• Introduction and Vision

     

    Scotch Plains-Fanwood High School has an incredibly rich tradition of individual and team success in athletics.  Currently, we offer twenty-eight different sports (including Cheerleading) with most participating at a varsity and junior varsity level.  Freshmen level sports are offered for boys' and girls' soccer, football, boys' and girls' basketball, baseball, and softball, girls' and boys' lacrosse, and girls' and boys' volleyball.   Athletics has been able to flourish due to a strong relationship and even stronger partnership among the athletes, coaches, administration, parents, and the community. We all share the commonly held belief that the authentic experiences offered by athletic competition will be an extension of classroom learning. Moreover, we all believe that our positive character will is displayed through the adversity of athletics.

    We continue to have strong support for the athletic programs at Scotch Plains-Fanwood High School. We have nearly nine hundred athletes in our sports program and are consistently encouraging more students to be a part of a team by becoming team managers or statisticians. We also encourage teachers who are not coaching to attend contests and become involved in the support system for athletics.  Our continued goal is to have a strong presence of academics in athletics encouraging coaches to have academic progress reports and policies for additional academic help. We want our students to understand that success in athletics and academics is a life-long experience and lesson.

    Scotch Plains-Fanwood High School is a member of the New Jersey State Interscholastic Athletic Association (NJSIAA). We are also a part of the Union County Interscholastic Athletic Conference, and Union County Conference. Each of the aforementioned groups as well as our Board of Education and Scotch Plains-Fanwood High School create the policies, rules, and regulations for athletics. The rules and regulations of our athletic contests are governed by the NJSIAA and National Federation of High School Sports and often differ from collegiate or professional sports. All of the organizations that we are a part of stress the fundamentals of fair play and strong sportsmanship. We ask all of our spectators to let the athletes play, the coaches coach, and the officials officiate.

    Vision

    The primary vision for the Athletic Department of Scotch Plains-Fanwood High School is to involve the entire community in the success of the programs. The Recreation, PAL, and YMCA programs are a wonderful launch point for athletics and offer many of the sports that are offered by the High School. These programs are an athlete and parent’s first encounter with athletics, and we are hopeful that these programs will continue to stress a high level of involvement from the town. Moreover, we are proud of the valuable lessons offered by these “Little League” programs through their well-trained coaches and focus on sportsmanship. Scotch Plains-Fanwood High School’s athletics will flourish with strong participation and coaching at the Recreation, PAL, and YMCA levels.

    We welcome the community to be a part of the athletic tradition at Scotch Plains-Fanwood High School. Whether a parent of an athlete, a fan of a sport, a teacher, or a student at the school, we hope that you will be a presence for supporting the athletic program of Scotch Plains-Fanwood High School. One cannot put a value on the “Super Fan” who is cheering for the Raiders during a game. Cheering for our team, not against another, displays our commitment to sportstmanship and proves to our athletes that we recognize their efforts in preparing to compete for Scotch Plains-Fanwood High School.

    In addition to involving the entire community in athletics, Scotch Plains-Fanwood High School is committed to using athletics as an extension of the classroom and a venue to inspire learning. Athletes have to overcome adversity throughout the practices and contests of a given season. Learning how to overcome adversity is a significant learning process and will improve the athlete’s academic success. Most research points to student athletes as having successful careers and academic success in college and beyond. Our vision for athletics includes the need to stress the learning process of the contest over the value of winning and losing.

    High School coaches will encourage our athletes to participate in multiple sports throughout their time at Scotch Plains-Fanwood High School.  Research points to a dramatic need for young adults to continue to participate in a variety of activities as they grow and develop.  Multi-sport athletes will have the opportunity to compete with a variety of differnt athletes and be led by different adults.  Moreover, single sport athletes have a higher rate of sport burn out and overuse injuries.  In short, while specialization may be promoted by club sports coaches, the High School Athletic department will continue to value student athletes competing in different sports.

    In closing, no coach, athlete, or Athletic Program competes without a willingness to win. The desire to win is inherent in competition. However, Scotch Plains-Fanwood High School Athletics places the values of respect, sportsmanship, self-discipline, and learning over the value of winning. Scotch Plains-Fanwood High School believes that winning will take care of itself when our values are in the correct order. Winning at the cost of our values, health, and safety is never accepted. When we compete to the best of our ability, display strong morals, and have pride in our town and programs, we win, regardless of the judged outcome of a contest.

    You Can’t Hide That Raider Pride!!!!

    Go Raiders!