Football rivalries? Not in Hudson
Season openers don’t make sense, put realignment proposal in different light
In December, every member of the New Jersey State Interscholastic Athletic Association will attend the annual meeting in Edison, poised to vote on perhaps the most important ruling the NJSIAA has ever encountered.
Awaiting each representative of each school will be a proposal, contrived by the New Jersey Football Coaches Association, which will forever change the face of high school football in the state. It is a realignment proposal that will dismember all existing leagues and conferences in the state, and place all the schools in respective "districts" by enrollment, with the goal of playing down to four state champions.
Locally, it would spell the end of the long-established Hudson County Interscholastic Athletic Association, strictly for football. The Hudson County teams will be placed in districts all over the place, all done by enrollment, grouped somewhat by geography.
For example, the proposal calls for some of Hudson County’s teams to play in what will be called Group 4, District N2A. North Bergen, Memorial, Dickinson, Ferris, St. Peter’s Prep, Bayonne and Kearny would be housed in that district, along with Linden, Union, Elizabeth and Plainfield.
In Group 3, District N1B, Emerson, Union Hill, Lincoln, Snyder and Hudson Catholic would be paired with Nutley, Tenafly, Paramus, Paramus Catholic, Garfield, Fort Lee and Cliffside Park.
In Group 2, District N2B, Hoboken would be the lone HCIAA team, along with Rutherford, Queen of Peace, Harrison, Weequahic, Newark West Side, Bishop Francis Essex Catholic, Millburn, Summit, Hillside and Roselle.
And in Group 1, District N1B, Weehawken, Secaucus and Marist would be paired with Glen Ridge, Montclair Kimberley Academy, Montclair Immaculate, Cedar Grove, Verona, Paterson Catholic and Hawthorne.
The realignment will end all league championships. Each of the local teams would compete for their respective district champions, playing a full schedule solely within its district, and those champions would move on to the state playoffs. Each group would then play down to one true champion, something that high school coaches throughout the state have been longing for since the inception of the state playoffs in 1975.
However, the realignment would spell the end of some highly anticipated rivalries, played year after year, like Hoboken against St. Peter’s Prep and some of the cross-city meetings among the Jersey City schools. Dickinson would only face Ferris and Snyder would only face Lincoln.
And although the state’s second oldest Thanksgiving Day game between Emerson and Union Hill will be protected, does anyone in Union City get excited about playing Tenafly or Paramus? That Hudson Catholic-Cliffside Park meeting will be highly anticipated as well, right?
So, as you can see, the proposal, which will need two-third majority to ratify and become the standard for the rest of the state to follow, will definitely alter high school football as we know it now.
If it does get passed, it can really throw everyone for a loop. For example, what happens with underclass games, like freshman and junior varsity contests? Can you picture Dickinson and Ferris, with all of its prior transportation woes, actually getting a team on a bus and be able to play at Plainfield by 4 p.m.? That scenario seems highly unlikely.
There have been some highly visible proponents of the proposal, most notably Hoboken’s Ed Stinson. And honestly, who can blame Stinson for wanting to see the proposal pass? Harrison, Queen of Peace, Weequahic, Millburn? Just chalk up victory after victory.
But Stinson has always professed that the reason for wanting the proposal to pass was simply to insure two things – a full competitive 10-game schedule, without having to search hill and dale for a simple game, plus the chance to play down to a true state champion.
And this year’s Week One schedule really gives the proposal some cannon fodder.
That’s because Hoboken opened with John Adams of New York, taking a ridiculously lopsided 72-8 victory. North Bergen opened with August Martin of New York, also winning by a very wide margin.
You can be rest assured that neither New York team will want to come traipsing across the Hudson, only to get sent back with their collective tails between their legs, any time soon.
Hoboken and St. Peter’s Prep were supposed to play in Week Two last weekend, but that game was moved, so that the Marauders can open up a place to begin a home-and-home series with Gulliver Prep of Miami. Gulliver what? Where are the Lilliputians?
And guess what? The invaders from the Sunshine State came to Jersey City last weekend and laid a beating on the Prep, dropping coach Rich Hansen and his team to a very uncomfortable 0-2.
If local teams have to go to the five boroughs of New York or to the shores of Florida to look for games, then just perhaps the proposal makes some sort of sense. At least, Roselle isn’t as far as the Bronx and Port Elizabeth is certainly closer than South Beach.
Although Stinson said that he doesn’t think the proposal would pass.
"I think there are too many people who are against it," Stinson said before the season. "That’s just my opinion and that’s just what I hear."
When it first was introduced, I thought the entire idea was totally silly. Now, after seeing the results and the scheduled games of the first two weeks of the season, maybe it’s not too bad of an idea after all.
If it can prevent 72-8 and trips across the Hudson River and can assure four state champions come December instead of the 20 that will be crowned before Christmas this year, then let’s see this proposal move forward.
After all, something’s got to give.
CAPTION
FUTURE CLIFFSIDE PARK OPPONENTS? – If the proposal introduced by the New Jersey Football Coaches Association for realignment gets approved by the NJSIAA in December, then Hudson Catholic, shown here, would be paired with Cliffside Park in the future. For now, Hawks head coach Chipper Benway (center), flanked, from left, by players Chris Dalton, Brad Cunningham, Jose Alvarado and Darren Lionakis, will concentrate on the 2000 season, where the Hawks are currently 1-1.