Sussex County Sports Blog

By Dan Cleary

10/13/2009 - New Tourney Set To Kick Off

Last year, the soccer coaches in the old Sussex County Interscholastic League (yes, it seems very odd to write that), took the bull by the horns and did something about the competitive balance issue and split the loop into big school and small school divisions.

It was a smashing success and it also allowed for the first, and unfortunately the last, SCIL Festival for boys and girls soccer. As everyone knows by now, the SCIL Festival in all sports has gone the way of the buffalo in the name of realignment.

But, as the old saying goes, as one door shuts, another one opens, and that new door is the formation of the Hunterdon/Warren/Sussex Athletic Association. The HWSA is comprised of the 20 schools from the three counties, including all 10 from Sussex County.

HWSA will oversee 21 tournaments this school year and the seeding for the first-ever H/W/S boys and girls soccer and field hockey tournaments is this week and I can’t wait to see how everything shakes out.

I’ve made it clear in previous blogs that I have never been a proponent of realignment for all sports. I supported a change in football, but not the sweeping changes that were implemented this school year in all sports.

But one of the few bright spots for me when it comes to realignment is the formation of the HWSA, which allows schools from Sussex the opportunity to play in a tournament atmosphere before the start of the state tournament.

For years, the boys and girls soccer, (until last year), field hockey and softball teams from Sussex County were at a disadvantage, in my opinion, come state tourney time because there was no SCIL Festival in those sports.

Now with the HWSA tourneys, which should be incredibly competitive, those teams will be tourney tested and I think that is great. Plus, the old Hunterdon/Warren Tournament had developed a great tradition over the years and the addition of the Sussex teams will just add to it.

So how will the tournaments run, you may be asking? Well, you have come to the right spot, my friends, because I have all of the answers (I hope!) to all of your questions.

After talking with several athletic directors from the HWSA, this how the soccer and field hockey tourneys will be seeded.

Okay, here we go. The 10 teams from Sussex and the combined 10 teams from Hunterdon and Warren counties will be seeded 1-through 10 in boys and girls soccer in their respective areas, so you will have two sets of seeds from 1-through-10. You will have a No.1 seed from Sussex and a No. 1 seed from H/W and so on through 10.

In field hockey, there are only nine teams in Sussex, so we will get to that later.

All right, the coaches from all 20 soccer schools will go online and submit their team’s resume which will include all game results plus the group size of each their opponents (Group 1, 2, 3 and 4 or Non-Public A or B).

Once all the information is submitted, the coaches will then review all the resumes and seed each team from their respective area 1-through-10. So, Sussex coaches will seed only Sussex teams and the same for the H/W schools. There are no set criteria and the voting is pretty much subjective.

After all the seeds are submitted the ADs that govern each sport (one from Sussex and one from H/W) will review the seeds and each vote is given a numerical value.

For a first-place vote, a team will receive one point. For a second-place vote, you receive 2 points and so on through 10. So the most points a team can accumulate is 100 points, and the lowest is 10 points.

So the school with the lowest point value will be seeded No. 1 and so on down through No. 10. I know it sounds confusing, but stick with me. For example, in girls soccer, say Sparta receives six first-place votes and four second-place votes. And Kittatinny receives four first-place votes and six second-place votes.

The Spartans’ total would be 15 points and the Cougars’ 16, so Sparta would be the No. 1 seed and Kittatinny the No. 2 seed. Got it? Okay, you are probably asking yourself, what about tiebreakers wiseguy?

Here is the tiebreaking procedure. The first criterion is head-to-head, which is a toughie in Sussex because all the teams do not play each other anymore. If that doesn’t settle it, we go to records against common opponents.

The third tiebreaker is overall record based on winning percentage, and if after all that, it is still tied, the tie is broken by vote between the two ADs and the HWSA president Bob Hopek of North Hunterdon.

Buddy Freund, the AD at Belvidere who oversees field hockey with Don Smolyn of Lenape Valley, told me this seeding process has worked great over the years for the H/W tourneys and that the coaches take the seeding very serious and are very ethical when submitting their choices.

