By Borislava Panayotova and Tamsin Hurlbut
Injuries and a small number of players forced Tempe Prep to cancel its football season.
They had “three games left,” junior Austin Sampson said, when they had to forfeit the remainder.
“It’s really frustrating,” adds senior Dio Bargensi, who had a “rough” senior season.
The TPA team has been small the past few seasons, playing eight-man football vs. 11. This is because we usually have had about 20 students participate in the team. This year the football team started out with 18 players, with the number growing smaller over the course of the season.
“People just stopped showing up,” says Dio. “Yeah, and they got injured,” said Austin, who injured his arm this year, as well.
“We averaged two players getting injured a game, sometimes severely,” Athletic Director Rafik Henderson says. Multiple players got concussions this year and several broken or fractured bones.
Before the cancellation, two games had to be forfeited due to the team not having enough healthy players out on the field. “After the second time the decision (to end the season) was just made for the safety of the students,” Dr. Porter said.
Football is a contact sport, making it much easier to get injured while playing. The way to minimize injuries is to condition more physically, which is what our weight room is for. Dr. Porter said, “That’s the way to try and overcome this, is to get more of the athletes in the weight room preparing for their season.”
He said that getting the athletes into the weight room gives them “the best chance of avoiding injuries during the season.”
The tough part of getting everyone into conditioning is the scheduling conflicts. Each player has their own activities and schedules that make coordinating a right time for conditioning difficult to find.
There are still plans to continue offering football next year. Mr. Henderson says that we will continue having a football program in the future because “it is a fundamental part of our community. It holds us together, the Friday night lights games. It is a way to have TPA spirit, to gather and see each other face to face.”
Dr. Porter also adds, “The plan and the thought going forward is that we will still have a … football team. This year’s cancellation doesn’t have any … indication that we are done with football. It was a season decision, not a sport decision.”