Despite return-to-play call, situation still fluid for coaches

The possibility for high school football in New Jersey this fall received another boost Thursday when the NJSIAA announced it’s still going ahead with its plan for a shortened season that will begin regular-season play the first week of October.

As such, barring a change of mind by the NJSIAA or the governor’s office, right now it’s basically up to the various school boards to decide the course of the action for its teams.

So far, the only local schools that have told the West Jersey Football League they will not be playing football are Trenton, West Windsor and New Egypt. Keeping in mind many school boards will be meeting next week, a more complete picture of how this will unfold should become clearer shortly.

“No news is good news,” said Lawrence coach Rob Radice when asked if he expects anything to happen at his district’s upcoming school board meeting. “We did not receive approval to do anything during phase 1 or 2, but right now we are proceeding as is the season is going to happen. We have a whole lot of safety procedures in place and plan on starting practice on Sept. 14.”

Students at Lawrence are set to start school on Sept. 8 and the district has announced it will begin the school year exclusively with remote learning. This is in contrast to Ewing, which plans on using a hybid schedule whereby students will come to the school every other day and participate in remote learning on the days they are at home.

Ewing is also currently holding a twoweek conditioning program in which athletes in all of the fall sports are working out at the school.

“A lot of my guys have shown up this week,” said Ewing football coach Matt Dalessio. “I’m very happy about the turnout. The kids need this.”

Like Lawrence, Ewing will begin official practice on Sept. 14 and will have to wait to learn what its final schedule will look like. Ewing was to have played West Windsor, while Lawrence had both West Windsor and Trenton on its schedule.

Steinert Athletic Director Steve Gazdek, who is handling the scheduling for the Colonial

Valley Conference schools in the WJFL, said earlier in the week the plan is to wait until the end of the month to make the necessary schedule adjustments.

In addition to saying it plans on going ahead with football this fall, the NJSIAA also indicated it would be open to the idea of spring football if conditions change and the season needs to be postponed.

In addition to football, the NJSIAA announced it is also going ahead with the fall cross country, field hockey and soccer seasons. The indoor fall sports of gymnastics and girls volleyball will now be played next spring.

“Everyone is in a tough position,” said Dalessio. “Everyone wants information, but there’s not a lot of it and it can change day by day.”