The Baltimore Catholic League, one of the premier high school boys basketball leagues in the country, has announced the addition of two new member schools, bringing the league back up to eight teams.

John Carroll, which also competes in the Maryland Interscholastic Athletic Association A Conference with fellow BCL members Archbishop Spalding, Calvert Hall, Loyola, Mount St. Joseph and St. Frances, will join the league this coming season.

Mount Carmel, currently a member of the MIAA B Conference, will compete in the BCL Tournament at the end of this season and then plans to move to the MIAA A Conference in the 2011-12 season and become a full-time BCL member then as well.

The past two years, the BCL has lost two of its most storied programs when Towson Catholic and Cardinal Gibbons closed its doors.

“We welcome the additions of John Carroll and Mount Carmel to our league and I’m happy to get us back to eight teams – that’s a good number for the league,” said BCL commissioner Jack Degele. “In these two new coaches – Tony Martin at John Carroll and Tom Rose at Mount Carmel – you have two guys that are very passionate about basketball and understand what it means to be in this league, so they’ll do a great job competing in the league.”

The BCL met with the heads of schools and their respective athletic directors in July and also decided on discontinuing playing any regularly scheduled games on Sundays. There will still be two postseason tournaments. The BCL Tournament will continue to take place after the MIAA A Conference championships.

In celebrating its 40th year, the BCL will introduce a Hall of Fame this coming season.