The Essex County Athletic Directors Association (ECADA) met in West Orange this past Tuesday to set a timetable for the planning and scheduling necessary to launch Super Conference 1 at the start of the 2009-10 school year.
An executive committee for the New Jersey State Interscholastic Athletic Association (NJSIAA) approved the NJSIAA’s League and Conference Realignment Plan by a vote of 30-5 with one abstention on Wednesday, Oct. 8, setting the largest realignment plan for high sports in the state’s history into motion.
Four of the plan’s six Super Conferences, including Super Conference 1, will begin play next year. Amid opposition from several schools in Bergen and Passaic counties, Super Conferences 2 and 3, joining schools from Hudson, Bergen and Passaic counties, will not begin until the 2010-11 school year.
The realignment plan is an attempt to solve the ongoing public vs. non-public athletic debate in which public schools feel non-publics have an unfair advantage in athletics. Several schools, including Montclair High, threatened to secede from the Northern New Jersey Interscholastic League (NNJIL) last year if separation of publics and non-publics did not occur.
The NJSIAA allowed its members to vote on a statewide split. A narrow 186-178 decision to keep the publics and non-publics together proved to the NJSIAA that a split was necessary.
"I think most schools knew something needed to be done to separate the two, and I think the current realignment is a viable plan," said John Porcelli, Montclair High’s vice principal for athletics and student activities. "Nothing is perfect and it will take some time, but we certainly like our conference and our proposed division within Super Conference 1."
Super Conference 1 is made up of 32 schools from Essex County and Queen of Peace, which is located in Bergen County. The conference is tentatively split into three divisions, A, B, C, with Montclair High in Division A. MHS’ division is made up of the largest schools in Essex County.
The Montclair Kimberley Academy and Immaculate Conception, the other Montclair high schools affected by the realignment, are in Super Conferences 1’s Division C. Division C houses the conference’s smallest schools.
Joining Montclair High in Division A are East Orange; West Orange; Seton Hall Prep; Columbia; Barringer; Bloomfield and Mount St. Dominic. Twelve schools - Science, Weequahic, Caldwell, Newark Central, Newark Academy, Arts, Verona, Glen Ridge, Technology, University, Bloomfield Tech and Cedar Grove are in Division C with IC and MKA.
Schools in Super Conference 1 have the option of leaving their division to seek games against conference members in other divisions. MKA AD Todd Smith said he will likely schedule games on a sport-by-sport basis.
"There are some sports, like baseball and soccer, that MKA would be more apt to play someone in the conference that isn’t in our division," said Smith. "We wouldn’t go up against Montclair High in football, but John Porcelli and I have tried to establish games in most sports each school has before the realignment. It will be that much easier now with the Super Conference."
IC athletic director Sean Morris, who is also the football and baseball coach at the school, pointed to the reduction of travel as positive in the realignment.
"For as much as I enjoyed the Colonial Hills Conference, knowing that we will have to travel no more than 20 to 25 minutes, then have the kids back at school at a decent hour is great," Morris said. "Aside from the travel, we are in a unique position with how small our school is. Having the ability to play schools close to our size, and even the ability to leave the Super Conference to possibly get a game if we have to, will really help us."
While teams may play games outside of their conference, the NJSIAA has urged its schools to seek as many games as possible within their league before looking to other schools.
In addition to setting up the timetable for scheduling, the Essex ADs set up subcommittees for each sport. Porcelli will head the football subcommittee.
"I think dividing up the sports to figure out what can and can’t work will help us move this along quickly," Porcelli said. The ECADA will meet again on Oct. 28 to measure progress and discuss any strength-of-schedule issues in Super Conference 1. "On a grand scale of scheduling, this is all new to us."
Porcelli said the ECADA did not have a set date when the conference would have its schedules set, but there is urgency.
"I think the urgency stems from excitement," Porcelli told The Times. "I’m very excited for the new rivalries, which will be closer rivalries, that the realignment provides."
