Calvary Christian suspends varsity football program
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Calvary Christian suspends varsity football program
Rick O'Brien
The Calvary Christian football squad shined at the Class A level in the last three seasons. The bid to achieve similar success in 2012 has ended.
Citing the team’s overall inexperience and lack of size, especially up front, school administrators have canceled the varsity season.
“We were worried about the safety of our student athletes,” Calvary Christian athletic director Michael Cardinal said. “It’s disappointing, but it’s something we felt we needed to do.”
The Cougars forfeited Friday night’s scheduled opener at Kutztown, a Class AA program. It had notified the District 3 school about a week in advance that it would not be playing.
“We are dropping down to a JV program this year,” Cardinal said. “We came to that decision over the weekend.”
At last count, Calvary Christian had 26 varsity players. Last year’s team had between 27 and 30.
“The number isn’t the issue,” Cardinal said. “It’s more the makeup of the team. We were so small and inexperienced. A lot of the kids were freshmen and sophomores, and some of them had never played organized football before.”
Cardinal said the Northeast Philadelphia school has an enrollment of about 320 students (boys and girls) in grades 9-12. It had only six seniors on the varsity. That’s half of last year’s total.
The Cougars, who began playing varsity football in 1999, are scheduled to host Bicentennial Athletic League rival member Bristol in a JV contest at 3:30 p.m. Friday. Bristol’s varsity, like all other scheduled opponents, will be awarded a forfeit victory.
Will Calvary Christian’s seniors be able to suit up?
“In our league, we don’t have a rule that seniors can’t play JV ball,” Cardinal said. “We’ll leave that up to the schools we play. Just as we were concerned about our kids’ safety, we don’t want to put other teams at risk.”
