The future of High school Football in South Jersey

With the merger of the Cape Atlantic League and West Jersey Football Conference what gets overlooked is how High Football games will now be affected by the crossover of officiating. Over the years certain officiating crews are assigned to leagues and in football a good officiating crew can greatly affect how a game is played.

I spoke with a guy who has been a member of officiating crews of CAL Football games for several years; he asked to remain anonymous due to uncertainty about what the future is for officials as the merger comes down.

“So many game assignments come down to politics more than performance” he said,

“There was a point years ago I thought about quitting because of this issue. For guys like myself, we work High School Football games because we love the game and want to give back to the kids. Yeah, the money is a nice deal but my hope is I can be involved in helping these kids.”

He further elaborated that in the playoffs crews’ assignments are totally different.
“In the playoffs you see officiating crews up north coming to South Jersey while we (CAL officials) get sent west. So that may tell you something about the potential of what happens with the leagues’ merger.”

At the end of our conversation he reiterated the reasons why he is still works High School Football games:

“At the end of the day, I’m doing this because of the kids. If they assign to different areas, we officials can carpool together and split the cost of travel. That’s not a problem. It will be interesting to see what happens when the schedule come out for the 2016 season.”

Remember 97.3 ESPN FM is your home for South Jersey High School Football each year. Be sure to stay tuned to the South Jersey Sports Report Saturdays from 8am-10am as Dave O’Sullivan keeps you up to date on the latest on the South Jersey High School Sports scene.