Sussex County Sports Blog

By Dan Cleary

1/20/2009 - NJAC Releases Schedules (Part 2)

Okay, are you sick of reading about realignment? I know last week’s blog was a lot to digest, but as promised, here is a breakdown of the winter and spring sports schedules for the area schools in the Northwest Jersey Athletic Conference.

First off, just a reminder, the conference is broken up into five general divisions by size and location with certain sports, like football, girls volleyball, wrestling, swimming and bowling, having their own classifications.

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.

Here is the skinny on the winter sports.
BOYS AND GIRLS BASKETBALL

Just like boys and girls soccer, the A/B Division schools will play each other once. This will provide 14 games for the boys and 13 for the girls. The C/D/E Division schools will play their respective division rivals twice. The C schools will have 12 games for the boys and girls.

In addition, all C/D/E schools will also have two randomly drawn crossover games for both boys and girls. But any crossover game may be “dropped” if mutually agreed upon by both schools.

As of now, it is not known if the Sussex schools will have a county tournament, while Jefferson will compete in the Morris County Tournament. On a side note, this should be very interesting. The Falcons have had great success in the Sussex County Interscholastic League tourney over the years on both the boys and girls sides and have not competed in the Morris Tournament since the 1982.

WRESTLING

Now here is a sport which is a perfect example that realignment, at least in the SCIL, was not needed. Small schools like Kittatinny, Newton, Lenape Valley and Wallkill Valley have all had their fair of success, to say the least, in SCIL play.

Anyway, the schools in A/B will be divided into two groups and each team will wrestle each other one time. The first group includes High Point, Morris Knolls, Pope John, Randolph, Roxbury, Sparta and Vernon. The second group is comprised of Delbarton, Mendham, Montville, Morris Hills, Morristown, Mt. Olive, Parsippany Hills and West Morris.

The C/D/E schools will face reach other once with the C schools having six division matches. The schools in C/D/E will also have two randomly drawn mandatory crossover tri-meets (additional four matches) that will not be considered for divisional championships.

Although the SCIL has been broken up, don’t be surprised if you continue to see Kittatinny and High Point still wrestling each other in an independent clash. And Newton coach Eric Bollette told me he still wants to face High Point as well.

At this time, I do not know if the conference will hold a tournament, but the realignment will not affect how the districts and regions are seeded and run.

BOYS AND GIRLS SWIMMING

Due to the uniqueness of this sport regarding the availability of facilities, the NJAC will be divided according to geography for the Northern schools and by enrollment in the two Southern school divisions.

The former SCIL schools will see no change as High Point, Jefferson, Kittatinny, Lenape Valley, Newton, Pope John, Sparta, Vernon and the Wallkill Valley/Sussex Tech co-op will swim each other once in the Northern Division. To my knowledge nothing had been finalized as far as keeping the county meet at the end of the year, but it would only make sense since there is no change from the SCIL format.

The first Southern division is made up of Delbarton, Montville, Morris Hills, Morris Knolls, Morristown, Mt. Olive, Parsippany Hills, Randolph, Roxbury and West Morris. The other division will include Chatham, Hanover Park (Co-op), Kinnelon, Madison (girls), Morristown-Beard (Co-ed), Mountain Lakes, Parsippany, Pequannock, St. Elizabeth’s (girls) and Villa Walsh (girls).

BOWLING

The 15 schools in the NJAC that compete in bowling will be divided into two divisions strictly based on location due to the availability of bowling lanes. The Northern Division will be made up of High Point, Hopatcong, Lenape Valley, Newton, Sparta, Sussex Tech, Vernon and Wallkill Valley. The Southern Division includes Butler, Chatham, Delbarton, Jefferson, Madison, Morris Hills and Morris Knolls.

The Northern schools will face each other twice for 14 matches and the NJAC will also host a conference championship if a facility is available to accommodate all the schools.

ICE HOCKEY/INDOOR TRACK

These sports will continue to operate as is with ice hockey already divided by ability and location by the state. Indoor track will continue with its invitationals and the NJAC will host a conference championship meet if a facility is available.

SPRING SPORTS

BASEBALL/SOFTBALL

Just like boys and girls hoops, the A/B Division schools will play each other once. This will provide 14 games in baseball and 13 for softball. The C/D/E Division schools will play their respective division rivals twice. The C schools will have 12 games in baseball and softball.

In addition, all C/D/E schools will also have four randomly drawn crossover games in baseball and softball bringing the total to 16 games for the C schools. And just like hoops and soccer, Morris will keep its tourneys in both sports, while Sussex is up in the air.

BOYS AND GIRLS TRACK

Like wrestling, the A/B Division schools will be divided into two groups. The first one will be made up of High Point, Morris Knolls, Pope John, Randolph, Roxbury, Sparta and Vernon and they will face each other once for six meets.

The other division is comprised of Delbarton, Mendham, Montville, Morris Hills, Morristown, Mt. Olive, Parsippany Hills and West Morris and these schools will have seven meets.

The C/D/E schools will face each other once for six meets for the C schools. At this time no conference meet has been publicly announced.

BOYS TENNIS

Boys tennis, like girls tennis in the fall, 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 boys hoops which provides for 14 matches with every school facing each other once. 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 boys 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.

GOLF

The big schools in A/B will follow the same format as boys tennis which provides for 14 matches. The C/D/E Divisions will play their division opponents twice with the C schools playing 12 matches.

Any school with a full contingent of girls to comprise a team will work within the entire conference to develop an independent schedule. Girls matches may be incorporated into regular dual matches where permissible by individual golf courses.

BOYS/GIRLS LACROSSE

The A/B schools in girls lacrosse will play each other once for 11 matches. The C/D/E schools will be combined into one big division (similar to A/B) and play each other once for a 10-game slate.

Boys lacrosse, like ice hockey, is already divided for competitive balance and will not change. The same holds true for now for boys volleyball.

So there it is, a primer on what to expect next school year from the NJAC. I know it is a big change and a lot of people are not happy, but it is something we have to live with for at least two years before a new plan can be brought up before the state.

One thing I would like to say, however, is that no matter how you feel about the subject, you have to credit all the schools in the NJAC for acting promptly and with purpose in setting up a schedule. There are schools in Passaic, Bergen, Hudson and Essex counties that have no idea what schools they will be playing next year.

I know there are still many questions, but the NJAC is off to a good start by getting the base schedule and rotation set up for next year. Now we just have to wait and see how it all unfolds on the playing field.

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

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Sussex County Sports Blog

By Dan Cleary

1/20/2009 - NJAC Releases Schedules (Part 2)