East Hampton High School Football Cancels 2017 Season

East Hampton High School is not going to field a football team. I’ve always enjoyed going down to the field at the high school on Saturday afternoons in the fall to watch games over the years. But I won’t be going this year.

The reason? Every year, Suffolk County decides before the season begins which teams will play which other teams. They don’t have a school with 600 students play against a school with 3,000, and that makes sense. East Hampton had been moved up to a division for larger schools.

Last winter, the school petitioned the county to re-evaluate. It was true that a spike in enrollment had put the school population into a division with powerhouse teams for the coming year, so the school asked that they be put back. They said that if the county agreed to the return to the prior division, East Hampton would bow out of the playoffs if they should be successful. The request was denied.

RELATED: East Hampton Bonackers Drop Varsity Football in 2014

Why was East Hampton having trouble? Seems more of the kids at this point would rather play soccer. Perhaps with the losses from last year, many kids, or many of their parents, felt they didn’t want to go through that experience again. Also, football is dangerous.

At regular varsity practices, only 14 kids showed up. You need to have 16 to field a team. Though 9 kids showed up for JV practices, it was not enough.

The season is canceled.