Maryland Public Secondary Schools Athletic Association

Maryland Public Secondary Schools Athletic Association (MPSSAA) is the association that oversees public high school sporting contests in the state of Maryland.^[2] Organized after World War II in 1946, the MPSSAA is made up of public high schools from each of Maryland's 23 counties and independent city of Baltimore, which joined the association in 1993 when its public high schools withdrew from the earlier longtime athletic league, the Maryland Scholastic Association (MSA) which was founded in 1919. The MSA had been composed of public high schools in Baltimore and private/religious/independent schools on the secondary level in Baltimore and its metropolitan area and the surrounding central Maryland region. It was one of the few state-level interscholastic athletic leagues in the nation composed of both public and private/religious/independent secondary schools. After the Baltimore City public high schools withdrew from the MSA, the remaining private/religious/independent schools conferred and organized two parallel regional/state-wide athletic leagues with sports competition and exercise activities with one for young men and the other for young women. These were the Maryland Interscholastic Athletic Association (MISAA—for boys) and the Interscholastic Athletic Association of Maryland (ISAAM—for girls), which still exist today. All three state-wide athletic leagues, two for private/religious/independent secondary schools and one for co-ed public high schools exist today marrying on the proud traditions, memories and championships of the old Maryland Scholastic Association (MSA)—one of the oldest state athletic leagues for secondary schools in the country.

Maryland Public Secondary Schools Athletic Association

Abbreviation	MPSSAA
Formation	1946; 78 years ago (1946)
Type	Volunteer; NPO
Legal status	Association
Purpose	Athletic/Educational
Headquarters	Nancy Grassmick Building, Maryland State Department of Education, 200 West Baltimore Street Baltimore, Maryland 21201
Region served	Maryland
Membership	199 public high schools^[1]
Official language	English
Executive Director	Edward F. Sparks
Affiliations	National Federation of State High School Associations
Website	mpssaa.org

The current MPSSAA includes nearly 200 public high schools, with more than 110,000 student-athletes participating in 24 sports. The Association is governed by the Division of Instruction of the Maryland State Department of Education. All public high schools in Maryland in the 23 counties who qualify under the established rules and regulations may become members of the MPSSAA.

The stated purpose of the MPSSAA is "to promote, direct, and control all interscholastic activities of high school students; to establish, maintain, and enforce regulations to assure that all such activities are part of and contribute toward the comprehensive educational program of the state of Maryland; to work with the state department of education in the development of the program to safeguard the physical, mental, and moral welfare of high school students and protect them from exploitation."^[3]

Sponsored sports

Team sports

Fall Field Hockey (girls') Football (boys') Soccer (girls' and boys') Volleyball (girls')

Winter Basketball (girls' and boys')

Spring Baseball (boys') Lacrosse (girls' and boys') Softball (girls')

Individual sports

Fall Cross-Country (girls' and boys') Golf (coed)

Winter Indoor Track (girls' and boys') Swimming & Diving (girls' and boys') Wrestling (coed)

Spring Track & Field (girls' and boys') Tennis (girls' and boys')

Member high schools

Due to the state's unique geography, Maryland high school athletics is divided into nine districts by the MPSSAA for purposes of organizing athletic activities and postseason tournaments. MPSSAA member schools compete within geographic regions (jurisdictions) and are divided into leagues across the state. In total, there are five conferences and six counties competing together to form a league, but remaining independent.

Classifications

The MPSSAA's 199 member schools are arranged by classification to ensure that schools compete on a regular basis with other schools in the geographic area of a similar size. The classifications are 1A (the smallest), 2A, 3A, and 4A (the largest).

• 1A = Lowest 25 percent based on enrollment
• 2A = Next 25 percent based on enrollment
• 3A = Next 25 percent based on enrollment
• 4A = Top 25 percent based on enrollment

District Alignment

• District 1 – Allegany, Carroll, Frederick, Garrett, and Washington counties
• District 2 – Montgomery County
• District 3 – Prince George's County
• District 4 – Charles, Calvert, and St. Mary's counties
• District 5 – Anne Arundel and Howard counties
• District 6 – Baltimore County
• District 7 – Cecil and Harford counties
• District 8 – Caroline, Dorchester, Kent, Queen Anne's, Somerset, Talbot, Wicomico, and Worcester counties
• District 9 – Baltimore City

Conferences

Appalachian Mountain Athletic Conference

Allegany	Garrett
Allegany High School	Northern Garrett High School
Mountain Ridge High School	Southern Garrett High School
Fort Hill High School

Bayside Conference

Caroline	Dorchester	Kent	Queen Anne's	Somerset	Talbot	Wicomico	Worcester
Colonel Richardson High School	Cambridge-South Dorchester High School	Kent County High School	Kent Island High School	Crisfield High School	Easton High School	James M. Bennett High School	Pocomoke High School
North Caroline High School	North Dorchester High School		Queen Anne's County High School	Washington High School	St. Michaels High School	Mardela High School	Snow Hill High School
						Parkside High School	Stephen Decatur High School
						Wicomico High School

