It’s about this time of year when a number of New Jersey teams play in-season FA Cup-style single elimination tournaments to earn regional honors in preparation for state tournaments.
A number of these are county-based, as Union, Essex, Mercer, Somerset, Union, Bergen, and Somerset have their own tournament, and then there is the combined Hunterdon-Warren-Sussex tourney that goes all the way from the edge of the capital region all the way up to the top of the state.
In addition, there are some conference tournaments, such as the Greater Middlesex County and the Shore Conference Tournaments.
There is, however, a new entrant in the mid-season tournament wars this season, and that’s the Cape Atlantic League Tournament. The CAL tournament is a six-team bracket, with four teams playing into a bracket with two top seeds, Hammonton St. Joseph’s Academy (N.J.) and Newfield Our Lady of Mercy (N.J.), awaiting the winners.
I expect that this could be a good and competitive championship with some more participation out of the members of the conference; only six of the 17 teams in the CAL played in this year’s tournament.
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