Annual Thanksgiving football game could be Wednesday night

NEW PROVIDENCE, NJ – Each year for about 20 years, Pioneers and Highlanders compete on the grill on Thanksgiving Day. This could change this year.

Schools superintendent David Miceli introduced the issue during the "New Business" portion of the February 27 school board meeting. Sporting director Vincent Carangelo was unable to attend the meeting, but provided a detailed note to all council members on the pros and cons of the Thanksgiving match.

Miceli said he, Carangelo and high school principal Lauren Zirpoli met their Berkeley Heights counterparts to talk about the annual event that draws parents, community members and alumni from two cities.

The continuation of the tradition poses three main problems. The first is that holding the game on Thanksgiving Day means that there are players, goalies, housekeeping staff and coaches at school from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. on holiday. "Even if the people who attend the game can leave when they want to, the people who work at the game cannot. We would like to find a way not to impact the holidays," said Miceli.

The second problem is that the NJSIAA seems to be considering a change in the playoff system, so there will be a true state champion. The changes needed to achieve this would extend the football season by at least a week, and perhaps two – one at the start of the season, the other at the end, said Miceli .

The third problem is old. The State Section Championships are played on the Saturday after Thanksgiving.

Miceli said: "For a number of years, we have been successful in the playoffs of this championship game." The problem was that there were "years when we lost players due to injuries in this (Thanksgiving) match and they could not play in the championship match," he said. He conceded that there were years when the Pioneers were "very successful and lucky" and made it through the Thanksgiving Day game and continued to be successful in the championship game ", but the last time it was 39; is produced was in 2010.

In 2020, New Providence, which has lights, is hosting the Thanksgiving match, and Miceli said he was in favor of the match taking place on Wednesday evening, the day before ; Thanksgiving, from 5 p.m. It always gives the community and the elders the opportunity to come to the match, for brass bands and cheerleaders, and it has no impact on the holidays, he said.

Berkeley Heights can decide if they want to rent lights in 2021, and have the game on Wednesday evening, or organize the game on Thanksgiving Day, he said.

Miceli said he sees these two years as an opportunity to try a new system, as schools are already stuck in their schedules for those years. In the third year, changes may be made by the NJSIAA.

If the state imposes a new structure, Miceli has offered to have the first official match of the season in "week zero", which would likely take place in August. They could call it the "Kickoff Classic" and include a lot of ceremony around it, he said.

On the positive side, Miceli said that if they met their Berkeley Heights rivals at the start of the season, they could accumulate points, which could prevent what happened recently, when the Pioneers had an undefeated season, but were ranked seventh or eighth, rather than first. or second.

Board member Adam Smith said he didn't think changing the game from Thursday to Wednesday was "such a big deal." He called the Thanksgiving game a "huge inconvenience for the staff." If we can give them that day off, I think it's a good idea. "

Other members of the board agreed.

The Berkeley Heights school board is expected to discuss the proposed change at a future board meeting.