Colleen Maguire is tired of kicking teams out of the state playoffs.
This school year—and more specifically, this basketball season—has been one like no other since Maguire took over as the New Jersey State Interscholastic Athletic Association’s top boss in 2020 and even beyond that.
To date, 22 teams have been disqualified from the state tournament since the beginning of the school year. Eleven of those have come this winter with 10 boys basketball teams DQ’d and one girls basketball team axed for bench-clearing incidents
There were 11 teams DQ’d from the state tournament in the entire 2021-22 school year.
The NJSIAA’s stance now is clear: enough is enough.
“There are too many student-athletes that are sidelined during the most exciting time of the season,” Maguire said, calling the barrage of disqualifications an “increasing trend in unsportsmanlike behavior.”
Teams need to practice bench behavior just like they practice game-winning plays, Maguire said.
Paul Popadiuk, the NJSIAA’s Chief Compliance Officer, echoed Maguire’s comments and stressed that it’s on the adults in the room—the coaches and administrators—to get this right.
“Far too many of our coaches are escalating rather than deescalating,” Popadiuk said. “They’re yelling, they’re screaming at officials. They’re not modeling appropriate behaviors for their players. They’re getting their kids more amped up rather than less amped up
“Administrations need to step up and coach their coaches. If you see this occurring with a coach, sit them down and explain what we need to do. Administrators need to set examples themselves. Unfortunately, we’ve had situations where principals and superintendents are worse than their coaches as far as yelling at officials and getting things ramped up.”
The NJSIAA sounding the alarm over disqualifications over on-the-court behavior comes after a brawl last week between Camden, defending Group 2 champion and a nationally-ranked powerhouse, and Camden Eastside, their crosstown rival and defending Group 3 champ, that resulted in the school district withdrawing both teams from the state tournament
Had they not been withdrawn, both teams would have been disqualified, the NJSIAA said.
Here’s a breakdown of the 22 teams, by sport, that have been disqualified from tournament play this season:
- Boys Basketball: 10
- Football: 6
- Boys Soccer: 5
- Girls Basketball:
Popadiuk applauded Roselle Catholic’s boys basketball coaching staff for policing its team on the bench during an incident against Arts on Jan. 5. Arts was disqualified following the game, but Roselle Catholic was not.
The state tournament is underway in all NJSIAA sports.
Brian Deakyne may be reached at bdeakyne@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @BrianDeakyne.
