Sussex County Sports Blog
By Dan Cleary
1/13/2009 - NJAC Releases Schedules (Part 1)
It has been well documented in this space how I feel about the New Jersey State Interscholastic Athletic Association-imposed schools realignment, so I won’t beat a dead horse.
In a nutshell, I felt the competitive balance issue in football needed to be addressed as far as the Sussex County Interscholastic League was concerned, and that all the other sports were fine in the SCIL.
In my opinion, too many schools in North Jersey got caught up with “realignment fever” and instead of dealing with just football, the NJSIAA executive committee decided to blow up all the conferences north of Mercer County and the Shore Conference in a classic case of be careful for what you wish for because you just may just get it scenario.
But in the back of my mind I still held out some hope that the SCIL would remain intact despite all the realignment talk.
I heard plenty of rumors of some schools having “buyer’s remorse” after all was said and done and that some schools were submitting proposals to go back to the original Mike Van Zile/Wallkill Valley plan of just football realignment.
So you hear all of that, and as an ardent fan of the SCIL and its history, I still held out hope, despite the fact it was announced that league was disbanded and the schools were now part of the new super conference, the Northwest Jersey Athletic Conference.
Well, it finally hit home this week when I was sent the fall schedules and divisional formats for all the 37 schools from Sussex, Morris, and the lone Warren County, representative, Hackettstown, that make up the NJAC.
There will be no last-minute reprieve from the hangman’s noose—the SCIL, sad to say, has officially gone the way of the buffalo.
The schools are now divided into five divisions by size in all fall sports except for football and girls volleyball, which are split into four divisions.
The general classification is as follows: Division A/B: Delbarton, High Point, Mendham, Montville, Morris Knolls, Morris Hills, Morristown, Mt. Olive, Parsippany Hills, Pope John, Randolph, Roxbury, Sparta, Vernon and West Morris.
Division C: Hackettstown, Hopatcong, Jefferson, Kittatinny, Lenape Valley, Newton, Wallkill Valley. Division D: Chatham, Dover, Hanover Park, Madison, Morris Catholic, Parsippany, Pequannock and St. Elizabeth. Division E: Boonton, Butler, Kinnelon, Morristown-Beard, Mountain Lakes, Villa Walsh and Whippany Park.
Sussex Tech has requested associate membership like it has now with the SCIL, but nothing has been finalized yet.
So here is a little primer on how the NJAC will operate next fall as far as scheduling for the former SCIL schools. I hope this clears things up for everyone.
FOOTBALL
The football-playing schools in the NJAC will be divided into four divisions by size as mentioned. In Division A, Morris Knolls, Vernon, Delbarton, Morristown, Mt. Olive, Randolph, Roxbury and West Morris Central will play each other with an open date on Week 1 and a linear crossover game against a Division B opponent in Week 9.
What does this mean? For example, Vernon will play East Orange on opening day in an independent clash before playing seven division games (at Delbarton, Morristown, at Roxbury, West Morris, at Morris Knolls, at Mt. Olive and Randolph). The Vikings will host High Point in Week 9 in its crossover game, so Vernon will only play one former SCIL rival next year.
This is what Vernon coach Chuck Tepper has been pushing for and he got it. Vernon will be playing all Group 3 and 4 schools, which according to Tepper, will give the Vikings a better chance of making the state tournament.
Division B will house Mendham, Montville, High Point, Pope John, Parsippany Hills, Jefferson, Morris Hills and Sparta. The only oddity here is that Jefferson, a Group 2 school and member of Division C in all the other sports, will be with the big boys.
Jefferson AD John DiColo, the new president of the NJAC, told me he voted against it, but he was shot down as the league needed to bump a team up to even out Division B.
Pope John and Sparta will still play each other (next season it will be in Week 2) as well as High Point and Jefferson, so there will be some SCIL flavor to this division. Pope John’s crossover game will be against Delbarton, while Sparta will face Roxbury and as previously mentioned, High Point and Vernon will clash. Jefferson will host Mt. Olive in its crossover.
Division C will look like “SCIL Light” as the division is comprised of Lenape Valley, Newton, Kittatinny and Wallkill Valley, along with Morris schools, Chatham, Madison, Hanover Park, Parsippany and Hackettstown of Warren County.
All the schools will play each other once and each school needs to fill out its schedule with an independent clash.
The final SCIL school and the lone Group 1 in football, Hopatcong, is in Division D for football, but Division C for all other sports with its former SCIL brethren. The Chiefs have a full schedule and will play Mountain Lakes, Kinnelon, Morris Catholic, Whippany Park, Pequannock, Morristown-Beard, Dover, Boonton and Butler.
By the looks of it, Hopatcong is going from the proverbial fire into the frying pan with the likes of Mountain Lakes on the schedule.
BOYS AND GIRLS SOCCER
After the success of the two-division format last season in SCIL boys and girls soccer, it pains me to type this, but what are you going to do.
