College Achieve Asbury Park’s meteoric takeover of New Jersey high school basketball has come to an abrupt end.
School officials from the controversial, first-year charter school program informed the state’s governing body for high school sports that it will not be renewing its membership with the New Jersey State Interscholastic Athletic Association for the 2024-25 school year.
NJSIAA Executive Director Colleen Maguire confirmed the decision late Wednesday night, adding that College Achieve did not provide a reason for leaving the association.
The decision means College Achieve will not be eligible to participate in NJSIAA postseason tournaments or compete for region or state championships. The school still plans to field a team and play an independent schedule moving forward, College Achieve coach Dave Boff said Wednesday night.
College Achieve fielded a varsity basketball team for the first time this season and took the state by storm, going 22-7 and winning the Group 1 state championship. But its miraculous success was overshadowed by accusations the team was unfairly built.
An NJ Advance Media investigation found that College Achieve utilized a loophole that allows for students to attend a charter school outside the town in which they live if the charter school has open seats not taken by students in its district of residence. So instead of a fielding a team of players from one defined geographic area like most public schools, College Achieve featured a virtual all-star squad of 11 elite transfers from across New Jersey.
Over six postseason games, College Achieve destroyed its small-school opponents by an average of 39 points per game, prompting the state athletic association and even lawmakers to propose an overhaul of state rules and regulations.
“The competitive imbalance in this year’s Group 1 state tournament was nothing we wanted or planned on happening,” Boff said Wednesday night. “During recent discussions, its become clear that the best decision for all of the students involved at our school and in other Group 1 schools is for us to leave the NJSIAA for a period of time and remove that competitive imbalance.”
Boff, who previously built Roselle Catholic into a national powerhouse, hinted after his team’s state championship victory that his team would explore all future options moving forward.
“I think everybody involved sees what happened here and sees that there probably have to be some changes in how things are classified,” Boff said in March. “We need to do something to get things back on a level playing field where everybody feels like they have an opportunity to win a sectional championship.”
Following the season, a second NJ Advance Media investigation into the College Achieve network found it had been accused of nepotism and paying its executives what have been described as “astonishing” salaries.
Also Wednesday, State Sen. Vin Gopal, D-Monmouth, who serves as chairman of the Senate Education Committee, called for a formal investigation into College Achieve in a letter sent to acting state Education Commissioner Kevin Dehmer.
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Matthew Stanmyre may be reached atmstanmyre@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on X @MattStanmyre. FindNJ.comon Facebook.
