St. Mary’s boys basketball joining Baltimore Catholic League as associate member

St. Mary’s boys basketball is moving in.

The five-time Maryland Interscholastic Athletic Association B Conference champions accepted an invitation to compete as an associate member in the Baltimore Catholic League for the 2024-25 season, the league announced Thursday.

The temporary nature comes down to scheduling conflicts, per Quinn, as St. Mary’s won’t be able to fit all seven BCL member schools and its MIAA B opponents into its already packed schedule. As a result, St. Mary’s will compete in the 2025 BCL Tournament as the eighth seed.

“To have the opportunity to be included in a historic league and compete against those other teams is something we weren’t sure would ever be possible at St. Mary’s,” Quinn said. “It’s very rare that someone gets to join, which was a big part of our push to it, to say hey, this opportunity may not happen again.”

St. Mary’s, which added its last two conference titles in 2022 and 2023, is the ninth school the 54-year-old BCL has invited outside of the league. The most recent addition was Mount Carmel in 2011, while the last Anne Arundel school to join was Archbishop Spalding (1997). Both eventually became full members. St. Maria Goretti competed in the BCL for 40 seasons, but the school is scheduled to close.

St. Mary’s regularly schedules BCL members, such as Mount Saint Joseph, and has played to tight finishes in the past. And before long, the two — and the remainder of the A Conference teams — may just be their own conference neighbors.

“We look to move up to the A [soon], or make another adjustment so that we could become a full-fledged member,” Quinn said. “That would be the goal and the plan.”

To compete against some of the best programs in Maryland on a more regular basis might be a daunting concept to most teams from smaller schools, but Quinn thinks his young squad can handle it. Along with A Conference teams, St. Mary’s typically loads its schedule with Washington Catholic Athletic Conference schools, and high-level opponents from out of state.

It’s a “natural progression,” Quinn said, “to say, ‘Hey, we were competitive and we’ve put in the work,’ and this is the challenge we accepted.”

St. Mary’s school president Dr. Andrew Moore stated in a news release that the move came “at a perfect time” for an Annapolis school “on the rise,” while BCL commissioner Jack Degele said the league is “thrilled” to add the Saints as an associate member.”

“We are impressed with the school’s growth and success in recent years, and behind the strong commitment of the school administration and athletic department, the basketball program under Trey Quinn has made great strides forward,” Degele said in the release. “We look forward to seeing the Saints compete for the 2025 BCL Tournament title.”