Jericho High School on Long Island cancels varsity football season after injuries

Jericho High School has canceled the remainder of its varsity football season three games in after injuries left the team without enough healthy players to safely continue.

It is the fourth Long Island school to cancel its varsity football season this year. Amityville, Port Jefferson and Holy Trinity have also canceled their seasons.

Jericho’s decision came after players were injured during a Friday night game, according to Superintendent Dr. Robert Kravitz.

“Some of our senior students got hurt. Because of that, we don’t want to risk the safety of our younger students, putting them up against bigger students from other schools, so we decided to cancel the season this year,” Kravitz said.

Head varsity football coach Brendan Lahti said the team had “multiple players that had season-ending injuries.”

According to Kravitz, about six seniors who were ready to play remained on the team, while most of the other players were underclassmen.

The cancellation comes after players spent months preparing for the season.

“I’m upset. I love playing football. I played it throughout my middle school career,” ninth grader Garrett Duffalo said.

“All summer we were doing conditioning because we all knew we weren’t the biggest team, so we were going to go out there and fight for the four quarters we could,” Duffalo said.

Another ninth grader, Nishant Pandit, said he was disappointed but understood the decision.

“I’m really upset because I wanted to play football this year, but in the end it’s for the best because we didn’t want the seniors hurt,” Pandit said.

“I would love to have a lot more people out here that can play, but we have a limited number and with most of our seniors and a junior out we just couldn’t take on other schools,” he said.

Patrick Pizzarelli, executive director of Section VIII, said schools struggling to field teams may need to examine interest in their communities and consider alternatives.

“The schools that are having trouble filling teams, I think they have to do a deep dive into their community and see if it is what the students really want. And if it’s only a few interested, they can combine with another school possibly,” Pizzarelli said.

In New York state, a team needs a minimum of 16 suited players and 11 players on the field during a game.

Jericho officials said they want students to have the opportunity to play football in the future and are exploring their options.

“We don’t want the Jayhawks to fly away, we want to keep our Jayhawk players here and that is the goal,” Kravitz said.

Duffalo said he hopes to return to the field.

“I want to keep playing, I love it.”

Of the four Long Island schools that canceled varsity football this year, three, including Jericho, did so because of player availability.

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