Sussex County Sports Blog

By Dan Cleary

12/3/2009 - NJAC Makes Changes

When John DiColo was sitting in Karl Mundi’s office explaining the upcoming changes and the challenges of starting and running a new sports conference, Mundi had a sympathetic ear for the Jefferson athletic director.

In fact, Mundi, the principal at Jefferson Township High School, came up with the perfect analogy of how the new Northwest Jersey Athletic Conference has to deal with its issues of travel, scheduling, etc.

“He said to me, ‘John, it is like you are playing the arcade game “Whack-a-Mole,” and I said what are talking about,” recalled DiColo. “He then explained to me that like the game, every time we have one issue addressed another one pops up and he is right.

“Once you deal with the geography issue, then it’s the size issue, and then the non-public issue,” added DiColo, the president of the NJAC. “In fact, when I made the league’s philosophy presentation to the superintendents and principals I actually went on the computer and downloaded a version of Whack-a-Mole to illustrate that point. It has been very hard, but we are trying to do it right.”

And hats off to DiColo and the rest of the ADs in the conference for putting in the time and effort to make this new world of realignment an ever-evolving process.

When the realignment was announced over a year ago, the ADs in the NJAC were the most proactive of all the ADs in the state and quickly named and devised the Northwest Jersey Athletic Conference.

At the time, DiColo told me that nothing was written in stone and changes would be made as the league went through its growing pains. Well, DiColo was true to his word and after just one season of competition, the league has shuffled its divisions for next school year.

The league adopted its division changes last week with most of the changes coming in the larger school American and National Divisions. Jefferson was also greatly affected as the Falcons will now join the American Division in all sports. The Falcons are a member of the Freedom Division in almost all sports except for football where it played in the large school National Division last fall.

This school year, the 15 combined schools in the American and National—Delbarton, High Point, Mendham, Montville, Morris Hills, Morris Knolls, Morristown, Mount Olive, Parsippany Hills, Pope John, Randolph, Roxbury, Sparta, Vernon and West Morris—play each other once in soccer, field hockey, tennis, basketball, baseball and softball, which was not very popular with the coaches of those sports.

That will change next season under the new format which allows for schools to play each other twice in a round-robin format like the old Sussex County Interscholastic League.

The American Division will afford schools a 14-game schedule in the aforementioned sports, while the National 14 in boys sports and 13 in girls due to the fact that Delbarton is an all-boys school.

DiColo added that the scheduling committee is working on the special divisional formats for football (more on that later), wrestling, swimming, volleyball, track and bowling.

Here are the new divisions and NJAC general classifications which will be in effect for the next two school years starting next fall unless the New Jersey State Interscholastic Athletic Association decides to change things again when it reviews the realignment in a couple of years.

AMERICAN

High Point, Jefferson, Montville, Morris Hills, Mount Olive, Pope John, Sparta and Vernon.

NATIONAL

Delbarton, Morris Knolls, Morristown, Parsippany Hills, Randolph, Roxbury, West Morris and Mendham.

FREEDOM

Hackettstown, Hopatcong, Kittatinny, Lenape Valley, Newton and Wallkill Valley.

INDEPENDENCE

Chatham, Dover, Madison, Morris Catholic, Parsippany, Pequannock, and St. Elizabeth.

LIBERTY

Boonton, Butler, Kinnelon, Morristown-Beard, Mountain Lakes, Villa Walsh and Whippany Park.

As you can see, the smaller divisions are almost the same except for Jefferson leaving the Freedom in all sports, which is a big jump for the Falcons. The new divisions are based on the same type of northing system that the state uses to divide schools into sections.

The plan was devised in an effort to cut down on travel time and costs for the schools on the polar ends of the conference, like High Point and Vernon as well as Morristown and West Morris.

I think it is a good plan because it brings back a little SCIL flavor to the local scene. The larger former SCIL schools will all play each other twice in aforementioned sports.

