page_title: Northern Highlands Regional High School
section_title: Athletics
hierarchical_section_title: Northern Highlands Regional High School / Athletics
caption_attribution_description: Corcoran Gymnasium at Northern Highlands Regional High School during the Palooza
context_page_description: Northern Highlands Regional High School is a regional public high school and school district in Allendale, Bergen County, New Jersey, United States. The school serves students in ninth through twelfth grades from Allendale, Ho-Ho-Kus, Saddle River, and Upper Saddle River. Students from Saddle River have the option of attending either Northern Highlands or Ramsey High School, as part of sending/receiving relationships with the two districts.
  As of the 2017–18 school year, the school had an enrollment of 1,352 students and 113.0 classroom teachers, for a student–teacher ratio of 12.0:1. There were 6 students eligible for free lunch and 1 eligible for reduced-cost lunch.
  The district was classified by the New Jersey Department of Education as being in District Factor Group "J", the highest of eight groupings. District Factor Groups organize districts statewide to allow comparison by common socioeconomic characteristics of the local districts. From lowest socioeconomic status to highest, the categories are A, B, CD, DE, FG, GH, I and J.
  Northern Highlands Regional High School is accredited by the New Jersey Department of Education.
context_section_description: The Northern Highlands Regional High School Highlanders compete in the Big North Conference, following a reorganization of sports leagues in Northern New Jersey by the New Jersey State Interscholastic Athletic Association (NJSIAA). With 1,021 students in grades 10–12, the school was classified by the NJSIAA for the 2015–16 school year as North I, Group III for most athletic competition purposes, which included schools with an enrollment of 786 to 1,074 students in that grade range. Before the 2010 realignment, the school had previously competed in the North Bergen Interscholastic Athletic League.
  The Northern Highlands football team won the NJSIAA North I Group III state sectional championship in 1978. Starting in 1965, Fred Conrad became the Northern Highlands Head football coach. After eight years, Conrad led Highlands to its first state final match. The Scotty Dogs ended up with Highlands' first championship win. Five years later, Conrad brought the Scotty Dogs to their second state championship. Three years afterwards The Scotty Dogs would face Indian Hills High School in the state, losing by a missed field goal (the last time Highlands has gone to the division 3 states).
  In 1982, Conrad turned over the head coaching job to Carl Mortenson, who led the Highlanders for six seasons. Steve Simonetti took over in 1988 and coached the Highlanders (changed from Northern Highlands Scotty Dogs) for 19 years. By the time Simonetti retired from coaching in early 2006, 46 of his football players had gone to play in the NCAA. Simonetti was replaced by head coach Christopher Locurto. In his two seasons as head coach, the team's record was 1–14 after a loss in a homecoming game against Mahwah High School by a score of 35–7 on October 19, 2008. Locurto had a 4–6 record in his 3rd season as the head football coach.
  The field hockey team won the North I Group III state sectional championship in 1986, 1987, 1989, 1990, 1991, 1993, 2013 and 2014; the team won the Group III state championship in 1986, defeating Central Regional High School in the tournament final. The team won the 2008 Bergen County Championship, its first since 2002. They were named by The Record as Team of the Year and were ranked #3 in the state. In 2010, the Northern Highlands Field Hockey team has become the second field hockey team in school history to win three consecutive Bergen County Championships, defeating Northern Valley Regional High School at Demarest by a score of 1–0 in 2008, and defeating Ramsey High School by 2–0 in 2009 and 3–2 in 2010. Northern Highlands had also won three consecutive titles from 1998 to 2000.
  The men's track and field program were the league champions from 2002 to 2006. The men's track team won the League, County and Sectional championships in 2006.
  The Northern Highlands ice hockey team won the NBIL regular season title and the inaugural NBIL Cup in 2007.
  The 2001 girls' tennis team won the NJSIAA North I, Group III sectional championship, defeating Ramapo High School, 3–2 in the tournament final. The boys' tennis team duplicated the feat that same year, also defeating Ramapo High School by the same three matches to two score in the final.
  The 2003 girls' tennis team won the North I, Group III sectional championship, defeating Ramapo High School, 3–2 in the tournament final. The 2004 and 2005 teams, repeated the result, winning 4–1 over Ramapo both years.
  The girls' basketball team won the 2005 North I, Group III sectional championship, defeating West Morris Central High School 35–27 in the final game.
  The girls' soccer team won the Group III state championship in 1991 vs. Ewing High School, was co-champion in 1992 with Hillsborough High School, was co-champion in 2009 with Hopewell Valley Central High School, won in both 2011 and 2012 vs. Moorestown High School, in 2013 vs. Toms River High School South and 2014 vs. Colts Neck High School. The team won the 2003 North I Group III sectional championship over Northern Valley Regional High School at Old Tappan by a 2–1 score.
  The boys' tennis team won the North I, Group III state secti
caption: Corcoran Gymnasium at Northern Highlands during the Palooza
exif: {"Image ImageDescription": "OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA", "Image Make": "OLYMPUS IMAGING CORP.", "Image Model": "u770SW,S770SW", "Image Orientation": "Horizontal (normal)", "Image XResolution": "314", "Image YResolution": "314", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Image Software": "Version 1.0", "Image DateTime": "2008:03:28 18:46:13", "Image YCbCrPositioning": "Co-sited", "Image ExifOffset": "158", "Image PrintIM": "[80, 114, 105, 110, 116, 73, 77, 0, 48, 51, 48, 48, 0, 0, 37, 0, 1, 0, 20, 0, ... ]", "Thumbnail Compression": "JPEG (old-style)", "Thumbnail XResolution": "72", "Thumbnail YResolution": "72", "Thumbnail ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormat": "7892", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormatLength": "7545", "EXIF ExposureTime": "1/13", "EXIF FNumber": "7/2", "EXIF ExposureProgram": "Program Normal", "EXIF ISOSpeedRatings": "200", "EXIF ExifVersion": "0221", "EXIF DateTimeOriginal": "2008:03:28 18:46:13", "EXIF DateTimeDigitized": "2008:03:28 18:46:13", "EXIF ComponentsConfiguration": "YCbCr", "EXIF ExposureBiasValue": "0", "EXIF MaxApertureValue": "361/100", "EXIF MeteringMode": "Pattern", "EXIF LightSource": "Unknown", "EXIF Flash": "Flash did not fire, compulsory flash mode", "EXIF FocalLength": "67/10", "EXIF FlashPixVersion": "0100", "EXIF ColorSpace": "sRGB", "EXIF ExifImageWidth": "3072", "EXIF ExifImageLength": "2304", "Interoperability InteroperabilityIndex": "R98", "Interoperability InteroperabilityVersion": "[48, 49, 48, 48]", "EXIF InteroperabilityOffset": "614", "EXIF FileSource": "Digital Camera", "EXIF CustomRendered": "Normal", "EXIF ExposureMode": "Auto Exposure", "EXIF WhiteBalance": "Auto", "EXIF DigitalZoomRatio": "1", "EXIF SceneCaptureType": "Standard", "EXIF GainControl": "High gain up", "EXIF Contrast": "Normal", "EXIF Saturation": "Normal", "EXIF Sharpness": "Normal"}