Rams Looking Ahead Riverside Moving Into Frontier League

After dominating in its Northeast A League sports swan song, Riverside High School is preparing to greet the new frontier.

Next year the Rams enter the Class AA Frontier League to compete on a regular basis against larger schools.

“The coaches are apprehensive about the move but are looking forward to it,” said Athletic Director Marty Friedman. “We’ll jump in there and do OK.

“We’re to the point where we’re ready to grow and move on.”

Players and coaches will take with them memories of a season in which the school won five NEA championships and finished second three more times.

“We were excited about what we did,” Friedman said.

Included were a second straight football championship, outright and shared boys and girls basketball titles, respectively, and wrestling and boys cross country championships.

Riverside finished second in softball but won district and nearly qualified for state with a team that included six freshmen and three sophomores.

Other seconds include girls cross country and track. Those teams won district titles as well, and the boys track team was 4 points shy of one.

Riverside won’t abandon NEA schools entirely. Friedman said it will still schedule most of them in non-league games.

With Riverside’s departure, Lakeside High School stands poised to take its place as a dominant Northeast A program.

The Eagles program came to full fruition this year with state appearances in football, girls basketball, and baseball after a league title in the latter two.

Wrestling continued as a state power, track teams compiled winning seasons with individual state placers, and the school scored at state in golf and tennis.

, DataTimes