The New Jersey State Interscholastic Athletic Association is a group of dedicated, caring educators. Their main goal is to be fair. Many of you might not have that image of the NJSIAA because almost everything written about them is negative. Newspapers only write about the organization when a difficult, controversial decision has been made, and then generally only to criticize.

All of this criticism has made some in the NJSIAA a little defensive. They are very careful about what they say and tend to interpret rules and regulations to the letter. Occassionally, that leads to a situation that is unfair to an innocent athlete.

The disqualification of a Woodrow Wilson runner from the Group 3 meet in Buena Friday night was a prime example. She was not allowed to run because she could not remove all of the bobby pins from her hair in time for the race to begin. And the appeal to add her to the field for the state meet was dismissed because it was filed on Tuesday, rather than Sunday. No allowance was made for the holiday weekend.

See what you think as you read Phil Anastasia's story in the Courier-Post.