Camden County prosecutors should have taken a back seat in a probe of whether Timber Creek High School's football team included ringers from other districts.
Every time the New Jersey State Interscholastic Athletic Association (NJSIAA) proposes a change to district residency rules, it brings on column upon column of pro-and-con sports page analysis. For people with just a passing interest, it makes their heads spin.
So, for purposes of this editorial, let's leave the rule-setting to the experts.
However, a residency decision announced right before this weekend's high school football games causes some general concern, not because of what was decided, but because of who decided it.
The Camden County Prosecutor's Office said in a statement that it found no evidence that coaches at Timber Creek High School in the Black Horse Regional School District had conspired to put ineligible players on the field. The upshot was, no sanctions against the coaches or the team. Its tilt with Delsea (54-28, Timber Creek) went on as scheduled.
The prosecutor's office did find, however, some "discrepancies in transfer documents" that presumably brought players to playoff caliber Timber Creek from elsewhere. Prosecutors said they'll turn the findings over to the NJSIAA -- which could still impose game forfeitures or other penalties.
Why did this investigation start at the prosecutor's office rather than at the NJSIAA? The probe reportedly took several months.
The prosecutors had received an anonymous 13-page letter from a group called S.T.O.P., an acronym for Stop Taking Our Players. The same letter went to the NJSIAA, Gloucester Township officials and members of the press.
Does the Camden County Prosecutor's Office have the time, money and personnel to peruse inter-school transfer papers and find out where students sleep at night? If so, it ought to assure relatives of all 31 victims of Camden City homicides so far this year that it has been working just as diligently on their behalf.
The prosecutor's statement on Timber Creek made clear that there was no "criminal" conduct by the coaches, but why was this even assumed to have been a criminal matter? Any tip from a group called Stop Taking Our Players obviously came from those connected with competing teams. Since this is about fair play according to NJSIAA rules, shouldn't that organization have been the first place to check the allegations? Lord knows, it seems to have enough revenue to police itself.
Of course, if NJSIAA investigators had uncovered any potential criminal activity, they should have alerted prosecutors.
Certainly, families of students who attend school in districts where they don't pay taxes or tuition get a financial benefit they don't deserve. But districts plagued with repeated "transfers-in" of ineligible students -- for educational quality reasons, as opposed to sports supremacy ones -- usually have to invest in their own probes. County prosecutors' offices don't normally swoop in to help out.
Timber Creek is nothing more than one of those "Johnny-moved-in-with-his-uncle" to be on the team incidents, perhaps writ large. The NJSIAA should take a hard look, but that should have occurred before prosecutors intervened. There's more than enough serious crime out there to keep them busy.
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