Northern New Jersey Interscholastic League
The Northern New Jersey Interscholastic League, abbreviated NNJIL, was a former athletic conference located in Bergen County, Passaic County and Essex County, New Jersey. The NNJIL was separated into three divisions, according to the classification they were given from the New Jersey State Interscholastic Athletic Association.
League sports
The Northern New Jersey Interscholastic League allowed member schools to compete in many sports spread out among three seasons. Although the league does not have a cheerleading division, many member schools have their own cheerleading teams. Other sports, such as fencing, are offered by some schools, but like cheerleading, were not part of the NNJIL.The following is a list of the sports that the NNJIL offered. Each bullet was an individual team, but in sports marked with an asterisk, these two teams usually practice together and have almost every if not all of their meets, games, matches, competitions, or other events together.
Fall Sports
- Cross Country
- Field Hockey
- Football
- Gymnastics
- Soccer
- Tennis
- Volleyball
Winter sports
- Basketball
- Basketball
- Bowling
- Swimming
- Winter Track
- Wrestling
Spring sports
- Baseball
- Golf
- Lacrosse
- Softball
- Tennis
- Track & Field
Dissolution of the Conference
In 2008, the NJSIAA presented a proposal to realign the major athletic conferences throughout New Jersey. As part of the realignment movement, the NNJIL was disbanded before the 2008-2009 season, and member schools joined three larger conferences, based largely on county affiliations.Essex County schools Bloomfield, Belleville, Nutley, Montclair and Barringer High Schools joined the new Super Essex Conference, where they remain to this day.
Clifton, Passaic, Paterson Eastside and Paterson Kennedy, along with Paramus, Hackensack, Teaneck and Ridgewood and Bergen Catholic, Don Bosco Prep, Immaculate Heart Academy, Academy of the Holy Angels and Saint Joseph Regional joined the newly formed North Jersey Tri-County Conference. This new conference comprised schools from Passaic, Bergen and Hudson County.
Paramus Catholic, the last remaining school of the old NNJIL, joined the North Bergen Interscholastic Athletic League.
For the 2010 season, the Bergen and Passaic County schools of the North Jersey Tri-County Conference joined with the schools of the former NBIL and Northern Hills Conferences to form the Big North Conference. All Hudson County schools of the North Jersey Tri-County Conference returned to the Hudson County Interscholastic Athletic Association.
Impact of the NNJIL
Many of the high schools that were members of the NNJIL were seen as athletic powerhouses, and numerous state and sectional championships were won by member schools. Fierce rivalries developed in the league, especially in football, where neighboring towns hold decades-long traditional matchups, or where Non-Public schools such as Bergen Catholic and Don Bosco have battled for state championships over the past two decades.Many of the schools in the NNJIL have been included in the most recent realignment conducted by the NJSIAA as part of the 40-member Big North Conference.