If you are interested in joining the North Shore Girls Travel League please e-mail

The North Shore Girls Travel League was formed in September 2008 to bring together middle school Girls teams (Grades 5 through 8) from communities that participate primarily in the Cape Ann High School League and Northeast Conference High School League. League play will begin in December of 2008 and finish in March of 2009 with a double elimination playoff tournament.

On September 14, 2008 a group of town directors met to discuss the feasibility of forming a Cape Ann  / Northeast Conference Girls Travel League that is set up similar to the Boys Cape Ann Travel League. An open invitation was sent all town directors whose High Schools are in the Cape Ann League or Northeast Conference League.

This league would be formed to reduce the cost of travel by playing teams within a reasonable geographic area, have teams play the same teams as they would in high school, offer the same double elimination playoff tournament as the boys at the end of the season and to have the same scheduling and referee assignment system as the Boys teams, giving member towns a more consistent program offering to its Boys and Girls youth basketball players in their communities. Having a league similar to the boys will make for a more connected community and a fun and exciting playoff atmosphere, where the Boys and Girls could support each other.

To be clear, this is not meant to cut down the River Valley League in any way, which provides a wonderful service to the Girls Youth basketball community. It is only to form a Girls Travel Basketball League that would operate and function like the Cape Ann Boys Youth Travel League (www.capeannyouthbasketball.org ) for the reasons mentioned above.

It was decided after much discussion that the idea of having our youth playing in a local league will have huge advantages. That does not mean that some teams will struggle in this league to start just as some town's teams could potentially be a lot better although, we are going to make divisions in this league and then do a final alignment for the playoffs.  The CAL/Northeast Conference towns are going to play against each other in high school eventually, so why not recognize the level of play and make a goal of competing.