West Jersey Football League

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The West Jersey Football League is a superconference comprising 95 teams from public and private high schools in New Jersey, United States. Created in 2010, the WJFL reached its current size in 2016 covering most of South Jersey, with the addition of the football programs that had participated in the Cape-Atlantic League and the Colonial Conference to the teams already participating from the Burlington County Scholastic League, Colonial Valley Conference, Olympic Conference and the Tri-County Conference.[1][2] The teams are grouped into 16 six-team divisions (one has five teams) grouped by geography, size, competitive balance, strength of program and other factors.[3] The WJFL operates under the auspices of the Leagues and Conferences Committee of the New Jersey State Interscholastic Athletic Association.

History[]

The league was created in 2010 as a way to better balance teams that had faced imbalances in the size and quality of teams within conferences. While some regretted the loss of old rivalries, the conference made an effort to establish crossover games between teams that had traditions under which they had played each other regularly in the past.[2]

With a decline in the number of student athletes playing football at West Windsor-Plainsboro High School North that would be inadequate for the school to field a team of its own, the West Windsor-Plainsboro Regional School District attempted to combine the teams from the two schools to have them operate as a single co-operative football team for the 2017-18 school year based at West Windsor-Plainsboro High School South. Given that the size of the schools is larger than the threshold established by the state for co-op programs (North is classified as Group III and South as Group IV, based on the size of the enrollment of each school), the proposal was rejected in a 76-16 vote by the West Jersey Football League and by the Leagues and Conferences Committee of the New Jersey State Interscholastic Athletic Association, before an appeal of the decision was rejected by the Commissioner of the New Jersey Department of Education.[4] In August 2017, the district announced that WW-P North would cancel its program. The members of the canceled program will be eligible to play for the North junior varsity football team, but will not be able to play for the South team.[5]

Divisions[]

The league is divided into the following 16 divisions[6] (teams are listed with their 2018-20 NJSIAA football classification and number of students in grades 10-12):[7]


American Division
Capitol Division
Classic Division
Colonial Division
Constitution Division
Continental Division
Diamond Division
Freedom Division
Independence Division
Liberty Division
Memorial Division
National Division
Patriot Division
Royal Division
United Division
Valley Division

References[]

  1. ^ Home Page, West Jersey Football league. Accessed September 25, 2017.
  2. ^ a b Anastasia, Phil. "West Jersey Football League realigned South Jersey teams", The Philadelphia Inquirer, August 31, 2016. "'I remember when we [Overbrook] were in the Olympic Conference, then we were in the Tri-County Conference, then the Colonial," said Wilczynski, whose team will see nontraditional foes such as Woodstown, Oakcrest, and Holy Cross in crossover games while maintaining its Thanksgiving rivalry with Lindenwold."
  3. ^ Rules, West Jersey Football League, revised June 14, 2016. Accessed September 25, 2017.
  4. ^ Miller, Sean. "State denies West Windsor-Plainsboro's appeal in football merger", The Times (Trenton), July 12, 2017. Accessed September 25, 2017. "The New Jersey Commissioner of Education's office on Wednesday rejected an appeal by the West Windsor-Plainsboro school district for emergent action in its plan to merge the North and South High School football teams.... The district wanted the two school football teams, WW-P North and WW-P South, to combine into a 'co-op' for the upcoming 2017 season. But the NJSIAA denied the action, because North is classified as a Group 3 school and South as a Group 4."
  5. ^ Kahn, Lea. "West Windsor-Plainsboro North varsity football season canceled", CentralJersey.com, August 10, 2017. Accessed September 25, 2017. "West Windsor-Plainsboro High School North will not field a varsity football team this season because of a lack of players, according to West Windsor-Plainsboro Regional School District officials. The varsity football program at West Windsor-Plainsboro High School South will continue but players from West Windsor-Plainsboro High School North will not be allowed to play for that team."
  6. ^ Divisions, West Jersey Football League. Accessed September 25, 2017.
  7. ^ NJSIAA Football Public School Classifications 2018-2020, New Jersey State Interscholastic Athletic Association. Accessed October 20, 2020.

External links[]

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