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The ISL

A League Built on Integrity & Sportsmanship

The ISL is an athletic association with the mission of integrity, sportsmanship, and leadership. Member schools are committed to strong developmental and competitive sub-varsity and varsity experiences grounded in the teacher/coach model of instruction. Please visit the ISL website for more information and news.ISL MOTTO
Striving together through athletic competition to achieve the highest degree of integrity, sportsmanship, fair play, and mutual respect in preparation for good citizenship and leadership in society.

Tabor’s History in the ISL

Students standing with coach

The Independent School League’s (ISL) beginnings can be traced to 1948, when Tabor Academy, with Coach Jim Gowing among the organizers, banded together with eight other private high schools to form the Gummere League, the region’s first private high school soccer league. The original schools included: Belmont Hill, Brooks, Browne & Nichols, Governor Dummer, Milton, Nobles, St. Mark’s, and Tabor.

The League’s championship cup was named in honor of Richard Gummere, a long-time teacher and coach at both Browne & Nichols and Haverford College; the Gummere Cup is undoubtedly one of the oldest secondary school soccer trophies in the country. Over time, the original Gummere League and other private school leagues joined together forming the sixteen school Independent School League, or ISL. Tabor, having left the League in 1972, was honored to rejoin this premier prep school athletic association in the fall of 2017.

ISL Standings     Code of Conduct

ISL MEMBER SCHOOLS

  • Belmont Hill School
  • Brooks School
  • Buckingham Browne & Nichols School
  • The Governor's Academy
  • Groton School
  • Lawrence Academy
  • Middlesex School
  • Milton Academy
  • Noble and Greenough School
  • The Rivers School
  • The Roxbury Latin School
  • St. George's School
  • St. Mark's School
  • St. Sebastian's School
  • Tabor Academy
  • Thayer Academy