One of the biggest gripes I heard from American and National coaches was the fact that teams only played each other once a season. The coaches told me, most notably Andrew Lowery of Sparta boys soccer and Bev Keur of High Point field hockey, that there was no continuity to the previous format and it didn’t allow for teachable moments.

I agree. Facing every one just once was almost like playing a state or county tournament game every day. The fact that Sparta and Pope John only play each once a season is silly. Now that has changed and for the good.

Under the current format, the larger schools from the county struggled quite a bit this past fall with only Pope John field hockey and girls cross country winning division titles. Traditional powers in soccer, like Sparta and Vernon boys, struggled and I think the new format will alleviate some of those issues.

Now that Jefferson is out of the Freedom Division, it creates some scheduling issues. The division is only six teams, creating just a 10-game divisional format. DiColo said that the scheduling committee will address that issue by working in mandatory crossovers like its did with basketball this year.

Now here is the big question, and probably by now you are asking yourself why Mr. Know-It-All hasn’t brought it up yet. What about football?

Ah, yes, football. The sport that sparked the realignment revolution oh so many years ago.

Well, according to DiColo, the details haven’t been worked out yet, but he said that the NJAC would retain its four division format for football with no changes being made to the Freedom and Independence divisions.

The Freedom will remain the same with Parsippany, Chatham, Hanover Park, Madison, Wallkill Valley, Lenape Valley, Newton, Kittatinny and Hackettstown all playing each other once with one independent game.

The Independence will have a full slate once again as Dover, Pequannock, Hopatcong, Mountain Lakes, Kinnelon, Whippany Park, Boonton, Butler, Morris Catholic and Morristown-Beard will square off.

Here are the big school changes and the school that benefits the most, in my opinion, is Vernon. The football schedule in the American and National will follow the new general classification as well, so Vernon will not have to play Morris County monsters Delbarton, Morristown, Roxbury and West Morris, schools that pushed the Vikings around last fall.

The Vikings, who only played one Sussex County school last year in High Point, will now play former SCIL foes High Point, Jefferson, Pope John and Sparta as well as Morris Hills, Mount Olive (which Vernon defeated for its only win) and Montville.

DiColo said the NJAC will keep the same format as this past season with Week 1 being an open date and Week 9 a linear crossover.

I know Vernon football coach Chuck Tepper was all hot and heavy for realignment. The Vikings got it, and then promptly went 1-9. But the main reason behind Tepper’s crusade was the former power point structure was geared heavily to size of your opponent. Vernon being the only Group 4 school in the old SCIL had to go a minimum of 7-1 every season to qualify for states.

The state has addressed that issue and changed the system to put more emphasis on wins rather than the size of the school you played. So it is a win-win for Vernon. I feel the Vikings will be much more competitive under this new alignment.

The other school that is affected the most by these changes is Jefferson. The Falcons, a Group 2 school in football, wrestling and field hockey, played in the National in football and went 5-5 and did not make states after winning a sectional title in 2008.

The change in the power points did not help the Falcons as they played all Group 3 schools except for Morris Hills, the only other Group 2 in the National. I feel the Falcons can definitely compete in football next season, but their situation doesn’t change too much as only Parsippany Hills and Mendham come off their schedule.

Jefferson picks up Vernon and Mount Olive, two schools it can compete with.

Many people from both the Jefferson and Morris Hills camps feel they should be in the Freedom for football with the rest of the Group 2s, but logistically, it couldn’t work out.

“I’m a little disappointed,” said DiColo. “We are one of those fence schools like Morris Hills in that we are Group 2 in some sports and Group 3 in others. But we wanted to get this done and move forward.”

And moving forward is what it is all about for the ADs in the NJAC. Yes, there are certainly many more issues to be addressed in the coming months. But like I have said in the past, realignment is here whether you like it or not, so just be happy that the ADs in the NJAC are willing to work with each other.

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

Search the Site

Sponsors

Sussex County Sports Blog

By Dan Cleary

12/3/2009 - NJAC Makes Changes