2/8/2008 - The Power of Power Points
When it comes to the high school state playoff systems in New Jersey, you can’t please everyone.
Just look at football. People have been complaining about the power-point system ever since it was implemented in 1976, but the member schools of the New Jersey State Interscholastic Athletic Association have twice voted down proposals championed by Wallkill Valley Athletic Director Mike Van Zile that would eliminate the system and group schools by size into districts for regular-season play.
And in other sports, a .500 record or better roughly three-quarters of the way through the season gets you a ticket to the “Big Dance.” But there are grumblings every season that a team which received a high seed didn’t earn it because “they haven’t played anyone,” so in the critics’ view, strength of schedule by school size should be taken into consideration when seeding. As a matter of fact, “strength of schedule,” and I use that term loosely because the strength is based on the size of the school of the opposition, is only considered when teams have the same record.
However, when it comes to the state playoffs, two sports have it right: wrestling and swimming. In swimming, rankings and seeds for the team tournament are based on a power-point system that relies on times in each of the events, so there is no guess work. Every time recorded is given a point value.
To qualify for states, teams must submit their two best meets based on power points. The points earned in the two meets are then added together and divided by two to calculate the final ranking. The top eight teams in each section that have competed in at least six meets make the tourney.
For example, High Point’s boys team, which ended Pope John’s and Vernon’s stranglehold on the Sussex County Interscholastic League regular season title this year, has a power point total of 2,573, which means the Wildcats two best meets added up to 5,146 points. They are seeded fifth in North Public 1-B and will face fourth-seeded Ramapo next week when the playoffs get under way.
Okay, does your brain hurt? Mine does and we haven’t delved into the wrestling power points yet.
Wrestling power points are a completely different animal and the way they are calculated would even make Einstein reach for some Tylenol. For years I thought some mad wrestling scientist would sit in a dark basement and figure out the points, but now all you have to do, if you dare, is go on the NJSIAA website www.njsiaa.org and there is an explanation on how the points are tabulated.
I won’t go into the specifics here (mainly because my head may explode like the people in that movie “Scanners”) but the main thrust of the system is that teams are rewarded for wrestling against top competition win or lose, which is great for the sport. The top six teams in each section with enough power points and a .500 or better record qualify. Also, if a team is undefeated, regardless of power points, it qualifies. More on that later.
In the sports that use a .500 or better record for qualification, some schools that have the ability to schedule several non-conference opponents fatten up on lesser competition to gain a top seed come playoff time. But as we have seen time and again, that strategy rarely pays off because schools that play cupcakes get squashed by battle-tested squads every time they meet in the playoffs.
The wrestling team tournament has seen its fair share of changes since it was implemented in 1980 and all of them, in my opinion, are for the good of the sport. Here is just a little background on the tourney thanks to the Shore Conference website.
Back in 1977, coaches from Mercer County wanted the district tournaments (then considered a sectional title) to be set up like other state tourneys according to group size so smaller schools would have a better chance of winning a state title (sounds awfully familiar, doesn’t it?). They presented their case to the New Jersey Wrestling Coaches Association at its final meeting of the year with a petition to the NJSIAA for consideration in October of 1978.
After they left, several coaches, including then Paramus coach Bill Savage, decided they needed a plan to keep the districts in place, while coming up with a blueprint that would allow smaller schools to win a state crown.
Savage and some of his fellow coaches spent the whole summer devising a dual-meet format and presented it at the September NJWCA meeting. The Mercer County coaches backed the plan and agreed to withdraw their petition if the NJWCA could convince the state to buy into the new plan.
The state wrestling committee narrowly voted 5-4 for the proposal and the first team sectional tournament was born in the Fall of 1978. The tourney started the next season (1979-80) with the top four teams in each section gaining a berth. Teams qualified based strictly on power points, so if you were undefeated, but didn’t have enough power points, you were out of luck.
The first major change to the tourney came just two years later. The original plan called for the sectional tournament to be re-evaluated in 1984 with the possibility of group champions being named. But Hunterdon Central’s powerful and legendary coach, Russ Reigel, pressured the state to add group championships and in 1982 group champions were crowned.
The next change addressed the undefeated record issue. Back in the mid-1980s Highland Regional in South Jersey was one of the best programs in the state. But due to its schedule one season, Highland didn’t have enough power points in South Jersey Group 4 to qualify despite its undefeated record. Another wrestling titan, Ralph Ross, Highland’s coach, helped get the rule changed to allow undefeated teams in.
The tourney expanded to six teams in the early 1990s after High Point coach Jeff Hull, a Sussex County Hall of Famer, requested that the state add two teams to each section. Hull’s proposal passed and the system is still in place today. The only change in the format since then, besides the annual restructuring of groups and sections, which is done in every sport, will be implemented next week and it is another good one.
Previously, the sections would be hosted at two sites on the first night of competition. The top two seeds would host and receive byes. For example, at the top seed, the fourth and fifth seeds would do battle at 5:30 p.m. with the winner facing the top seed at 7 p.m. in the semifinals. A pretty quick turnaround, to say the least, and as a result, you saw many blowouts in the semifinal round. The final would be wrestled two days later at the site of the highest remaining seed.
This season, the top two seeds will still receive a bye, but the lower seeds will do battle Monday and the winners will then travel to the top two seeds Wednesday for the semifinals. The section championship will be decided Friday at the highest seed and all the section winners will converge at the Ritacco Center in Toms River Sunday for the state semis and finals.
Breaking the section into three nights is a great and fair idea. It gives four teams a home match, instead of two, which is a bonus for parents and fans. It is a nice way to be rewarded for a fine season. Also, it gives kids more recovery time. With the regular season already a meat grinder due to the compact nature of the schedule thanks to state’s sweetheart deal with Atlantic City for the individual championships, which shortened the season by a week, it is a good idea to give kids as much recovery time as possible, especially for a big match.
Although it is not perfect, the wrestling system works and the credit goes to the NJWCA for constantly evaluating how the sport is run and looking for better ways to do things. And the NJSIAA also deserves some kudos for keeping an open mind when it comes to the coaches’ suggestions.
So as the tourney nears, there are plenty of plot lines, like will High Point finally win that elusive first state title, and will Kittatinny, which dropped down to Group 1, end Paulsboro’s incredible 25-year run as the top small school in the state?
And here is the ironic thing about Paulsboro’s run. Its athletic director at the time voted against forming a team tournament. Pretty funny, huh? So let’s hope Kittatinny can make Paulsboro wish it got its way some 30 years later by bringing home the Group 1 trophy to Sussex County.
That’s it for now, see you on the sidelines.
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