Jericho cancels remainder of varsity football season due to player injuries, safety concerns
Jericho became the third district to have its varsity football season impacted due to issues with fielding a team.
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The Jericho School District said it is canceling the remainder of its varsity football season, becoming the third program on Long Island to either alter or shut down for the year due to player availability.
Jericho Superintendent of Schools Robert Kravitz said several players were injured during the early part of the season, leaving the school unable to safely field a team.
"When we had the injuries, we didn't have enough kids to make sure there's a safe game every week," he said.
The team forfeited its first game of the year before losing the next two and will now forfeit the remaining games on the schedule.
They were set to play Sanford H. Calhoun High School in Merrick this Saturday.
"This decision was not made easily," Kravitz said.
Kravitz said the school held its homecoming and senior night and thanked all the students who have contributed to the team over the last few years.
Freshmen varsity players Garrett Duffalo and Nishant Pandit expressed sadness over the decision but said they understood why the district made the decision.
"Jericho is not just academics," Pandit said. "We're tough, we'd like to play football, and it would just mean everything to go back on that field."
"I'm upset; I love football," Duffalo added. "I've had fun all these years playing middle school, just running around with my friends and learning a lot from my coaches."
Jericho has had problems keeping its varsity program afloat.
Two other programs on the island have made similarly difficult choices.
Last month, Amityville said it would only field a junior varsity team after injuries left the varsity roster without enough players.
Port Jefferson initially canceled its varsity season before the state Education Department stepped in and said the varsity team could merge with Rocky Point, and the joint team would be eligible for the postseason after Port Jeff said it didn't have enough players to field a team.
Holy Trinity High School in Hicksville also canceled its season over the summer after its head coach suddenly resigned.
Kravitz wouldn't put a timeline on when the varsity program could return, but said the district was looking into ways to prevent this from happening again in the future.
"Just ready to get back out there next year," Duffalo said.
