Another article that crossed by computer’s desktop in recent months was one written in January mentioning the approved proposal of a merger between the Greater Middlesex Conference and the Shore Conference as somewhat of a superconference during football season. These two conferences, which have been model examples of how to do things right as far as high school athletics in New Jersey goes, have come together to get their teams to schedule teams from the other conference once they have made their completed their league schedule commitments.
The GMC, which has 24 member schools spread over four divisions in football, and the Shore, which has 43 schools spread over two counties and six divisions on the gridiron, will take each other on not only in the spirit of good competition, but also to help all 67 schools involved to complete their nine game season schedule. One thing about high school athletics that has become so prevalent in recent years is the difficulty in trying to get teams to play one another so that schools can complete their schedules. This problem is most significant in football with teams making ads in the sports pages of newspapers asking for opponents for their upcoming season.
Here is a rough draft of some possible contests are available courtesy of the blog at the Asbury Park Press. For instance, my hometown of South Plainfield would take on Wall, Monmouth Regional, and Long Branch. For those, who may remember, the last time the Tigers took on the Crimson Knights was for the Central Jersey Group III Championship in 1982. Wall won by a score of 21-0. Another example shows, New Brunswick taking on Middletown South in a rematch of last year’s Central Jersey Group III playoffs in addition to playing Freehold Boro.
Looking at possible matchups between the smaller schools, Holmdel would take on Spotswood, Bishop Ahr, and J.F. Kennedy while Shore Regional would take on Metuchen in a rematch of last year’s opening round of the Central Jersey Group I State Tournament as well as South River while Metuchen would take on Asbury Park in a rematch of the CJ Group I Championship. Keyport would schedule Metuchen and Middlesex. This is another great move by the GMC, which seems to be making major moves over the past two years to bring in new schools into the conference while letting others expand their sports programs, and now compete against other power conferences.
This past season in basketball, the Shore Conference won four sectional titles, and a state title. In addition, the coastal conference that represents the majority of schools in Monmouth and Ocean Counties, won four sectional crowns on the gridiron as well including Central Jersey Group I (Asbury Park), Central Jersey Group II (Manasquan), Central Jersey Group III (Freehold Boro), and Central Jersey Group IV (Brick Memorial). Meanwhile, the GMC didn’t win any sectional championships in basketball despite making three finals appearances, and only won one in football despite making three finals appearances. Piscataway won the North Jersey Section 2 Group IV Championship by winning its title over Hunterdon Central in a rematch. The Shore has set the standard. Now the GMC must reach it.