Monocacy Valley Athletic League

Carroll	Frederick	Washington
Century High School	Brunswick High School	Boonsboro High School
Francis Scott Key High School	Catoctin High School	Clear Spring High School
Liberty High School	Frederick High School	Hancock High School
Manchester Valley High School	Governor Thomas Johnson High School	North Hagerstown High School
	Linganore High School	Smithsburg High School
South Carroll High School	Middletown High School	South Hagerstown High School
Westminster High School	Oakdale High School	Williamsport High School
Winters Mill High School	Tuscarora High School
	Urbana High School
	Walkersville High School

Southern Maryland Athletic Conference

Calvert	Charles	St. Mary's
Huntingtown High School	Henry E. Lackey High School	Chopticon High School
Northern High School	La Plata High School	Great Mills High School
Calvert High School	Maurice J. McDonough High School	Leonardtown High School
Patuxent High School	North Point High School
	Thomas Stone High School
	Westlake High School
	St. Charles High School

Upper Chesapeake Bay Athletic Conference

Cecil	Harford
Bohemia Manor High School	Aberdeen High School
Elkton High School	Bel Air High School
North East High School	C. Milton Wright High School
Perryville High School	Edgewood High School
Rising Sun High School	Fallston High School
	Harford Technical High School
	Havre De Grace High School
	Joppatowne High School
	North Harford High School
	Patterson Mill High School

Independents

Anne Arundel County League

• Annapolis High School
• Arundel High School
• Broadneck High School
• Chesapeake High School
• Crofton High School
• Glen Burnie High School
• Meade High School
• North County High School
• Northeast High School
• Old Mill High School
• Severna Park High School
• South River High School
• Southern High School

Baltimore City League

• Baltimore City College ("City")
• Baltimore Polytechnic Institute ("Poly")
• Carver Vocational Technical High School
• Digital Harbor High School (formerly Southern High School)
• Paul Laurence Dunbar High School
• Edmondson-Westside High School
• Frederick Douglass High School
• Forest Park High School
• Lake Clifton Eastern High School
• Mergenthaler Vocational-Technical High School ("Mervo")
• Northwestern High School
• Patterson High School
• Reginald F. Lewis High School
• Southwestern High School
• Western High School

Baltimore County League

• Catonsville High School
• Chesapeake High School
• Dulaney High School
• Dundalk High School
• Eastern Technical High School
• Franklin High School
• George Washington Carver Center for Arts and Technology
• Hereford High School
• Kenwood High School
• Lansdowne High School
• Loch Raven High School
• Milford Mill Academy
• New Town High School
• Overlea High School
• Owings Mills High School
• Parkville High School
• Patapsco High School
• Perry Hall High School
• Pikesville High School
• Randallstown High School
• Sparrows Point High School
• Towson High School
• Western School of Technology and Environmental Science
• Woodlawn High School

Howard County League

 

River Hill High School competes against Baltimore City College for the 2009 Class 2A girls' basketball state championship at UMBC's Retriever Activities Center in Catonsville.

• Atholton High School
• Centennial High School
• Glenelg High School
• Hammond High School
• Howard High School
• Long Reach High School
• Marriotts Ridge High School
• Mount Hebron High School
• Oakland Mills High School
• Reservoir High School
• River Hill High School
• Wilde Lake High School

Montgomery County League

• Bethesda-Chevy Chase High School
• Montgomery Blair High School
• James Hubert Blake High School
• Winston Churchill High School
• Clarksburg High School
• Damascus High School
• Albert Einstein High School
• Gaithersburg High School
• Walter Johnson High School
• John F. Kennedy High School
• Colonel Zadok A. Magruder High School
• Richard Montgomery High School
• Northwest High School
• Northwood High School
• Paint Branch High School
• Poolesville High School
• Quince Orchard High School
• Rockville High School
• Seneca Valley High School
• Sherwood High School
• Springbrook High School
• Watkins Mill High School
• Wheaton High School
• Walt Whitman High School
• Thomas Sprigg Wootton High School

Prince George's County League

• Bladensburg High School
• Bowie High School
• Central High School
• Crossland High School
• Frederick Douglass High School
• DuVal High School
• Fairmont Heights High School
• Charles Herbert Flowers High School
• Friendly High School
• Gwynn Park High School
• Henry Alexander Wise Jr., High School
• High Point High School
• Largo High School
• Laurel High School
• Northwestern High School
• Oxon Hill High School
• Parkdale High School
• Potomac High School
• Eleanor Roosevelt High School
• Suitland High School
• Surrattsville High School

See also

• Maryland Interscholastic Athletic Association — a boys' sports conference for private high schools generally located in the Baltimore metropolitan area
• Interscholastic Athletic Association of Maryland — an association of schools that organizes the female athletic programs in the Baltimore metropolitan area
• Washington Catholic Athletic Conference — an association of Catholic Schools in the Washington, DC metropolitan area, which also includes schools in Maryland and Virginia

References

1. "About Us". Maryland Public Secondary Schools Athletic Association. Retrieved February 22, 2024.
2. "Maryland Public Secondary Schools Athletic Association". Maryland Public Secondary Schools Association. Retrieved 1 April 2011.
3. "2013-14 Handbook" (PDF).

External links

• Official website