Why we’re dropping parochial schools from the rankings

One complaint increasingly heard over the last five or so years is why does The Trentonian even bother to go through the tedious and redundant exercise of including the parochial schools in its state wrestling rankings.

Well, ask and you shall receive because starting today the state rankings are for public schools only.

Actually they are only for public schools in terms of the state team rankings. The individuals from the parochial schools will continue to be ranked because in no way would you deprive high school athletes themselves from the recognition they deserve.

There is, of course, precedence for the change. In the old days a certain newspaper used to include Blair Academy in its state team rankings. Other than the fact it’s not a member of the NJSIAA, explain to us the difference between what Blair does and the parochial schools that load up by recruiting other school’s wrestlers.

Now, we know what some of you are thinking. If the new ratings are only for schools that don’t recruit, why is Paulsboro included.

This is a good point as well, but for now Cough City will remain in the rankings until it brings in even more outside wrestlers. If recent developments are any indication, you can expect Paulsboro to get the boot soon.

In addition to the fact the parochials have a huge and unfair advantage, what they also fail to grasp is nobody respects or cares about these type of programs.

In fact, they are not programs at all. A successful wrestling program is one where a coach builds on a foundation with whatever talent he has — not a collection of imported all-star guns who anybody could coach.

No need to get into names, but the parochial school that is currently riding highest in the state is coached by a guy who once took his team to a Delaware tourney, checked into a hotel and then had to bring his team back without wrestling a single bout when he discovered he would have broken bout-limit rules.

Does anyone seriously think this guy is now somehow a coaching genius?

As the reader can see, our new top 10 team rankings are headed up by Howell in the top spot. Hunterdon Central is No. 2, while Paulsboro, Phillipsburg and Hanover Park round out the top five.

We got to see Hunterdon Central and Howell on back-toback nights last week and it really reemphasized what a shame it is these teams are now in the same section. These two should instead meet in the Group V final, unless you want to rightfully make the argument there should be no Group V at all.

Of all the bad decisions the NJSIAA wrestling committee has made over the years, the addition of Group V is arguably the worst of all and it’s going to make for an anticlimactic day in Toms River.

The Hunterdon Central/Howell survivor (Group V), Philiipsburg (Group IV), South Plainfield (Group III) and Paulsboro (Group I) will all be heavy favorites. That leaves only Group II where maybe a team like High Point can make things interesting against Hanover Park. points.

Fair Lawn?

The last time the Cutters made any news they were taking a dive on a bogus full nelson injury against Hunterdon Central in the 1980s at groups.

You could go on and on.

Some people seem to think Raritan is pretty good, but it was fortunate to get past North Hunterdon by one point in a match in which it won just six bouts.

Long (a.k.a. Wrong) Branch is having a decent year, but it got smoked by Watchung Hills. The word is Southern will be pretty solid when it gets its full lineup together, but it seems like the Rams’ lineup is always a work in progress.

While nobody can dispute the quality of the Howell lineup, the Rebel schedule also leaves something to be desired as they seem to specialize in crushing teams not even remotely in their class.

Topping things off is the fact it was the crybabies at the Shore who in large part pushed through this awful district and region realignment that was designed to help its faltering programs advance more wrestlers.

The result?

In 2016 the Shore Conference sent 42 wrestlers to states and had 12 place winners. In 2017 it sent 74 wrestlers to states and had 13 place winners.

Oh well, this is just what you would expect from a Jersey Shore area that gave us the self-serving Doug Bower and was made famous by none other than Snooki.