My old HS Raritan, pulls out the most unlikely State Championship.

[ruready4somefootball]

They started the season 3-0, lost 5 in a row, got into the playoffs at 3-5 based on power points for playing a lot of bigger schools. Go to 8-1 Pt. Pleasant Boro, beat them 17-7. Go to 9-1 Delaware Valley beat them 46-16,beat Holmdel on Thanksgiving Day 46-26, then upset 11-0 Lincoln 28-26 scoring the TD on 4th and 12 from the 14, with 16 seconds left. Amazing game, with a Lincoln team having 3 D1 kids on it. In fairness, their best player, Darby, a Iowa recruit was a non factor, hurting his ankle early in the 1st quarter. No doubt it impacted the game big time. Still taking nothing away from Raritan,it was a great win, and I would doubt any HS in NJ has ever won a State Championship with a record of 7-5. Kids never gave up,could have easily, during the 5 game losing streak. Congrats.

 

[Abro1975]

Darby is a terrific talent, headed to Iowa along with Bosco's talented DE Brandon Simon.

 

[Plum Street]

Wow congrats to raritan ....not to hijack this thread but i still don't like the idea of an under .500 team in the playoffs . Obviously , it sometimes leaves a good team at home , but wins in the regular season should have meaning .

 

[PSU_Nut]

Why doesn't Jersey have a true state championship? Is that just a football thing or are all sports like that?

 

[ScarletGrapfan]

They started the season 3-0, lost 5 in a row, got into the playoffs at 3-5 based on power points for playing a lot of bigger schools. Go to 8-1 Pt. Pleasant Boro, beat them 17-7. Go to 9-1 Delaware Valley beat them 46-16,beat Holmdel on Thanksgiving Day 46-26, then upset 11-0 Lincoln 28-26 scoring the TD on 4th and 12 from the 14, with 16 seconds left. Amazing game, with a Lincoln team having 3 D1 kids on it. In fairness, their best player, Darby, a Iowa recruit was a non factor, hurting his ankle early in the 1st quarter. No doubt it impacted the game big time. Still taking nothing away from Raritan,it was a great win, and I would doubt any HS in NJ has ever won a State Championship with a record of 7-5. Kids never gave up,could have easily, during the 5 game losing streak. Congrats.

That is a great Run. But with 20 Public School State Champs and 3 Par State champs(Public should be called Section Champs not State Champs) some schools will have mediocre records. DePaul Catholic won the title the other day and finished 6-6. I think Glassboro was 2-5 and then won 5 straight to win the title two seasons ago.

 

[Abro1975]

Why doesn't Jersey have a true state championship? Is that just a football thing or are all sports like that?

The NJSIAA has brought up that question several times in the past 5 years and put it to a vote of Coaches and ADs, and every time they vote in favor of the current format of sectional (not Group) champions.

Most other sports play down to a Group championship and in basketball a true State championship.

 

[ruready4somefootball]

That is a great Run. But with 20 Public School State Champs and 3 Par State champs(Public should be called Section Champs not State Champs) some schools will have mediocre records. DePaul Catholic won the title the other day and finished 6-6. I think Glassboro was 2-5 and then won 5 straight to win the title two seasons ago.

I think DePaul's 6-6 record doesn't count, since they played 2 schools from NY, one from Maryland, and one from Ohio.

 

[Hap129]

Why doesn't Jersey have a true state championship? Is that just a football thing or are all sports like that?

Would have to add 4 more rounds of playoffs. No way it could be done.

 

[tico brown]

I wish that NJ plays down to the 5 Group Champions (or 9 if you want to seperate the Cathlolic schools) instead of the 23 "state champs" they have now. The state can play it down with 9 regular season games with teams that don't go to playoffs having the option of playing a consolation game for their Game 10 while the playoffs go on. If they were playing down to the single state champions this year, the sectional games would have been played during Thanksgiving week since Thanksgiving Games would be elimiated for playoff teams. The state semifinals would've been played this week while the 5 or 9 championship games would've been played next weekend at Rutgers Stadium. Just my opinion.

 

[Friend of 112]

The NJSIAA has brought up that question several times in the past 5 years and put it to a vote of Coaches and ADs, and every time they vote in favor of the current format of sectional (not Group) champions.

Most other sports play down to a Group championship and in basketball a true State championship.

Nice story book ending.
Puzzling - how the heck is Lincoln (Jersey City) in a Central bracket and Middletown South is in a North bracket.
I get he balance based on school population, but these seem waaaay out of whack.

 

[Friend of 112]

Would have to add 4 more rounds of playoffs. No way it could be done.