But he added that the ADs reserve the right to change seeds if they see something suspicious. For example, in boys soccer, Newton is undefeated and has beaten Sparta. If for some reason the Braves were seeded No. 8, than the seeds would all be under review.

Freund told me it has never come to that during his involvement in the tourney and that the seeds, more times than not, hold true.

Now if you are still with me, once the seeds are set, here are how the brackets shake out. The top six teams in H/W and Sussex will receive a bye. The prelims on Oct. 17 at 2 p.m. will be as follows:

No. 10 H/W will travel to No. 7 Sussex

No. 10 Sussex will travel to No. 7 H/W

No. 9 H/W will travel to No. 8 Sussex

No. 9 Sussex will travel to No. 8 H/W.

The winners will advance to the first round which will be held Oct. 24 at the higher seed. So the first round will consist of 16 teams and eight games. So if there are no upsets (there will be no reseeding), the bracket will look like this:

No. 8 Sussex at No. 1 H/W

No. 8 H/W at No. 1 Sussex

No. 7 Sussex at No. 2 H/W

No. 7 H/W at No. 2 Sussex

No. 6 Sussex at No. 3 H/W

No. 6 H/W at No. 3 Sussex

No. 5 Sussex at No. 4 H/W

No. 5 H/W at No. 4 Sussex

The winners advance to the quarterfinals on Oct. 26 at the home of the higher seed with the semifinals set for Oct. 28 at 4 p.m. and 6 p.m. at Hunterdon Central for the girls and 5 p.m. and 7 p.m. at North Hunterdon for the boys.

The boys and girls finals are set for Oct. 31 with the site pending on which teams are left. If the final is all Sussex in the girls it will be held at Pope John. If it is split, it will be held at Hunterdon Central. The boys’ final is the same with the site either being Pope John or Hunterdon Central. The girls final is set for 1:45 p.m. and the boys final will be played at 11:30 a.m.

Now, field hockey will follow the same exact process, except that seven H/W teams will receive a bye because Sussex only has nine field hockey teams. The prelims on Oct. 17 at 2 p.m. at the higher seed will be as follows.

No. 10 H/W at No. 7 Sussex

No. 9 H/W at No. 8 Sussex

No. 9 Sussex at No. 8 H/W

This will bring us to 16 teams and eight games just like soccer. The first round is slated for Oct. 24 at 2 p.m. at the higher seed. The quarterfinals are Oct. 27 and the semis are set for Oct. 29 at Vernon at 4 p.m. and 6 p.m. The championship game is Oct. 31 at 11 a.m., and just like soccer, the site is pending.

If it is an all Sussex final, it will be at Pope John, and if it is split, it will be at Phillipsburg.

I know this is a lot to digest, but it gives you an idea how this tourney will be run. And the way it is seeded with two sets of seeds, I feel is the right way to go. In theory, you will not see a team from your county unless there is an upset.

I like that. Teams get to see a different brand of play and that will only help come state tourney time. So before I go, here are my mock Sussex seeds.

GIRLS SOCCER

Sparta, 2. Pope John, 3. Kittatinny, 4. Vernon, 5. Newton, 6. Wallkill Valley, 7. High Point, 8. Lenape Valley, 9. Hopatcong, 10. Sussex Tech.

BOYS SOCCER

Newton, 2. Pope John, 3. Sparta, 4. Kittatinny, 5. Vernon, 6. Hopatcong, 7. High Point, 8. Wallkill Valley, 9. Lenape Valley, 10. Sussex Tech.

FIELD HOCKEY

Newton, 2. Pope John, 3. Wallkill Valley, 4. High Point, 5. Kittatinny, 6. Lenape Valley, 7. Vernon, 8. Sparta, 9. Hopatcong.

That’s it for now, see you on the sidelines.

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Sussex County Sports Blog

By Dan Cleary

10/13/2009 - New Tourney Set To Kick Off