A Case of Ridiculous Heads for the U.S. Supreme Court

Denny D ’Andrea shares many of my philosophies and opinions when it comes to youth and high school sports.  A retired teacher and longtime wrestling coach and contributor like many he could write a book on everything from overbearing parents to educators who simply don’t get it. 

He also knows the kind of stories that raise my blood pressure so he left me a voice mail and suggested I read Steve Politi’s column on NJ.com about what’s going on at North Bergen High School. I did and have come to this conclusion: anyone who has a vested interest in that school should be horrified and ashamed over the actions of their Board of Education. 

Earlier this week the New Jersey State Supreme Court turned down the school board’s petition to hear its case dealing with the football team having its 2011 state championship taken away for using two players who were illegally recruited.  The fact that the Board of Education went even that far was outrageous but to them the ruling appears to be nothing more than a 5-yard penalty as they are now planning to take the case all the way to the United States Supreme Court.  Simply put, you can’t make this up.

The Reader’s Digest version of this story goes like this.  North Bergen upset Montclair in December of 2011 to win a state title but shortly after that the Star-Ledger ran a very well-done piece of investigative journalism that clearly proved the champions illegally recruited two players who actually lived in a home owned by then head coach Vincent Ascolese, who has since died. It did not take the New Jersey Interscholastic Athletic Association long to strip the title from North Bergen which instead of being embarrassed for their actions decided to fight the ruling.

The school board sought relief from the New Jersey education commissioner which they did not get.  Then the matter was brought to a state appeals court who not only ruled against them in April but in its written decision chastised the actions of the late coach for cheating his own team as well as Montclair. 

You would have thought that would close the matter but it was onto the New Jersey Supreme Court who this week said they would not even hear the case.  Despite having all these penalty flags thrown against him the lawyer representing the board said he will file a petition to the U.S. Supreme Court and he expects to prevail.  

By the way legal costs are mounting and will continue to climb and one really wonders about the priorities in North Bergen and how the public is allowing this to happen.  It’s another example of how adults can ruin a game played by kids.