playoff Tournament.^[1]

• In November 2013, Randolph High School was officially admitted as a full-time member to the South Shore League. They had previously been a football only member, but the school applied for full membership and their request was accepted in November. Randolph will being competition in the South Shore League beginning in the 2014-2015 academic year. The football team will continue to be a member of the South Shore League Large, but they will be aligned in Division 4 (for power ratings & playoff ranking purposes), while all the remaining SSL-Large teams are aligned in Division 5.

South Shore League Football State Champions

• 2014 - Abington (Division 5)
• 2014 - Cohasset (Division 6)
• 2012 - Abington (Division 4)
• 2011 - Mashpee (Division 4)
• 2005 - Abington (Division 3)
• 2002 - Abington (Division 5)
• 1998 - Norwell (Division 4B)
• 1997 - Norwell (Division 4B)
• 1996 - Hull (Division 4B)
• 1990 - East Bridgewater (Division 4)
• 1989 - Whitman-Hanson (Division 4)
• 1987 - Norwell (Division 4)
• 1983 - Middleboro (Division 4)
• 1979 - Middleboro (Division 4)
• 1978 - Middleboro (Division 4)
• 1977 - Hull (Division 4)
• 1976 - Hanover (Division 4)
• 1975 - Hanover (Division 4)
• 1974 - Hanover (Division 4)
• 1973 - Hanover (Division 4)

South Shore League Football Champions

Football League Championship Games

* No league championship game before 1980; statewide points system was implemented at the time to decide playoff participants.

Football League Players of the Year

• 2014 (Small) - 1st - Matt Froio (Cohasset), 2nd - Deshaun Dias (Mashpee), 3rd - Tim Gillis (Cohasset)
• 2014 (Large) - 1st - Jared Vargus (East Bridgewater), 2nd - Shawn Donovan (Abington), 3rd - Luca Cerasani (Abington) & Owen Harrington (East Bridgewater)
• 2013 (Small) - 1st - Cole Kissick (Cohasset), 2nd - Chris Haggerty (Cohasset), 3rd - Robert Andrade (Mashpee)
• 2013 (Large) - 1st - Steve Manning (Abington), 2nd - Owen Harrington (East Bridgewater), 3rd - Bryan Dwyer (Abington)
• 2012 - 1st - Andrew Benson (East Bridgewater) & Brandon Cawley (Abington), 2nd - Jared Taylor (Mashpee), 3rd - Babila Fonkem (Abington)
• 2011 - 1st - Zak Orcutt (Mashpee), 2nd - Casey DeAndrade (East Bridgewater), 3rd - Jordan Keli'inui (Mashpee)
• 2010 - 1st - Connor Frasier (Abington), 2nd - Mike Driscoll (Rockland), 3rd - Brian Harrington (Rockland)
• 2009 - 1st - Dana Valentine (Cohasset), 2nd - Kristian Lapointe (Abington), 3rd - Zach Martin (Mashpee)
• 2008 - 1st - Kristian Lapointe (Abington), 2nd - Kevin Byrne (Mashpee), 3rd - Chris Dion (Abington)
• 2007 - 1st - Brian Phillips (East Bridgewater), 2nd - Kenny DeBarros (Mashpee), 3rd - Steve Perakslis (Abington)
• 2006 - 1st - Tim Wells (Abington), 2nd - Matt Merrick (Mashpee), 3rd - John Creamer (Abington)
• 2005 - 1st - Matt Skane (Mashpee), 2nd - Steve Golbranson (Abington), 3rd - Christian Comeau (Norwell)
• 2004 - 1st - Greg Thornton (Norwell), 2nd - Crandon Leahy (Cohasset), 3rd - Justin Albert (Hull)
• 2003 - 1st - Crandon Leahy (Cohasset), 2nd - Greg Thornton (Norwell), 3rd - Justin Albert (Hull)
• 2002 - 1st - Brian McSharry (Abington), 2nd - Adam Bowser (Abington), 3rd - Greg Anderson (Abington
• 2001 - Mike Miller (Abington)
• 1998 - Brian Fabrizio (Norwell)
• 1997 - Brian Fabrizio (Norwell)
• 1994 - Peter Hajjar (Norwell)
• 1980 - Roger Caron (Norwell)
• 1976 - Mike Mullen (Hanover)
• 1975 - Mike Mullen (Hanover)

References