BLOOMSBURG – More turmoil surrounding high school football in the Valley. According to the District 4 Twitter page, the Bloomsburg High School football team will forfeit their first round district playoff game to Mount Carmel. District 4 officials say Bloomsburg is forfeiting due to not being able to field a team. In a statement, the Bloomsburg Area School District says due to ‘a bevy of injuries’ the team’s potential roster has been decimated to a maximum of 17 players able to compete. The district says having that small amount of players able to play would pose more security concerns. We have the district’s full statement below.
The game was scheduled for Friday night at Mount Carmel. Mount Carmel will now face the winner of Troy and Line Mountain in the District 4 Class 2A semifinals next week.
Bloomsburg full statement:
Internal Announcement
Our High School football team is scheduled to play against Mt. Carmel this coming Friday,
November 1st in the District IV Quarterfinals. Due to a bevy of injuries, Bloomsburg’s potential
roster has been decimated to a maximum of seventeen players able to compete in this game.
With this amount of injuries it is in the best interest of Bloomsburg’s student-athletes to forfeit
the contest to Mt. Carmel for reasons concerning their safety.
As of Tuesday morning, the 29th of October, we have available seventeen players. In reality, this
number could only drop. Football is, by nature, a physical sport, and it is our belief that we
cannot safely field a team to compete. We certainly regret the timing of this decision as we fully
intended to compete in the District IV playoffs if we qualified. Unfortunately, we lost seven
more players to injury last Friday night against Central Columbia. Only one of these players is
even questionable to play for this coming game. The other six have been fully evaluated and will
not be able to compete.
These numbers cause a great range of problems. First, our team would be forced to move players
into positions with which they have little or no familiarity. This in itself creates concerns of
safety especially when playing at this level. Secondly, the volume of injuries would lead to
highly inexperienced players to be thrusted into positions for which they are not ready due to
their lack of experience. These situations create conditions under which we administratively have
serious concerns for our players’ safety.
While the Bloomsburg Area School District regrets this decision, it has not been made lightly.
We hope that everyone involved understands and recognizes that primary concern in this matter
is for the safety and well-being of our young student-athletes.
