Last Friday Asbury Park Superintendent Rashawn Adams announced the varsity football team, the Blue Bishops, would forfeit their first game against a Newark high school, scheduled that day, because too many players were deemed ineligible. Now the whole season is in doubt, given academic eligibility rules and district policy.

Apparently Adams just figured this out, although player eligibility, according to the New Jersey State Interscholastic Athletic Association (NJSIAA), is based on how many course credits students receive over their high school careers and whether they show up for school. Also affected are cheerleaders for the Blue Bishops. Now teachers, parents, and students are furious, with a protest planned now (9 am).

So what’s really going on?

Academic eligibility rules, set by NJSIAA, says that in order to be eligible to play during a first semester (September-January), players need to pass their courses and accumulate credits needed for high school graduation. This should be a low bar because Asbury Park uses a system implemented by former Superintendent Lamont Repollet called the “64 Floor,” which bars teachers from giving failing grades to students.

More likely, the cause for ineligibility stems from chronic absenteeism. Indeed the State Department of Education database says that in 2020-2021 (the most recent data) an astonishing 59.8% of Asbury Park High School students were chronically absent, which means not appearing in class more than 10% of the time. Sure, some of those school days were remote instruction. Yet in school year 2018-2019, pre-COVID, 51% of Asbury Park High School seniors were chronically absent, almost three times the state average, and 9th-11th graders were chronically absent, on average, 34% of the time.

Sources say eligibility decisions are made by the high school principal, not the Athletic Director. That would be Bridget O’Neill, who replaced former principal Kathy Baumgartner in July as principal of the high school.

Updates to follow.