NJSIAA clashes with lawmakers over HS sport bills

The New Jersey State Interscholastic Athletic Association is at odds with state lawmakers over a pair of bills that would allow two different high schools to merge their sports teams.
The bills stem from a situation with West Windsor-Plainsboro High School North. They didn’t have enough players for their football team and wanted to cooperate with High School South. But this was originally only allowed for smaller schools, so the schools were not allowed to merge.
The NJSIAA voted to change that rule after the season, with some limits, and it seemingly addressed the issue.
But the bills are going ahead in the state Legislature anyway, and the association is trying to stop that.
“We’ve not even had one single conversation with the sponsors of the bills or any of the legislators,” says NJSIAA assistant director Kim Degraw-Cole. “We’re the ones reaching out, saying, ‘Talk with us. Let’s sit down, slow this down. Are there things that we can be doing?’ But those conversations have not happened.”
Degraw-Cole says that the bills would lead to less students getting to play sports and could even lead to the creation of “all-star teams.”
Veteran MyCentralJersey.com reporter Jerry Carino writes, “By throwing the merger door wide open to anyone with declining turnout, politicians would be greasing the skids for abuse.”
Democratic Sen. Linda Greenstein and Assemblyman Dan Benson are the sponsors of the bill. They were not available for comment.