Rockland Schools Remaining in Section 1, Keeping Options Open

When Rockland County's Athletic Directors began looking into the possibility of leaving Section 1 for Section 9, the plan was to stick together and only make a move if they all agreed to it.

In large part because they could not reach a consensus, Rockland County's high school sports teams will be staying with Section 1 for now. 

"The talk was for 2014-15, anyway, not sooner than that," Tappan Zee Athletic Director Liam Frawley said. "That's on the shelf. We left it in a fashion with Section 9 that we can revisit it if the adjustments Section 1 makes do not work for us.

"Both the people who wanted to go and those who didn't want to go had good points. We agreed that it would be all or nothing that made sense. We couldn't get a consensus on it. We had agreed that if there was not a consensus, we would not make the move."

Two other Rockland athletic directors, Todd Santabarbara of Pearl River and Joe Sigillo of Nyack, indicated that the matter wasn't 100 percent closed, but the group is leaning heavily toward staying put for now. The Rockland ADs not officially told Section 9 they would not be moving and the deadline to make a decision for 2014-15 is this November, but Frawley said that conversation is coming. 

Word got out that the move was being considered as they were still gathering information. Frawley said speaking with state officials about the potential impact on traffic and tolls of the building of the new Tappan Zee Bridge helped ease some concerns. That is a key issue with most of Section 1 in Westchester County.

"(At Tappan Zee), we were interested in maknig the move, but the presentations on the bridge help put our minds at ease," Frawley said.

Another consideration is the possible realignment of Section 1 for the 2014-15 school year. The primary change would be going from four conferences to three in most sports, putting some Westchester schools in with Rockland. Sigillo said the hope is that would make it easier to schedule crossover games. One issue Rockland athletic directors have had to deal with in Section 1 is trouble getting Westchester teams on their non-league schedules.

"Some of the schools leaning toward staying felt we need to give Section 1 the opportunity to make some adjustments to help us out," Frawley said.

There would be no such realignment in football. The alignment plan set when a group of schools including Pearl River and Tappan Zee returned to Section 1 before the 2011 season was supposed to stay in place for at least five years, which would mean any major shift is at least four years away.

Sigillo said he still has some interest in the move. 

"For me personally for Nyack, I'm intrigued with the idea of going to Section 9," Sigillo said. "We will continue to look to see if it is an option."