NJSIAA: String of violence at basketball games headlines meeting – NorthJersey.com

The NJSIAA executive committee spent most of Wednesday’s meeting talking behind closed doors. But when it did speak publicly, the message was clear.
Both NJSIAA chief executive officer Colleen Maguire and chief compliance officer Paul Popadiuk condemned the rise in violent incidents at basketball games this winter. Maguire said 11 basketball teams this winter were banned from the state tournament because of on-court incidents (10 boys teams, one girls team).
In North Jersey, Dwight Morrow canceled the remainder of its season after a Feb. 7 melee with Dumont.
The NJSIAA has a long-standing rule that if three or more players are disqualified from a game, that school is prohibited from appearing in the state tournament. Everyone knows the rule or should.
“In far too many of these instances, spectators were involved which only elevated the violence,” Maguire said in an opening statement. “There are too many student-athletes on the sidelines during the most important time of the year.”
Popadiuk said that for the entire scholastic sports season last year, 11 teams were banned from state tournaments. This year it’s already 22, counting six football teams and five boys soccer teams.
“We need to focus on turning this around,” Popadiuk said. “There are way too many altercations.”
This is a tough one, because the NJSIAA has already tried preventative measures to keep emotions from running high at events. There is the sportsmanship statement read before each game and the NJSIAA tries to promote a working relationship between schools and officials.
Maguire talked about the organization promoting the “Bench Bad Behavior” campaign, and the fact that it has a crowd-control handbook on its website. She said the NJSIAA would try to do more, like supporting officials, holding coaches accountable for their actions and encouraging them to teach staying on the bench during an altercation.
Popadiuk took aim at the behavior of coaches and even administrators for not setting a proper example.
“Far too many coaches are escalating the situation, yelling at officials, and getting their kids more amped up,” he said. “Administrators need to set an example themselves. We have had situations where Principals and Superintendents are yelling at officials. We need to provide a safe environment for all.”
Why do these incidents keep happening? Everyone has a different theory, and none are wrong. People are stressed because of world events. There’s pressure to win and get college scholarships. Schools and teams have unofficial social media accounts they use to taunt and tease other teams and players before games. They can’t be tracked or shut down, so it just raises the vitriol.
The other big problem is that the audience for high school sports is always transitioning. People wanted to come see superstar DJ Wagner play for Camden, and they may not be coming back to another high school game ever, so what do they care if they start a fight or get involved in a fight? That’s not Wagner’s fault at all.
It’s the same for a high school student; a senior may go to a basketball game and shout remarks at the opposing team, but there’s no real punishment for them. They’re off to college soon.
And in a twisted way, the kids and people in these fights become social media stars for a few days. They’ll brag about the fight for years, never realizing how disgraceful they are.
The NJSIAA can try to promote sportsmanship all it wants, and I give them credit for trying, but some people just don’t care and never will. That number seems to be rising.
The other interesting piece of the NJSIAA meeting was the fact that the bulk of it was held in private session, meaning not open to the media. The executive committee spent almost an hour on a protest by the Ridge High School hockey team, but never provided any details on a decision.
At the end of the meeting, the NJSIAA went back in closed session, presumably to discuss the ongoing litigation matters brought forth by the Camden City School District and Paramus Catholic football coach Greg Russo. Russo is appealing his four-game suspension by the NJSIAA for an alleged recruiting violation and will have a hearing March 27 in New Jersey Superior Court.
On any other meeting month, this may have been the headliner, but Maguire announced a program review proposal in which the NJSIAA would seek to hold the five public school state championship football games on Thanksgiving weekend. She did not say where.
Last season, the NJSIAA held the two Non-Public football finals at MetLife Stadium on the day after Thanksgiving, but held off on the public school finals until the following weekend so teams that play traditional Thanksgiving Day games could play those games.
This is the latest attempt by the NJSIAA to work with − and work around − schools that play Thanksgiving Day games, a number that decreases almost every year.
Last year, for example, Passaic Tech and Toms River North met in the Group 5 final after a week off, even though neither played a game on Thanksgiving. Same for Old Tappan and Delsea in Group  3. The NJSIAA wants to keep the season as short as possible, and Maguire said there’s no need to wait a week if neither team has a game on Thanksgiving.
However, the NJSIAA will still make accommodations for teams who do play on Thanksgiving. According to the proposal, if any of those schools make the group final, the game will be played on Thursday, Nov. 30. Maguire said that day would be the final day of fall competition in 2023.

source