Thursday, September 30, 2010

These are not good times for the New Jersey State Interscholastic Athletic Association which has come under fire in the wake of a report by the State Commission of Investigation that was released Wednesday. The SCI report says the governing body of high school sports in this state is not doing a good job of keeping its house in order and its fiscal mismanagement is costing taxpayers.
The real question is what’s next for the NJSIAA as this week’s report offers three options for a restructuring….the appointment of an outside monitor, a consolidation with the New Jersey School Boards Association or basically a disbanding of the organization and the moving of its functions to a self-supporting unit that would operate in but not be part of the State Department of Education.

While the report does not paint a pretty picture and cites many examples of wasteful spending the NJSIAA has taken several steps to reduce spending under its current administration. Clearly it needs to do more but I am not going to jump on the bandwagon and call for it to be taken apart because I don’t think the other options are in the best interests of high school athletics in the state. The School Boards consolidation is flawed because it restricts membership of non-public schools and with all the problems in our State Department of Education do you really want them to have responsibility over athletics? To me the sensible approach would be to bring in an outside monitor who would oversee and scrutinize the spending and operation of the private, nonprofit organization. See what happens over the next year and re-visit the status of the NJSIAA.

I have had more than my share of problems with the organization in my three decades plus of covering high school sports but I can honestly say it’s better now than it was in the past when it operated like a dictatorship under the Executive Director prior to Steve Timko. They can and need to do more to get away from the “good old boy” network but the NJSIAA does many good things that are being overlooked. They provide more championship events than any other state in the country, have greatly promoted girls athletics and put an emphasis on sportsmanship. Whether they get a chance to continue those efforts is now very much up in the air.