New NJSIAA classifications move several GMC, Somerset schools to new sections in ’24-’25

The new NJSIAA classifications are out for the 2024-25 and 2025-26 school years for high school basketball, and there are a number of Central Jersey Sports Radio coverage area teams affected.

In all, 13 boys’ teams and ten girls’ teams will find new homes for the next two years. Six boys’ squads will be in a new group, while only two girls’ teams will change groups.

Seven of the teams are mirrored on the boys’ and girls’ side.

Edison, Franklin and Hillsborough all stay within Group 4, but move from North 2 to Central. And Carteret, JFK, Somerville and South Plainfield all stay in Group 3, but move from Central to North 2.

After that, there are some differences.

The Bound Brook, East Brunswick Magnet, Middlesex and Piscataway Magnet boys’ teams will move from Central Jersey Group 2 to Group 1. That would put them in the section dominated last year by College Achieve Asbury Park, except the school pulled out of the NJSIAA back in May, as reported by NJ Advance Media, and opted not to renew its membership. They will not be eligible to participate in the state tournament, and head coach Dave Boff told NJ Advance they will play an independent schedule.

On the non-public boys’ side, Rutgers Prep moves from South A to South B, with smaller schools, while St. Thomas Aquinas – led by first-year head coach Austin Whitehurst – will move from North B to South A with the bigger schools.

On the girls’ side, only Bound Brook is making the move down to Central 1 from Central 2, while East Brunswick Magnet, Middlesex and Piscataway Magnet will stay put, unlike the boys.

In the non-publics, the Pingry girls will move from South A to North B with the smaller schools, while Wardlaw-Hartridge stays in Group B, but moves from North to South.