Sports

High School Sports Schedules Won't Be The Same

The teams will play slightly different lineups this season now that they're in new conferences.

Scotch Plains-Fanwood High School athletic schedules will look much different this season.

While the football team will experience life in the new Mid State 39 this fall, the rest of the Raider athletic fraternity will be staying closer to home in the new Union County Conference.

For decades, Scotch Plains-Fanwood has been part of the Watchung Conference. The Watchung Conference was home to Scotch Plains-Fanwood, Westfield and Plainfield along with schools like Elizabeth, Linden and Union and Irvington and Newark schools like Shabazz and East Side.

The Union County League will be filled with just Union County schools—from the smallest to the largest. Scotch Plains-Fanwood will be placed in divisions by enrollment of the schools. The league merges those of the Watchung Conference—made up of bigger schools—with those from the Mountain Valley, made up of middle-to-small schools.

As an example, the Scotch Plains-Fanwood boys and girls soccer teams will be in the Watchung Division of the league along with Linden, Union, Elizabeth, Plainfield and Westfield. The girls volleyball team will be included with the same schools along with girls and boys tennis.

Watchung Hills Athletic Director Nick Serritella, the president of the former Mountain Valley Conference, put the league’s schedules together. He said that the first schedule will be used for just one year, then will be adjusted before next year.

The league will be evaluated by strength of program. So if a team is poor in softball, but is a big school, it could still be placed in a division with smaller enrollments with comparable ability, he said.

There are some changes in the baseball schedule as Rahway joins the big schools—Linden, Union, Westfield, Elizabeth, Plainfield and Scotch Plains-Fanwood in the Watchung Division. Softball is made up by the same schools.

In golf, Scotch Plains-Fanwood has been placed with Elizabeth, Governor Livingston, Union, Cranford, Linden, Summit, Westfield and Plainfield. Since not all county schools have gymnastics teams, there will be one division with Westfield, A.J. Johnson of Clark, Dayton, Elizabeth, Scotch Plains-Fanwood, Union and Union Catholic.

In basketball, Scotch Plains-Fanwood’s boys are in the Watchung Division with Linden, Union, Elizabeth, Plainfield and Westfield. St. Patrick of Elizabeth, one of the county’s smaller schools, is also in the division since it has had perennially powerful clubs. The Watchung Division in boys basketball is made up by Scotch Plains-Fanwood, Linden, Plainfield, Westfield, Union, Elizabeth and joined by Rahway and Summit.

Scotch Plains-Fanwood baseball coach Tom Baylock said that he’s eager to have his defending county tournament team play in the league, but will miss some of his team’s old rivals—like Kearny. But he said the school will likely keep Kearny on the schedule.


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