Two New Jersey Powers Looking For Out-of-State Games

The New Jersey State Interscholastic Athletic Association has made an exception that could create a couple extra marquee high school football match-ups in 2006 and 2007.

The executive committee of the NJSIAA has granted St. Joseph of Montvale and Don Bosco Prep of Ramsey a two-year waiver of the 70 percent rule, which means both schools may seek an out-of-state opponent to complete their football schedules.

The reason the waiver was needed was because earlier this year the NJSIAA stepped-in to try to even things up between the public and non-public schools in the Northern New Jersey Interscholastic League. The state governing body realigned the NNJIL divisional structure in January so public school football teams would have to play no more than one game per season against each of the four parochial schools.

The reason for that change, since 2001 the publics have only won 9 out of 116 games with the private schools.

The realignment plan guaranteed every team a seven-game schedule for the next two seasons, but for Don Bosco Prep and St. Joseph that seventh game would be a second contest against each other unless each could find a third independent game. However, if the second St. Joseph-Don Bosco Prep game were replaced it would have placed both schools in violation of the state's rule that states that a school must play at least 70-percent of its contests against New Jersey teams prior to the cutoff date to qualify for the state tournament.

When both schools decided they didn't want a second game and then couldn't find any New Jersey teams to play them, the NJSIAA had to allow them to look for out-of-state teams.

The good news for football fans, St. Joseph has verbal agreements to play Poly Prep and Newburgh Free Academy from New York. Don Bosco Prep, who will face national power St. Joseph of Philadelphia and then one of the top teams in Ohio in the second annual McDonald's Kirk Herbstreit's Ohio vs. USA high school football classic.

Neither school has booked a three out of state opponent, but as soon as that happens, The High School Football Huddle will let you know