If it seems like things are changing every week with the planned realignment of high school athletics in North Jersey, that's because they are.

Over a week ago, the NJSIAA's Executive Committee voted to put the plan into effect, but gave Bergen and Passaic Counties an extra year.  The following days saw a frenetic swirl of activity which has altered the impact of the plan on the schools in the Jersey Sports Now region.  Here's a summary of the changes:

MORRIS COUNTY:

Give the athletic directors in the Morris and Sussex County area credit:  they've taken what the NJSIAA gave them and run with it.  Rather than fret and ask for delays, these AD's are already laying the groundwork for their new sports conference.  In fact, they've already altered the proposed divisions twice, the latest revision coming at a meeting this past week.

This newest alignment is very good news for one local school.  The first revision had dumped Montville in Division A with four Sussex County schools plus two in western Morris.  The Mustangs were staring at untold hours on buses to play teams with whom they had no natural rivalry.  But the new plan changes that.  Now Montville will be in Division B with six other Morris County schools, some still a good distance away, but others nearby, like Parsippany Hills and Morristown.

The reshuffling meant only minor changes for the other JSN schools in Morris County.  Butler, Kinnelon, Mountain Lakes and Boonton remain in Division E, which was barely changed, losing only all-girls school Villa Walsh.  Villa Walsh moves over to Division D, which was otherwise untouched and includes local school Pequannock.  As discussed here previously, this division is not necessarily ideal for the Panthers, but should prove workable.

PASSAIC COUNTY:

A flurry of activity since the adoption of the realignment plan has left five JSN-area schools with even more questions than before.  The schools--Wayne Valley, DePaul, Lakeland, West Milford and Passaic Valley--still have no viable sports conference for next year after a bid to create a new league ran into a major roadblock.

The five listed schools along with Passaic Tech are the only members of the Northern Hills Conference who won't be joining a new conference next year.  Because of the delay in the Bergen/Passaic region, that sextet of schools face a huge problem for 2009-10 in terms of scheduling.

In part because of that issue, and general dissatisfaction with the realignment plan, officials from 11 schools met last week to discuss forming a new Passaic County Interscholastic League.  The conference would include the NHC schools plus Wayne Hills, Clifton, Passaic and the Paterson schools.  The proposal would have put the league into effect next year.  After that, the schools would stay in the PCIL rather than join one of the new super-conferences created by the NJSIAA.

Because it includes urban schools and one private institution (DePaul), the proposed PCIL could hardly be deemed exclusionary.  But some see the idea as mainly a way for the Passaic County schools to avoid the Catholic school sports powers of Bergen County.  Those skeptics do have some good reasons for their claim:  for one, the urban schools of Passaic County are expected to join a division with super-power Don Bosco and dominant girls' school Immaculate Heart Academy under the realignment plan.

But the PCIL will have to wait.  The NJSIAA ruled late last week that the current conferences that include Passaic and Bergen Counties, even the decimated Northern Hills, will still exist next year.  That means schools would need permission to leave, and the urban schools will never get that permission from the Northern New Jersey Interscholastic League (NNJIL).  But at least those schools know they will have a schedule for next year.

The left-over Northern Hills schools, meantime, are back where they started.  The six schools almost certainly need to find another conference willing to work with them to help fill out their schedules.  But the only known offer so far is from the aforementioned NNJIL, which would mean playing games against the likes of Don Bosco, Bergen Catholic and the largest public schools in Bergen County.  The executive director of the NJSIAA also says the association will help if needed.

Some say the solution is for Passaic and Bergen to start their new sports conferences next year, as the other areas will do.  But the clock is ticking, and each passing week makes a solution more and more difficult. -- Paul Mencher for Jersey Sports Now