Okay, here it goes. The teams in Division A/B will play each other once for 14 division games for the boys and 13 for the girls due to the fact that Delbarton is an all boys school. The rest of schedule will be made up of independent games, similar to last season’s SCIL format.
It is my understanding that two division champs will be crowned based on divisional records. Even though every school plays each other once, the schools in Division A (the same schools as football) and Division B (the same as football except for Jefferson) will declare champions based on their record against their division rivals, if that makes any sense.
So for example, Sparta could go 13-1 overall, but if that loss is to Pope John, and the Lions go 6-8, but 6-0 in the division, the Lions would still be the division champs. Now if that format holds true to form, there will be major problems due to the possible scenario I laid out. Hopefully, the ADs will address that before the season starts.
It is much simpler in Division C as all the teams will face each other twice for a 12-match slate with the team with the best record named the division champ.
It is not known whether there will be a Sussex County Tournament next season. I know Morris will keep its tourney and will not invite the Sussex teams. DiColo told me that Jefferson will only participate in Morris County tourneys in all sports from here on out.
And the other big change in soccer is that boys and girls soccer will play on the same day, opposite site, which could pose a pretty nasty logistical problem when it comes to getting referees and finding fields for all three levels of play.
So when teams play their divisional games, schools will need to supply refs for all three contests (varsity, JV and freshmen) and three fields, which means a total of six fields need to be in use in one day for both the boys and girls, plus refs.
Good luck on that one, guys.
FIELD HOCKEY
The field hockey alignment is the same as soccer for the A/B and C Divisions. The A/B schools will play each other once for a 13-game slate, while the C schools will play each other twice for a 12-game schedule.
Just like soccer, there will be an A and B Division champ crowned based on divisional record. I haven’t heard anything yet, but this would be the perfect opportunity for the Sussex schools to start their own county tourney, which would be a dandy considering the rich history the SCIL schools have in the sport.
GIRLS TENNIS
Girls tennis will be a little bit different due to the fact that not all the schools in the NJAC offer the sport, especially in the C/D/E Divisions. The big schools in A/B will follow the same format as soccer and field hockey which provides for 13 matches. But the C/D/E Divisions will play their division opponents twice and all other teams in C/D/E one time.
So for example, in Division C, Hackettstown and Jefferson do not have girls tennis, so there will be only eight divisional matches if you play every school twice. The other two divisions are also in the same boat, so that is why there is a need for mandatory crossover matches.
BOSY AND GIRLS CROSS COUNTRY
Cross country, a sport that was never brought up when discussing realignment, has pretty much done a great job of running its own show over the years, so it seems kind of unfair that it will be affected the most.
After running nine SCIL meets a season for the last 30 years, that number will jump to 13 for the girls and 14 for the boys for the schools in A/B as every school will face each other once like in the other sports.
Division C will have just six divisional races, plus the cross country committee will attempt to place one crossover meet into each batch meet.
Okay, what the heck is a batch meet, you may be asking, and it is a good question. From what I can gather, the committee will develop batch meets maintaining divisional competition at two sites, Louis Morris Park and Freedom Park in Morris County for two years.
So like a weekend invitational, numerous teams will be running, but scores will be only kept against the designated schools you are competing against that day. Got it?
For example (there have been a lot examples in this blog, huh?), Pope John, Vernon, High Point, Montville, Morris Hills, Wallkill, Hopatcong and Jefferson could all be running one day. But only scores would only be kept for Wallkill, Hopatcong and Jefferson against each other.
So a PJ kid could win the race, but whoever comes in first among the Division C schools would get the first-place points for the tri-meet purposes.
I don’t know about you, but I always kind of liked the home meet advantage and different types of terrain that Sussex County had to offer for cross country. Now it looks like the meets will be very homogenized, which takes a little bit away from the sport, in my opinion.
GIRLS VOLLEYBALL
Girls volleyball, which is on the rise in the area, like football, is divided into four divisions. Here they are: A-Randolph, Vernon, Morris Knolls, Roxbury, Morristown, West Morris and Mount Olive. B-Mendham, Montville, Sparta, Parsippany Hills, Morris Hills and Pope John. C-Jefferson, Parsippany, Hackettstown, Chatham, Hanover Park and Morris Catholic. D-Dover, Madison, Kinnelon, Whippany Park, St. Elizabeth’s and Morristown-Beard.
Schools will play their division opponents twice. There will be one mandatory match for each team between the A and B Divisions and the C and D Divisions. The A Division will have 18 matches, the B Division 17 matches and C and D will have 16 matches.
I know this is a lot to digest in one serving, so I will spare you anymore. Like I said, I’m not crazy about it, but it is what is and we all have to make the best of it. In my next blog I will try to sort out for you how the winter and spring sports will be set up.
That’s it for now, see you on the sidelines.
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