Mid-Atlantic Prep League

The Mid-Atlantic Prep League, also known as the MAPL, is a sports league with participating institutions from prep schools in New Jersey and Pennsylvania in the United States. The league comprises schools known for their academic rigor, but the quality of play in all sports is fairly high. MAPL schools are allowed to have a limited number of post-graduates (student-athletes who have already graduated from high school and are taking an intermediate step between high school and college) on their rosters.

Schools competing in the league include:

School Location Team Name
Blair Academy Blairstown, New Jersey Buccaneers
The Hill School Pottstown, Pennsylvania The Blues
Hun School of Princeton Princeton, New Jersey Raiders
Lawrenceville School Lawrenceville, New Jersey Big Red
Mercersburg Academy Mercersburg, Pennsylvania Blue Storm
Peddie School Hightstown, New Jersey Falcons

The MAPL Headmasters' Cup

In 2007, the athletic directors of the Mid-Atlantic Prep League created the Headmasters' Cup to recognize outstanding sportsmanship. The cup is awarded annually to the school that best exemplifies the qualities of good sportsmanship year-round from their student-athletes, coaches, staff and fans. Voting is conducted by each coach after each season and tabulated in the spring to determine the winner of the Headmasters' Cup.

In the four years it has been awarded, the Headmasters' Cup has been won three times by Peddie School.[1]

MAPL Headmasters' Cup Recipients

Boys' Squash

The Lawrenceville School Boys' Varsity Squash Team has been the winner of the MAPL Squash Championships since 2002.

Mercersburg's Ahmed Abdel Latif was undefeated (not losing one game) in 2010-2011.

Boys' basketball

Since its inception in 1999, the MAPL has been an extremely competitive league and arguably the best combination of academics and basketball in the United States. While producing NBA players Luol Deng, Charlie Villanueva and Royal Ivey (all from Blair), as well as Joakim Noah (Lawrenceville), the MAPL has also become a pipeline for Ivy League basketball programs. From 2004-2008 no league in the country produced more Ivy League players than the MAPL and no single school in the country produced as many players as The Hun School.

Blair Academy has been the dominant basketball program in recent years, compiling a 63-12 record since the league's inception in 1999 and winning 7 of the last 10 league championships.

The Hill School won the 2007-2008 MAPL Basketball league regular season championship and year-end tournament championship for the first time in school history. After winning the MAPL, Hill lost in overtime to ANC (at one point raked number #1 among prep schools) in the Pennsylvania Independent League Tournament. Hill also won the MAPL Basketball league in 2013-2014. Losing only once in the league to Hun.

The Hun School of Princeton has been one of the dominant programs in the MAPL league for years, at one point winning 4 straight championships and a state championship while placing 19 players on Division 1 rosters.

Lawrenceville has made its share of contributions to MAPL basketball excellence over the years. Notable accomplishments include the 2003-04 Lawrenceville team that went 23-4 and beat national powerhouse Saint Benedict's Preparatory School of Newark, New Jersey. All five of Lawrenceville's starters on that team went on to play Division I basketball: David Whitehurst (Penn), Joakim Noah (leading scorer for Florida), Craig Moore (Northwestern), Andrew Morrison (Bucknell) and Kashif Sweet (Columbia). In 2005-2006 Noah went on to lead Florida to a 73-57 win over UCLA for the school's first NCAA basketball title, and was named the Most Outstanding Player of the Final Four.

Mercersburg's recent basketball alumni include Ugonna Onyekwe (Penn), Stephane Pelle (Colorado), Adam Chubb (Penn), Wes Miller (North Carolina, now head coach at UNC Greensboro), Alex Tyler (Cornell), Donya Jackson (Navy), Chall Montgomery (Navy), Dre Wills (Vermont), and Phillip McGloin (Vanderbilt).

Former Peddie star Ibrahim Jaaber was a two-time Ivy League Player of the Year at the University of Pennsylvania and now plays professionally for Italian club Pallacanestro Virtus Roma. Jaaber, a naturalized Bulgarian citizen, is also a member of the Bulgaria national basketball team. Other Peddie alums playing collegiately include Darren Smith (Penn), Colin Aldridge (Brown), Noruwa Agho (Columbia).

Baseball

Mercersburg has dominated MAPL baseball since joining the league in 2000-2001. The Storm has won nine league championships in the 14 years since. Mercersburg played in the tournament championship game eight out of 11 times.[2] The MAPL discontinued its league tournament in 2012 and has since crowned its league champion on the basis of the regular season record. Mercersburg has won or shared the MAPL crown every year since 2011; three of those four titles were won outright, while Mercersburg and Peddie shared the 2012 conference championship.[3]

In recent years, MAPL baseball has seen a rise in competitiveness, with several former players now playing in college and professionally. Mercersburg's Josh Edgin is a pitcher for the New York Mets. Former Peddie standout Fernando Perez played two seasons for the Tampa Bay Rays and has also spent time with minor-league affiliates of the Chicago Cubs and New York Mets. Perez was drafted in the 7th round of the 2004 amateur draft after playing for Columbia. Joseph Florio (Blair), Nick Francona (Lawrenceville), Steve Garrison (Hun), Christian Binford (Mercersburg), and James Stokes (Hill) are minor league players for the Oakland Athletics, Boston Red Sox, Milwaukee Brewers, Kansas City Royals, and Cleveland Indians respectively. Hun School graduate Mike Ford went on to play for Princeton University from 2011-2013. He is the only player in Ivy history who earned player, pitcher, and rookie of the year.[4]

Boys' and Girls' Tennis

For the second year in a row, the Blair boys team won the MAPL championship by a wide margin. They finished the past two seasons with an undefeated record. The Blair girls team finished the 2010 season undefeated (16-0) claiming the MAPL title and New Jersey State championship.

Boys' Soccer

The Hill School won the MAPL Boys' Varsity Soccer for three consecutive years since 2010. In 2013 fall boys' varsity soccer, Lawrenceville got the second place.

Boys' Crew

Notable boy's crew alumni from the MAPL

Football

Notable football alumni from the MAPL:

Basketball

Notable Alumni from the MAPL

Track and field

.

References

  1. ↑ http://www.peddie.org
  2. ↑
  3. ↑ http://www.mercersburg.edu/page/News-Detail?pk=713106&fromId=161705
  4. ↑ http://www.goprincetontigers.com/ViewArticle.dbml?DB_OEM_ID=10600&ATCLID=208707460
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