It has been almost two years since the NJSIAA officially eliminated the Tournament of Champions from New Jersey high school sports. The TOC determined the best of the best. It was the ultimate reward for any team skilled enough to make it that far, but this tradition of settling a final champion was abolished after the 2021-22 school year.
The TOC was the final destination for nearly all of the high school sports in New Jersey. Sports of all types, both boys and girls, played down to one ultimate champion. Candidates for the TOC were determined by the results of state sectional championships. The champions of each section were put into a bracket and got the chance to fight it out one more time in hopes of earning statewide recognition and the final bragging rights over their competitors.
This decision considered the fact that only a few teams from each sport would be contending for this honor each year based on how rigorous their schedule would be. First introduced with girls tennis in 1980, the TOC reached several other sports in the four decades that followed, the most recent being softball in 2017.
The main idea behind ending the TOC was the fact that it would allow sport seasons to be extended almost a week longer, granting more teams opportunities to play, rather than letting the same elite teams duke it out for a single crown.
This is where the NJSIAA is wrong. The teams that are good enough to play in the TOC deserve the chance to prove they are the best. The very nature of sports is competition, so it makes sense to give the best of the best the chance to win the ultimate title.
Winning the tournament comes with months of hard work and dedication. The athletes who dedicate themselves to their team and have goals to win championships do not deserve to have this tournament ripped away from them.
For the NJSIAA to terminate the tournament behind the idea that it would give more equal opportunity to the teams that are not good enough to make it to the competition, is suggestive of the fact that they feel everyone deserves a trophy.
Serious high school athletes do not want handouts. They do not want an asterisk next to their accomplishments. They want to earn it.
Is it fair to say that the athletes on teams that repetitively find themselves in the TOC have not earned their position in the tournament?
Absolutely not. These kids work just as hard, if not harder than everyone else and their work shows. Just because they are in such thriving programs, does not mean that they should be punished for being “too good.” Making it to the TOC is no simple task. It requires a well-knit, competitive team with adequate coaching and the genuine desire to do whatever it takes for that crown.
In eliminating the TOC from NJ high school sports, the NJSIAA is effectively eliminating the high competitive spirit which the state is so highly praised for. NJ was the only state to determine a final champion with a TOC, but now they choose to blend in with the woodwork, not granting the student athletes the opportunity to prove themselves on a statewide level and take home the final championship, the TOC.
