By TOM WILLIAMS
There have been some complaints about how the West Jersey Football League (WJFL) aligns its divisions.
Basically, teams are grouped according to their success over the past few seasons. The Cape-Atlantic League (CAL) uses a similar plan in most of its sports. The problem is, in many cases the athletes who were responsible for the success in previous seasons have graduated. And some fortunes have changed.
When the CAL schools first joined the WJFL they were mostly grouped together in divisions. But, as seasons have passed, that isn’t happening that much. The last two years, there were two CAL teams in the American Division, two in the Continental, three in the Independence, one in the Memorial, two in the Patriot, one in the Royal and six in the United – the only division made up of all CAL teams. (And, by the way, a CAL team will win five of those seven divisions this year – as they did last year.)
The attraction of the WJFL was that there were so many teams that it is easier to find equal division opponents and crossover games. But, in reality, as one sports media legend said, the WJFL has been good for the very good programs and for the programs that struggle a bit – but they haven’t helped the many, many programs in between very much.
With that in mind, a couple of ADs have wondered about bringing together 10 CAL schools into a football league of their own to improve consistency and stimulate rivalries.
For example, the new Atlantic-Cape Football League (ACFL) divisions (aligned by enrollment) could look like this ….
Each team would play the other four teams in its division to decide a champion. They would also cross over against the five teams in the other division to complete their nine-game schedule.
Now remember, this is just a discussion. Do not assume that the 10 teams we used as an example are all interested. Maybe Middle Township and Lower Cape May could be involved. Or Hammonton and St, Joseph. Or maybe there aren’t 10 CAL schools interested at all.
But the idea is to keep the rivalries – some developed over many decades – alive. And this would really have little impact on the NJSIAA power ratings that so many worry about.
It’s just an idea being discussed informally by a few.
What do you think?
Tom Williams Sports 
If this idea originated by the OCHS and/or previous PHS AD’s I would be suspicious of the motives. The article claims one of the purposes of creating this new league would be to keep long standing rivalries (traditional games) in tact. However, it seems (for the almighty dollar…or perhaps for some yet to be learned nefarious reason) the 100 year tradition of the PHS vs OCHS Thanksgiving Day game was ended by the ADs of both schools after the 2022 game. One of the excuses was the new State playoff system, which continues into December. However, that BS argument does not hold water. The only State champion in our region (Millville High School) played in their long standing Thanksgiving Day game (their rivalry game is even older then the PHS vs OCHS tradition).
Also, there are now coaches (at least on the PHS side) that have no appreciation for this traditional rivalry game (I will keep my powder dry…for now, regarding my observations regarding the new, extremely young head coach for PHS).
Long story short, a return to the CAL league would be great for local football rivalries. However, the devil’s in the details, and the motives of those recommending same may be suspect at best.
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