Its that time of year. The weather gets chillier and the leaves start to change. For most that signals the beginning of the holiday season. For wrestling fans, it means its go time. The start of another season.

As we approach that start date, optimism is high for a lot of teams but for a few schools in the restructured North 1, Group 4 section, they feel slighted due to a new rule that was adapted a year ago they feel isn’t being followed.

The rule was passed last year as a part of the Classification Proposal in May which has had an unintended impact on wrestling. Some feel the rule has resulted in a disadvantage for those squads in North 1, Group 4 specifically.

The new rule states : “The proposal will allow greater flexibility for the classifications to accommodate charter schools and cooperative sports without impacting other schools in any section or group that have consistent varsity status and host their own-stand alone program.”    (letter to Executive Committee from Colleen McGuire Dec.1,2023). This is where some of the public schools in wrestling are crying foul.

The application of the new rule for wrestling goes like this. The sections/groups are to be created without co-op teams included in the initial total number creation and then those programs be placed back in to sections. As a result, it has created a numerical disparity between Sections in Group 4.

The formula used moves two teams, Phillipsburg (North 1, Group 5 Champion) and Ridge (Group 4 Champion) into a section with Mount Olive (North 1 Group 4 Champion) which makes for a very tough section, which no one is complaining about. The problem comes in when those co-op teams are then added back in it gives North 1, Group 4 a total of 16 teams, whiled South has 14 and both North 2 and Central have 13 meaning by pure percentages, it is harder to qualify in the North 1 than any others which is a competitive disadvantage. The co-ops they added were the No 2, 4 and 8 seeds last year in their respective section. For some coaches that is something that just isn’t fair in their eyes.

“Obviously, I think the NJSIAA dropped the ball,” One unnamed coach said. “The three best teams based on Power Points, advancement and ranking in one section does not make a lot of sense.”

Another coach I spoke with echoed that sentiment.

”It is horrible.” The coach said. “I know they try and follow the rules and regulations but where is the human element.”

According to the current bylaws a potential solution is available. It states “ If a total number of public schools cannot be divided evenly by the number of sections, the one remainder will be added to each Section from the Northern most to the southernmost Section until there are no more remainder.” ( NJSIAA By-Laws Article III)

That is called Northerning. Essentially what that means is you look at the geographical location of the schools in the most populated section and move based on that. For example, Ridge and Phillipsburg would drop to North 2 and Princeton would then move down to Central in turn making the sections even.  

However some feel the rules were correctly applied in this scenario. When reached for comment, Colleen McGuire the executive director for the NJSIAA gave me the following statement.

“The wrestling classifications are in accordance with the Association’s Bylaws,” McGuire said. “There are uneven sections across many sports, wrestling being one of them.  In addition, many sports have sections that are more competitive than others but that is not because of the number of teams in the section.  The increasing trend of both charter schools and cooperative sports teams over the past two classification cycles was negatively impacting the natural classification of all other schools in that sport.”

While a few schools may have an issue with the way the sections were created, it sounds like nothing is going to be changed for the upcoming season. Hopefully something can be done in the future to allow the top squads to advance to Group Final Sunday at the Jersey Mikes Arena in Piscataway to help showcase the best the state has to offer in a fair way.