Monomoy Gains Approval to Leave South Shore League

HARWICH – Monomoy Regional High School athletic director Paul “Spanky” Demanche announced yesterday that the Sharks will be joining the increasingly competitive Cape & Islands League in the fall of 2016. In a South Shore League meeting of school administrators earlier this week, it was voted unanimously to allow Monomoy to make the transition after the 2015 school year.

Citing growing expenses to compete in the South Shore League – which has schools as distant as Hull, Cohasset and Randolph – Demanche said the time had come to make a move.

The all-time most winning head football coach in Barnstable High School history, Paul “Spanky” Demanche has since done an exceptional job building the Monomoy Regional High athletics program as its athletic director, including this week’s approval for the Sharks to leave the South Shore League and join the flourishing Cape & Islands League.
Sean Walsh/Capecod.com Sports Photos

“Monomoy has been a member of the South Shore League the past three years and has enjoyed the relationships and level of competitiveness the South Shore League has offered,” Demanche stated in a press release. “Unfortunately, economics and time became an increasingly difficult issue to overcome.  As Monomoy’s athletic program continues to grow with additional students and therefore teams, transportation costs increased significantly.”

Additionally, the late returns back to Harwich from away games amplified student-athletes’ already harried schedules and took away much-needed study time, not to fail to mention early dismissals from school to get to those games in some instances.

Final approval still needs to come from District C in order for Monomoy to begin competing in the fall of 2016. If ultimately approved, which is likely according to some sources, the Sharks will join Nantucket, Saint John Paul II, Cape Cod Tech, Sturgis East, Sturgis West, Cape Cod Academy, Falmouth Academy and the Rising Tide Charter School (Plymouth) in the Cape & Islands League.

According to St. John Paul II athletic director John Muldoon, Monomoy’s inclusion in the Cape & Islands League is welcomed by most if not all athletic programs on the Cape and ultimately, he added, there’s an idea being bandied about to create a three-tier system in the region that would have the Cape & Islands League divided into Small, Medium and Large alignments that ideally could encompass all schools.

It has been rumored for some time that Barnstable – which has since the 1980s mainly been a mainstay in the now almost wholly dissipated Old Colony League – has made attempts to join several leagues both on and off Cape. Only Barnstable, Dartmouth and Bridgewater-Raynham remain in the Old Colony League which once boasted as many as nine high schools from across Southeastern Massachusetts.

Regardless, the move by Monomoy to become part of a more localized, regional athletic alliance can only help to bolster the competitiveness on Cape and help reduce significant expenses along the way. It could not come at a better time for the cash-strapped but still fairly new regional high school.

“The expanding Cape & Islands League offers the opportunity for Monomoy to significantly reduce travel costs and time as well as develop more rivalries locally that could enhance athletic revenue,” Demanche’s press release stated.