Actually, it would only be two more rounds as it would be a true Group Championship, not a true champion like in basketball.
It would be totally unfair to have big schools play small schools in playoffs.

 

[ScarletGrapfan]

Would have to add 4 more rounds of playoffs. No way it could be done.

Hap129-How do other states do it? It would only add two more rounds of Playoffs(unless you are talking one champion). But if you have a Group 5 champ, 4 champ etc etc. It is only 2 more rounds, and you could make each section only have the top 4 teams make the playoffs instead of top 8 and then you would not have to add any more rounds.

 

[tico brown]

Nice story book ending.
Puzzling - how the heck is Lincoln (Jersey City) in a Central bracket and Middletown South is in a North bracket.
I get he balance based on school population, but these seem waaaay out of whack.

One year, Shabazz was playing Middletown South in Central Jersey finals one year then playing Dunellen in the North 2 finals last year.

 

[tico brown]

Hap129-How do other states do it? It would only add two more rounds of Playoffs(unless you are talking one champion). But if you have a Group 5 champ, 4 champ etc etc. It is only 2 more rounds, and you could make each section only have the top 4 teams make the playoffs instead of top 8 and then you would not have to add any more rounds.

Michigan HS Football plays 9 regular season games, then 5 playoff rounds into 8 Group Finals over Thanksgiving Day and Friday at Ford Field, Detroit.
http://www.mhsaa.com/sports/football

 

[PSU_Nut]

Would have to add 4 more rounds of playoffs. No way it could be done.

Just like most other states. Play to the group championship. With 4 groups just play two more rounds. In PA the teams who win the state title will play 16 games. They play either 10 game season and 6 round playoff games.

 

[MozRU]

I haven't lived in Jersey in a while. Raritian HS? Isn't it Bridgwater Raritan?

Back in 60's there was BW east, BW west and the Raritan HS, correct?

 

[Friend of 112]

I haven't lived in Jersey in a while. Raritian HS? Isn't it Bridgwater Raritan?

Back in 60's there was BW east, BW west and the Raritan HS, correct?

Raritan HS is Hazlet, Monmouth County.

The Bridgewater-Raritan HS is is Somerset County. In 1991, it was combined from B-R East and B-R West.

 

[ruready4somefootball]

I haven't lived in Jersey in a while. Raritian HS? Isn't it Bridgwater Raritan?

Back in 60's there was BW east, BW west and the Raritan HS, correct?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hazlet,_New_Jersey

 

[pawildcat]

Michigan HS Football plays 9 regular season games, then 5 playoff rounds into 8 Group Finals over Thanksgiving Day and Friday at Ford Field, Detroit.
http://www.mhsaa.com/sports/football

In Illinois, they play nine regular season games in eight classes with 32 teams per class. So the only teams who play more than 11 games are state semifinalists. Northwestern had one recruit that was on the state champion 8A team and another that was on the 7A runner-up. Both are done. I'm not familiar with how they're doing it in Jersey any more. Are Catholic and private schools lumped with the public schools? I really hate that in Pa. as the private schools that recruit are starting to dominate the smaller classes, even though they swear up and down that they don't recruit.

 

[tico brown]

In Illinois, they play nine regular season games in eight classes with 32 teams per class. So the only teams who play more than 11 games are state semifinalists. Northwestern had one recruit that was on the state champion 8A team and another that was on the 7A runner-up. Both are done. I'm not familiar with how they're doing it in Jersey any more. Are Catholic and private schools lumped with the public schools? I really hate that in Pa. as the private schools that recruit are starting to dominate the smaller classes, even though they swear up and down that they don't recruit.

Public Schools are separate from the Catholic Schools, even though there are magnet schools and vocational schools that take any county student and charter schools who can take anyone from a city (who has multiple high schools).

There are 4 sections that separate the state: North Jersey 1, North Jersey 2, Central Jersey, South Jersey. 5 Public Groups in each section (4 Private Groups that cover the whole state) that goes by number of students in each school in each section. As of now, the Private Groups play down to a single state champion in each group. The Public Groups play down to what would be Sectional Champions.

If they were to play down to a single group champ, the semifinals would be North 1 vs 2 and Central vs South with the winners playing at Rutgers Stadium (because the South would rather play in Philly instead of Met Life while the North have never heard of Rowan University). But this will never happen because of the Thanksgiving Day Game and the powers that be are satisfied with 23 State Champs instead of 9.

Hope this helps.

 

[scarletman2723]

In CT there are 4 classes S M L LL similar to the groups. Theres about 30-32 team in each class based on how many boys are in each school. Top 8 teams make the playoffs in each class leaving 4 state champions