Busy final NJSIAA meeting includes tournament changes, ticket price talk, Russo update

The NJSIAA closed with a flourish and for wishes for clear air.

Wednesday’s virtual executive committee meeting of the state’s governing body for high school sports passed five new proposals from its program review committee.

The organization also expressed regret about the situation involving the Westfield baseball team and the violation of the pitch count policy that forced the Blue Devils out of the state tournament, and said that litigation remains ongoing in the case of Paramus Catholic football coach Greg Russo.

It also revisited one of the most interesting chapters of its past by discussing its budget and plans for altering ticket prices moving forward.

The first item detailed in the meeting was the air quality that has plagued New Jersey for the better part of the last two days. NJSIAA executive director Colleen Maguire said the organization was monitoring the situation and would rely on local officials to assess the safety of events.

She also said that the organization was confident the state softball, baseball, lacrosse and track events would proceed as scheduled.

Changes across the board

There were an unusually large number of changes endorsed by the program review committee to the format of the NJSIAA’s state tournaments and events. These were the five approved:

➤ Adjusting the date of the state basketball tournament so all 12 state finals can be played at Rutgers with four games Friday, four games Saturday and four games Sunday. The dates for next season would be March 8-10, 2024.

➤ Combining the state individual swimming championships into one event for boys and girls and eliminating the 9-16 championship (the B Final) at Meet of Champions.

➤ Eliminating any power point calculations for non-public football programs when they play out-of-state or non-member opponents.

➤ Moving up the start of the winter track season by one week (in 2023, it would be Dec. 7) and reducing the number of events kids may enter in winter track sectionals to three from two, but allowing each team three individual ‘wild card’ entries.

➤ A major change to the bowling tournament doing away with the one-event sectional model and creating a sectional head-to-head tournament with schools in four sections and four groups.

Get your tickets here

Back in 2010, the NJSIAA was embroiled in a strange feud with New Jersey Assemblyman John Burzichelli, who put a cap on the amount of money the NJSIAA could charge for events.

The controversy grew to the point that Burzichelli even considered having the NJSIAA disbanded. That never came to fruition, but the freeze on ticket prices did.

Tickets for the upcoming baseball state finals are available online for $3 to $5.

However, a loophole developed over the years in which outside marketers could put on high school events at local arenas and stadiums and charge more than the normal NJSIAA rate.

The NJSIAA used an appropriation from the state to help cover a shortfall in its own budget caused by COVID, and was stuck on its ticket prices even though, you know, the cost of everything else has risen.

Bill S2902 in the State Senate, and companion bill A5568 in the Assembly, would give the NJSIAA the latitude to charge more for postseason events than is normally charged for regular-season games. It has already passed the Senate and is expected to pass the Assembly by the end of the month.

In return, the NJSIAA would no longer require the subsidy from the legislature.

Burzichelli is no longer an Assemblyman but won his Democratic Primary Tuesday for State Senate in District 3 but must gain his seat in the general election in November.

Co-op city

The NJSIAA also approved 12 new co-op programs for the upcoming season, including Ramsey and Indian Hills for ice hockey, Demarest and Old Tappan for boys volleyball, and Wood-Ridge and Wallington for both boys and girls winter track.

Eight co-ops were denied, but the NJSIAA did not provide information on what they were.

No resolution for Greg Russo

The May executive committee meeting was marked by the organization’s decision to uphold the four-game suspension of Paramus Catholic football coach Greg Russo.

Originally, the NJSIAA’s controversies committee had put the school on probation and banned it from the 2022 post-season after members of the PC coaching staff allegedly contacted a student while at Belleville High School. Belleville appealed the punishment − believing it to be too light − and the executive committee then suspended Russo for four games.

Russo was not present at the original executive committee hearing appeal. He then enlisted the services of noted legal counsel Patrick J. Jennings and the matter went before Superior Court in Hackensack, who kicked it back to the NJSIAA.

The executive committee heard both sides, but remained firm in its punishment. Russo and Jennings promised to take the matter back to court.

NJSIAA legal counsel Steve Goodell said Wednesday that the matter is still being heard and there will be briefings next month, with oral arguments to be given July 31 in Hackensack.

This article originally appeared on NorthJersey.com: Busy NJSIAA meeting includes tournament changes, ticket price talk