‘One of the coolest things to ever happen to me.’ Elmont man talks winning Islanders jersey design contest

Bayonne Little League returns home as one of the six best teams in America

Bayonne defeats New England 2-1 in Little League World Series opener

Bayonne Little League team arrives in Williamsport as World Series excitement sweeps the city

NHL’s Brandon Bussi to bring Stanley Cup to Long Island next week

New program helps young women pursue dreams of playing college and professional basketball

newyork

News 12 Staff

93lifootballinterview_2026-09-03-07-20-28

We've been telling you this week 3 Long Island schools are canceling their varsity football season this year. 2 of those are in Suffolk County and represented by Section 11. And joining us now is Tom Combs. He's the head of Section 11, which is in charge of Suffolk Sports. Tom, thanks for the time this morning. This has surprised a lot of people. You think football, probably the most popular sport in America, and yet on Long Island, the numbers are dwindling. Teams are folding. Why is it happening? Well, first of all, good morning and thanks for having me on. Um, yeah, well, we have 52 schools in, in Suffolk County that play football right now, and, uh, two of them are having trouble. Um, this is a cyclical situation and, uh, unfortunately, Amityville and Port Jeff are, uh, dealing with the, uh, crunch, if you will, of, uh, not having enough, uh, student athletes to participate on a football program. Uh, New York State dictates that you have to have at least 16 players in order to have a team, and neither of these teams have that many individuals on their program right now, so. It's unfortunate, uh, but hopefully, uh, they'll be able to get together and work at it and, and in the future get more kids involved. We want to get to the specific issues in just one second, but you guys kind of shot down the idea of combining teams. Why can't that be done to keep these kids playing, um, the kids who do want to play? We heard from a senior who said, you know, I want to play in college, and now I don't have a team. Uh, they can combine. Uh, that's the whole thing. They, they, uh, there's some misinformation out there. They could have combined prior to our placement committee meeting, which occurred in February when we put everything together. Uh, all the football teams are seeded 1 through in Division 4 situation. We have 16 teams in Division 4. And what that does is it keeps the good teams away from the weaker programs, uh, so they would never play each other. So it, it's a recipe really for success. It allows, uh, it allows growth within a program and it it permits, uh, you know, the better teams from, you know, beating up on the weaker teams. So they could have done that prior. Uh, they also have the ability to do it at this time, but our rules state that after our placement committee meeting, Uh, and you combine with another program, those, the program is ineligible for playoffs. So Rocky Point offered, uh, Port Jeff to come over. However, when they found out that they would be ineligible for the playoffs, they denied the, uh, the merge at that point. Um, it's understandable. The JV programs, however, are merging and they started practice last night. The Port Jeff kids, there were 6 kids from Port Jeff that went over to Rocky Point. And they will be playing on their JV program, uh, starting now. So that's, that's a positive sign to get some, uh, some interest over there and hopefully from there they can build the program. Tom, are you concerned, uh, I know you say it's cyclical, but, um, we know about parents' concerns about the safety of their kids as it relates to football. Are you concerned this could be part of a larger trend moving forward? Well, it, uh, our numbers don't indicate that. Our numbers indicate that football is a growing sport. The last 3 or 4 years, our numbers have been higher. Uh, we don't have this year's numbers yet. We will at the end of September. We do a survey and we'll get those numbers, but, um, To my knowledge, uh, no other program, um, really is in jeopardy, uh, to this point. Uh, we always have a couple of, uh, smaller schools that don't have that many kids to draw from, and that's always been an issue. Uh, but then you'd look at Shore and Wading River. They had 30 kids on the, uh, varsity program only last year, and to date they have over 50 on the, uh, varsity as well as they will have a JV. So, you know, it, it's depends on where you are, depends on the program. Uh, the support from the administration, uh, all those things weigh into this. OK, Tom Combs, head of Section 11 for Suffolk County Sports, thanks so much for joining and talking through it with us today.

https://vod.prod.alticeustech.com/transcode/91fd0728-c6d7-4789-ac96-2984689feb54/91fd0728-c6d7-4789-ac96-2984689feb54.transcribe

Port Jefferson is among three schools who have cancelled the program. They cited a lack of players as their reason for the cancellation.

More Stories

More from News 12

Could the Atlantic have NO hurricanes for the first time on record?

Criminal mischief charge dismissed against Poughkeepsie activist Frankie Flowers; other charges remain

State Police investigating fatal crash in Unionville

Fire damages home in Pine Island

Molloy University makes Time Magazine’s best colleges in the nation list

Newark Airport prepares for heavy Labor Day weekend crowds

Ad Choices

Privacy Policy

Terms of Service

Privacy Manager