Southampton Football Forfeits Its Final Game of the Season, Future of Program Remains Uncertain

For the second straight week, the Southampton football team had no choice but to forfeit a game due to not having enough players. This time, it came when the Mariners were supposed to honor their own seniors in their eighth and final game of the season on their home turf against Center Moriches on Friday night.

Southampton forfeited a game the week prior on October 25 at Shoreham-Wading River due to the same reasons, a night in which the Wildcats had their Senior Night and other festivities planned. But Southampton Athletic Director Darren Phillips had indicated that he would not let the situation lag on this week, and he stayed true to his word.

After rumors were swirling that the Mariners would not be allowed to host in the season finale, Phillips confirmed with Section XI Executive Director Tom Combs that as long as the team had the minimum number of players for the game, which is 16, they could play. The plan was to see how many players would show up to practice on Monday and Tuesday, Phillips said, and go from there.

Phillips said he didn’t see any more than 11 players attend practice either day, and with that made the decision to give Center Moriches Athletic Director Jeremy Thode the heads up that he would be canceling the game.

“There just wasn’t enough of a commitment from our players to finish out the season,” Phillips said. “It’s a shame, because the kids that were at practice those two days have basically been there since day one. They really love football and a handful of them were seniors that we were not able to honor.

“But based on what happened the previous week, based on the outcome of Monday’s and Tuesday’s practices, I had to make the decision to cancel the game,” he added.

Phillips said he will now regroup with head coach Franklin Trent, and at some point with the players who are expected back and the community at large, to see where the program goes from here. It’s certainly at a crossroads, and it could go down numerous avenues in the offseason. Phillips said everything is on the table.

One option is to keep going with traditional 11-man football, which has proved to be difficult. Another option, Phillips said, is to go back to just a junior varsity team next season and build the program back up.

A third option is something that Phillips has been pining for, for years now, which is 8-man football. It’s more or less the same game as traditional football with just three fewer players. What that translates into on the field is much more space, since it’s played on the same field dimensions, resulting in a much more wide open game, and therefore typically more scoring. Think ice hockey when the game is played 3 v. 3. As Phillips has noted, though, that may not cure all ills for Southampton, since it would still require a minimum number of players.

Another option is to combine with neighboring school districts, such as East Hampton or Hampton Bays, and Phillips said he was asked by one East End AD if he’d be interesting in possibly combining with North Fork schools to create one large East End football team. Another option is creating a similar team to that of the South Fork Islanders boys lacrosse teams that combined with schools as far west as Hampton Bays and as far east as East Hampton.

Part of the issue there is that both East Hampton and Hampton Bays are coming off rather successful seasons and they may not be interested in combining. East Hampton went 5-3 in Division III and qualified for the postseason for the first time in 11 years, and has a solid class of players returning next season. Hampton Bays went 3-5 in Division IV in its first season back on varsity in two years.

What Phillips still has to pinpoint, though, and try to make sure never happens again, is the exodus of players who left the program in the middle of the season, which led to the issues.

“I don’t know what to think. I don’t know if the kids were just done and figured since we forfeited the last game that there wasn’t going to be another game so they were just checked out,” he explained. “I was hoping that the players who were not there the previous week would see the situation for what it is, come back and be selfless for their teammates and play one more time for the seniors.”

Phillips said the reality is Southampton has struggled with numbers for the better part of two decades. Even when it won a county championship in 2005, the team was hovering around 20 players. But those were staunch football players, Phillips noted, and extremely committed to the team.

“It’s hard for small schools to have 30 to 35 kids at the high school level and I think there are programs that are realizing this now,” he said. “Maybe it’s just kids aren’t interested in football. We have built up our flag football program to 60 kids and hopefully those kids will continue to play. But even numbers at the middle school level are barely there to field a team. It’s hard to figure out.”

The disappointing part about all of it, Phillips said, is that Southampton did have a long history of successful football teams pre-2005. If it’s ever to get back to it, and how exactly it’s going to look, is very much up in the air as the offseason is now here.

“We have to look at everything,” Phillips said. “We have to look at ourselves as coaches, the AD, everyone plays a role in this, to get back to fielding a team. It’s going to be an uphill battle.”