Opinion still split on Tournament of Champions
Set to have concluded Friday night with Steinert taking on Lodi Immaculate in the final, the secondyear NJSIAA Softball Tournament of Champions has certainly produced mixed opinions on whether it should even be held or not.
In many ways it sort of seems anticlimactic following the state finals and some of the teams no doubt end up taking it more seriously than others. Group II state champ Robbinsville, for instance, sure didn’t look like its usual self in a semifinal loss.
Whatever your feelings are on the subject, if the state is going to insist on continuing to hold the ToC it should at least find a decent location to play it. Nothing against Seton Hall, but the place is a dump and Wednesday night it smelled like fertilizer. Driving there is also a nightmare.
Furthermore, judging by a banner that was hung up at the field, the ToC is being used by a North Jersey summer program to shamelessly promote itself.
The way the public address constantly promotes the food stand also makes you wonder if someone is making a killing on the concession stand.
Why not hold the ToC in Mercer County. It’s more centrally located and as this year’s state championships showed, the best public school softball in the state is in the Trenton area anyway.
PENNSY UPDATE
There are still two area teams very much alive in state tournament play and both will be in action Monday in the PIAA semifinals.
In Class 6A, Neshaminy will take on Parkland at Patriot’s Park in Allentown at 1 p.m. Bristol will play Upper Dauphin at 6 p.m at Lyons Field in Fleetwood in Class 2A.
Considering the games are supposed to be on “neutral” fields, Neshaminy got screwed. Parkland is in Allentown, so this amounts to a home game for the Lehigh Valley team.
As much as you might want to criticize the NJSIAA, trust us when we say the PIAA is no better.
On Monday, for instance, the PIAA District 1 director told a Trentonian reporter the Council Rock North was game rained out.
There was only one small problem: Rock North did play as scheduled that day, and along with the other team and umpires, it apparently never got the word it was not supposed to show up.
Neshaminy, meanwhile, was rained out at 5 p.m. Monday despite the fact pictures taken at noon showed the field to be bone dry.
You can’t make this stuff up.