Sussex County Sports Blog

By Dan Cleary

10/31/2008 - Edelman, Vikes Make Good Point

The football team had high expectations coming into the season. The squad was bolstered by the return of a senior that class that has had the school buzzing since it entered the building four years prior.

This was the year the team was going to win the Sussex County Interscholastic League title, and possibly, win its first-ever state sectional title.

But alas, (and by the way, who uses alas anymore?), a couple key early-season injuries and two losses, and the dream season came to an end before October was even out.

A sad story, no doubt. And it sounds very similar to the ways things have played out for Vernon’s football team this season. But for those who have followed Vernon football for years, it seems like, with apologies to Yogi Berra, déjà vu all over again.

You see, the scenario I laid out described the 2008 Vikings, but this story first unfolded 25 years ago in 1983 as well for Vernon with the same common theme—the Vikings were the biggest school in the SCIL and couldn’t accumulate enough power points to qualify for states, despite its winning record.

It is the same old story for Vernon with just different names.

So for those new to Vernon and SCIL football, the Vikings have been the big boy on the block since 1988 when it became the SCIL’s first and only Group 4 school in a predominately Group 2 conference.

Back in 1983, the Vikings were the only Group 3 school in the conference and needed to go undefeated to make the states, just like this year’s edition. The only differences, however, were the Vikings were coming off an appearance in the 1982 North 1, Group 3 final and only four teams, not eight like today, qualified for states.

So realignment, at least for the football team, can’t come soon enough for the Vikings. But Vernon AD Bill Edelman isn’t willing to wait for next year to come and he is trying to do something about the Vikings’ predicament this year.

The veteran athletic director, who has been heavily involved in the New Jersey State Interscholastic Athletic Association, has made an appeal to the state to grant the Vikings a state tourney bid if they finish 6-2 at the cutoff with a win over Lenape Valley Saturday or even with a loss, which would put them at 5-3.

Edelman sent me a copy of the email he sent to Steve Timko, the executive director of the NJSIAA, in which he laid out his argument for the power point requirement to qualify for states be waived for the Vikings and their coach Chuck Tepper.

He stated: “As you know, Vernon is the only Group IV school in the SCIL, which is a predominately Group II league. In fact, Chuck (Tepper) shared with me, if we had finished 7-1; qualifying would still be in doubt. Steve, this is wrong. You’re asking young people in our football program to be perfect week in and week out. When other schools qualify with a 4-4 record, Vernon is playing a consolation game.

“I would hope that some type of appeal process exists for situations like I just described. Each year, our football athletes strive for a league championship and to qualify for the state football playoffs. The SCIL has a rich tradition of state football success, yet Vernon often finds itself on the outside looking in when it comes to the state playoffs.

“If nothing can be done this year, I offer that the state football power points be eliminated and all schools with a .500 record or a record of one game above .500 qualify for the state playoffs.”

Now I know many of you out there maybe thinking, boo-hoo, big bad Vernon can’t make the states. Too bad. The Vikings should run the table every year because they are double the size of some of the schools in the SCIL. And you didn’t hear Vernon complain during its lean years when a 5-4 record was a rarity.

And there is some validity to those points. But I do agree with Edelman and Tepper that asking teenagers to be perfect every week is asking way too much. Vernon right now sits in 12^th place in North 1, Group 4 with 27 power points, which include a measly two points for beating winless Group 1 Hopatcong.

There are currently six teams with just four wins that have many more power points than the Vikings and Union City has 31 points and is 3-4. Is that fair?

Well, those questions were asked over 10 years ago when Mike Van Zile, the former AD at Wallkill Valley, spearheaded the charge for football-only realignment. He said at the time that realignment would not only benefit the smaller schools, but the larger ones as well as they would be playing similar-sized schools.

In fact, Van Zile’s plan called for the elimination of power points because everyone would be playing the same-sized schools.

Now the answer to the question of whether the system is fair could be moot as realignment is slated to go into effect next September which would ideally divide the schools in the newly-formed 37-member Northwest Jersey Athletic Conference in a equitable way either by size or sports specific.

But that doesn’t help Vernon this year or in years past when it finished with one or two losses and didn’t make the cut. The Vikings last made the states in 2005 and have only qualified three times in school history with just two wins, 9-6 over Englewood in 1982 and 31-14 over North Bergen in 2005.

However, the Vikings qualified in 2005 with the aid of playing and beating Group 3 West Milford in an independent game because Wallkill Valley was in the middle of its two-year hiatus from the SCIL.

So how will the state respond to Edelman’s request? My guess is that Timko will thank Edelman for his time and suggestion, but the answer will be no and that the issue of power points should be solved by the realignment and it will be up to the schools to make sure the conference’s divisions are divided fairly so everyone has an equal shot of making the playoffs.

Right now the ADs in the new conference are trying to figure out a way to break up the 15 largest schools in Divisions A and B. One solution for sports in which schools only play each other once a season, like football and wrestling, is breaking the schools up into three divisions of five schools each.

Schools would play four division games, two crossover games and three independents. For round-robin sports, such as hoops and soccer, the 15 schools would be lumped into one division and everyone would play each other once.

But no matter how the realignment shakes out, Edelman has a good point about teams that have winning records not making states in football. The state could employ a wildcard system like it does in lacrosse and ice hockey.

And as far as logistics, it wouldn’t make the season any longer, especially if the requirement is a 5-3 record, because everyone plays on the 10^th week in either the states or consolations anyway.

Edelman’s proposition is something to think about. Unfortunately, the NJSIAA probably has its mind made up which means the Vikings' playoff ship has already sailed.

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

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Sussex County Sports Blog

By Dan Cleary

10/31/2008 - Edelman, Vikes Make Good Point