Now I have a real problem with NJSIAA. This year they decided to shorten the high school season. Now clearly they did so without thinking about the Implications. They allowed teams to play as many as four games in a week as often as they please. Teams in some cases will play as many games this year as they did last year but in two weeks less time. Now why anyone would be okay with is minding numbing.
Now here we are in the middle of February and what do we see? Teams playing on back to back days. Teams playing 3 games in 5 days in FEBRUARY!. Now normally this time of year. Teams are in Conference play or they pick up a game during the week to get ready and stay sharp for the states. But there has been nothing normal about this years schedule or season.
This year we have had a ton of injuries to Players, I won’t list the names because it would take forever. This year we have had a number of kids playing hurt, Why you ask? No time to rest or heal. This season coaches have not been able to have competitive practices, why? Because they are playing every other day. This year JV players could not have quality practices. The very kids who need it the most. Why? Because there playing everyday and in some cases there season ended a month earlier this year. Now folks this is beyond silly. Anyone that’s tires to justify this is clueless. There is no reason this should be taking place in high school sports. There is a mental aspect and educational part to this as well. Like kids doing homework, which I won’t even touch on.
Now coaches must take some responsibility here as well. No team with players with injuries or a short roster should be playing three games in five days for example. No team with kids expecting surgery at the end of the year should be playing back to back games this late in the season. There is no reason for this at all…NONE! Now coaches have to protect there kids as well. They can’t put kids in postion to fail, hiding behind things like… “we want competition” or “we need to get ready for the states”. Folks you don’t have to play back to back or 3 games in 5 days in FEBRUARY to get ready for the states. Simply find a game at a later day in the week. Again this is all nonsense and yes some inexperience. But once again it comes down to the NJSIAA shortening the season. Worst they gave no direction to coaches on how to navigate the season. Yes, the Joe Montano’s, Dawn Karpell’s and John Truhan’s of the world may know how. But many coaches have no idea how to handle this shorten season. Yet, the NJSIAA gave no thought or guidelines to this.
Now the state tournament will end two weeks earlier this year. If your lucky enough make it to the Chip game. You will have kids basically playing every other night next week. This after a long grueling sechdule that not one NBA OR COLLEGE team has had to face. Yet nobody seems to care. It just about rushing though a season. Not allowing kids to have a safe and productive season….it’s wrong!!!
Now let me give you an example of craziness. There is a team if they advance to there group title game will play 7 games in 8 -9 days. Now folks even RBC, SJV or UCONN, would not ask kids to do this. But here we are and that’s exactly what is going on in some cases. Now whose fault is all this? Now you can blame it on the school or the coach. The would be very easy and convenient. But the truth of the matter is the NJSIAA is behind it all…and every coach, parent and kid should yell “FOUL”