Decision Looms from NJSIAA on New Jersey High School Winter Sports

Photo Courtesy: Mike Lewis/ISL

A final decision on the fate of the winter sports season from the New Jersey State Interscholastic Athletic Association (NJSIAA) will come next week as the COVID-19 pandemic intensifies in the state.

The decision will come no later than Nov. 20, says Colleen Maguire, the NJSIAA’s chief operating officer. New Jersey opted for a four-season calendar in 2020-21 and had already cancelled championships for the academic year. But an uptick in coronavirus cases has called into question if the season can be conducted at all.

“I ask for everyone’s patience as we solicit feedback and monitor the decision-making coming from the New Jersey Department of Health and the governor’s office, while committing to a deadline of Friday, Nov. 20, to announce our final plans,” Maguire said at the monthly meeting of the NJSIAA executive committee Wednesday, as first reported by NJ.com. “I fully expect to meet this deadline with a final plan that will not be subject to change, regardless of the decisions that may come from the Department of Health or the governor’s office on the status of indoor sports after we release our plans.”

The plan that the NJSIAA released last month outlined a Dec. 3 start for practices and Dec. 21 as the first competition date. This is the second of four seasons on the calendar (instead of the usual three), designed to run through Feb. 17. Season 3, for fall indoor sports that couldn’t be played in Season 1, will run from Feb. 16-April 24.

Governor Phil Murphy this week banned all interstate travel for indoor sports from youth through high school levels. Maguire acknowledged the challenges that come with winter sports, especially hockey and swimming, where many schools neither own nor control the facilities needed for practice and competition.

“Some of these indoor sports are based on third-party facilities, so a lot is about getting feedback from schools about who’s going to have access to facilities,” Maguire said. “Swimming pools, ice hockey rinks, that type of stuff. It was also soliciting feedback on facilities on-campus. We have these two seasons carved out and depending on recommendations from the health, what’s a natural fit for our smaller schools. We don’t want to burden a small school by putting too many sports into one season if they don’t have the facilities to offer it on campus. A lot of is geared around facilities and availability to be able to offer it.”

Through Wednesday, New Jersey has seen 263,000 total cases and more than 14,000 COVID-19 deaths, according to the state’s department of health. The state has exceeded 3,000 new cases in three of the last five days, including a high of 3,877 new cases on Tuesday. That’s the highest number since the initial peak in April in what is widely seen as a second wave of the virus.

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