Sussex County Sports Blog

By Dan Cleary

10/3/2008 - SCIL Soccer Plan Perfect

Remember the movie “Groundhog Day?” Every morning Bill Murray’s character wakes up to two morning DJs playing “I Got You Babe” by Sonny & Cher on the radio as he is stuck in the same day over and over again in lovely Punxsutawney, Pa.

Well, that is exactly how it feels to be a Sussex County Interscholastic League boys or girls soccer coach from outside of Sparta Township the last six years.

Sparta’s boys soccer team and Pope John’s girls squad have been dominant forces the last half decade with the Spartans winning an unprecedented six straight league banners, while the Lions have captured five of the last six championships.

Although they haven’t recorded their own rendition of the 1960s hit song (a scary thought, quite indeed), Sparta coach Andrew Lowery and PJ coach Ryan Barbulescu have guided their respective teams to the top of the charts and this season is no different, but there is a twist.

Sparta, which has one of its most talented teams in Lowery’s successful career, is 7-0 overall and 6-0 in SCIL play. The Spartans have outscored their SCIL foes 32-1, while the Lions are 8-0 overall and 7-0 in league play with a scoring differential of 29-9.

Okay, so where’s the twist, smart guy? Well, in years past, the start of October meant looking forward to next year for some teams with hopes of winning a SCIL title in soccer. The month was used by the other schools to gear up for a potential state tournament bid because by October 1, only a few teams were still within shouting distance of the soccer titans.

Not this year and the SCIL soccer coaches should be commended for it.

It has been duly noted on this blog numerous times that the SCIL soccer coaches took the bull by the horns and did their own realignment. They split the league into a large school division and a small school division, while also setting up a SCIL Tournament at the end of the season, in an effort to level the playing field and achieve the most glorious of all the glorious objectives when it comes to high school athletics in New Jersey—competitive balance.

I know my sarcasm was pretty thick there, but the point is that the SCIL solved its problem and midway through its first season, the experiment, in my opinion, is an unqualified success for both the boys and the girls.

The new format provided schools the chance to schedule up to five independent games and cut the SCIL slate from 18 to 13. Schools will play their division opponents twice and everyone else once, allowing for three opportunities for schools to win a championship.

The plan, which was devised by Vernon boys soccer coach John Ryan and was 10 years in the making, is working and here is the proof. For years the smaller schools in boys soccer, other than Newton, had limited success against Sparta, Vernon and Pope John. Yes, Newton is atop of the small school division this season, but Hopatcong and Wallkill Valley are still in the hunt, something they haven’t been in for years in October.

Last year, six teams qualified for states on the boys side and this season, seven teams are in the hunt, including Wallkill and Hopatcong, which did not make states last year.

On the girls side, Pope John has been impressive, but the Lions have had a couple of close calls against Kittatinny (5-4 win) and Vernon (3-2 win). PJ will most likely run away with the large school title over Vernon, Jefferson, Sparta and High Point. However, the small school race is a barnburner and will most likely come down to the final games of the season, which is great for the league.

Wallkill is on top right now, but Newton, Hopatcong and Kittatinny are all within a couple of games of the Rangers, who lost a heartbreaker to Kittatinny earlier in the week 4-3 in double-overtime. All the small schools are capable of beating each other and they have proved it.

Last-place Lenape Valley owns a win over Newton and Hopatcong has bumped off Kittatinny, which just beat Wallkill. And Newton owns wins over Hopatcong, Lenape and large school division opponent Sparta, making it a crazy season, thus far.

So hats off to the SCIL soccer coaches for taking the initiative and putting together a great new format that provides an almost equal chance for everyone to make states with some smart scheduling of independents and a shot at making the SCIL tourney and winning a division.

Too bad it will be probably for just one year.

AND SPEAKING OF WHICH…The New Jersey State Interscholastic Athletic Association’s executive committee will vote on its realignment plan at its Oct. 8 meeting in Robbinsville and it is expected the panel will rubber stamp the plan which will go into effect September of 2009.

But there is an outside chance that the realignment may be delayed a year if the schools in Bergen County have their way. At the North 1 sectional meeting this week at Paramus Catholic several school officials pleaded for more time. According to the report in The Record of Hackensack, Steve Timko, the executive director of the NJSIAA, said that a delay would be considered if brought up by a member of the executive committee before the vote.

And another interesting tidbit came out of the meeting regarding the individual postseason wrestling tournaments. Joe Luongo, the superintendent of schools in Hasbrouck Heights, outlined a plan that would separate non-public and public school wrestlers up until the tourney reaches Atlantic City.

The plan calls for the non-publics to be placed in four new districts and one new region. The setup is similar to track and field and cross country where the schools are separated until the Meet of Champions. It is the only new proposal on the ballot for the NJSIAA’s annual meeting in December, according to The Record.

This definitely bears watching for all wrestling fans. In some areas, like West Jersey, this would be a boon for the non-publics, who are not as strong as their public counterparts. It may raise the ire of some of the public schools because, conceivably, lesser non-public wrestlers will gain a bid to AC over better public school wrestlers.

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

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Sussex County Sports Blog

By Dan Cleary

10/3/2008 - SCIL Soccer Plan Perfect