Another free one

Schalick off for second week in a row after Bishop Eustace forfeits Friday’s game, gives Cougars share of Horizon Division title UPDATED

By Al Muskewitz
Riverview Sports News

PITTSGROVE – The undefeated Schalick football team finds itself with an unexpected open date for the second week in a row after athletics department officials were informed Monday of Bishop Eustace’s intention to forfeit Friday night’s WJFL Horizon Division game due to a lack of players to safely field a competitive varsity team.

The Cougars also received a forfeit win from division opponent Lindenwold last week for the same reason. They have not played on the field since Sept. 22 when they beat Pennsville 38-20.

Eustace was said to have 16 players available for the game against a Schalick program with more than 60.

With the forfeit, the Cougars, now 7-0 for the first time since 2006 after the forfeit, clinch a share of their second straight Horizon Division title. They can claim the crown outright Friday if Riverside beats Gloucester Catholic since they own the head-to-head tiebreaker over Riverside and everyone else in the league will have at least two losses.

The Cougars were No. 1 in the UPR power ratings that determine playoff seedings before the first forfeit and fell to No. 2 afterwards. While they will collect ratings and power points from the game – Eustace is 3-2 and No. 8 in NJSIAA Non-Public Group B – it was uncertain what this latest forfeit would do to their position.

They could have found a replacement opponent for last week’s forfeit but “in the best interest of the team” that had been going without a break since the first day of practice they decided to take the forfeit. They did seek a replacement opponent this week, but no team in the WJFL had an open date and the unnamed Shore Conference team in North Jersey they found that did have a corresponding open date declined the game.

Both forfeits were winnable games for the Cougars, but head coach Mike Wilson would prefer to play on the field.

“They’re claiming they don’t have enough kids and they’ve got injuries, but they’ve had low numbers all year,” Wilson said. “The league cannot allow this to happen. If you’re committed to varsity, you play varsity football, they should not allow them to play varsity the rest of the year. It’s not fair.

“Yes, they’re wins on paper, but these kids need to play football. It’s not going to hurt us on playoff seeding, it’s not going to hurt us winning our division … but it kind of loses its luster when you don’t actually play the games.

“It’s not fair. You’re taking games away from these kids, and especially my seniors – and I don’t have a lot of them. These were the COVID kids. They lost games their freshmen year because of COVID. It’s not fair. The league has to do something about it. It’s frustrating because the kids have worked so hard.”

Wilson and Schalick athletics director Doug Volovar have reached out to various West Jersey Football League officials to express their concerns. Volovar was told by WJFL president Joe McColgan, the Moorestown AD, there was no recourse in place at this time either for relief or sanctions for a situation that impacts a wide range of institutional constituencies. Riverview Sports News sent an email to McColgan seeking comment and is awaiting a reply.

“We just have to accept it and move on, that’s really all we’re allowed to do,” Volovar said. “It’s just unfortunate for us that it’s happened to us twice.”

Penns Grove head coach John Emel, president of the WJFL coaches association, doesn’t like seeing the forfeits but his group doesn’t have power to make changes. He feels for the Cougars.

“I don’t like it,” he said. “It’s not good for the sport; the forfeits aren’t good for the competitiveness of the league and the competition and things like that. My position is I want to try to avoid them at all costs. I feel bad for Schalick in terms of their kids and the seniors and things like that. It stinks. I don’t think there’s a solution for it short term.”

In a sense, Shalick is a victim of its own success. After some down seasons, the Cougars were relegated to a weaker division in the last WJFL reshuffle and Wilson has been building them back for inclusion in a stronger grouping that’s expected to occur in the realignment after this season.

It wasn’t immediately known if the Eustace position would be just for this week or longer, but Schalick officials would be “really disappointed” if either forfeiting team would drop down to play a JV schedule in their current state and then return to varsity play during the same season when convenient. The Crusaders are scheduled to play Florence, currently No. 3 in the SJ-I UPR, at home next week

“To me that’s one of the more disturbing issues,” Volovar said. “The feeling is if you have players and you say that you’re going to commit to a varsity schedule, but then you’re dropping down to a JV schedule, that’s concerning to me because if you have enough players to play a game of football you should be playing a game because that’s what you committed to at the beginning.

“Maybe some schools aren’t as fortunate as we are, but at the same time, because we’ve done what we’re supposed to do and we’re trying to do what’s better for our kids and our programs we’re unfortunately getting penalized.”

As for the Cougars, they reduced their practice week schedule last week, but they’re going through this one just as if they were playing a game Friday. 

“When you look at the grand scheme of things we’re going to be OK, that’s what I told the kids,” Wilson said. “If you came out to practice yesterday you would’ve never even known we didn’t have a game; we had a great practice. I think the kids get the importance of what we still have to accomplish this season. 

“And I think there’s maturity there. They’ve finally learned to control what you can control.”

Schalick is scheduled to play Cumberland next week. There’s close to 100 percent chance that game will be played .

It’s the trophy game between the two schools —
the Tom Lake & Mike Hars Memorial Game, formerly known as The Neighborhood Game.