Port Jefferson won't have a varsity football team due to lack of players
Port Jefferson players huddle against Babylon before a Suffolk League VIII football game on March 22, 2021. Credit: Kathleen Malone-Van Dyke
Port Jefferson High School will not have varsity football this season because it does not have enough players to field a team, according to Section XI executive director Tom Combs.
Mark Passamonte, who is the interim director of athletics for Port Jefferson Schools, informed Combs last week that the numbers for the varsity program were slim, so there would be no team.
“I have 11 players that show up every single day at weight training and conditioning and work their butts off,” first-year coach CJ Perrino said. “They may not have the opportunity to play this fall.”
Combs said Adam Sherrard, who had been the director of athletics for Port Jefferson Schools before being named 6-12 associate principal earlier this month, notified the sectional office in January that the football program was in jeopardy of not meeting the state requirement of 16 players.
“They knew they had a potential problem,” Combs said. “We recommended that they investigate the possibility of combining with another school. There was enough time to do that. They didn’t act on it and now we’re [one] week before the season and the program folds. It leaves a void in the schedule, a forfeit every week for eight weeks.”
“The district office is trying to figure out a merger with another school,” Perrino said. “This is not the way I thought the first go-around as a head coach would go. Our guys want to play and it’ll hurt a lot less if we find a place for them.”
“They are exploring the possibility of merging with Rocky Point,” Combs said. “The enrollment would change with the schools getting together, but it shouldn’t influence the division they’re playing in.
“The situation is being evaluated by the football committee and the executive board of Section XI. Our goal is to have kids playing; we hate to say no in these situations. But on the other hand, it can’t disrupt the whole division.”
Port Jefferson was scheduled to begin the season on Sept. 4 at Center Moriches. Section XI rules dictate that all eight of Port Jefferson’s games will be counted as forfeits.
Port Jefferson was set to celebrate its 100th year of varsity football this season. The team finished 0-9 last year and did not have a junior varsity team.
The Port Jefferson roster had 30 players in 2025. Seven graduated, a few joined the school’s very successful boys soccer team — which won a Suffolk title last year — and some decided not to play, according to Perrino.
Holy Trinity High School in Hicksville suspended its football program in July because it did not have enough players.
Last season, Southampton High School canceled its varsity team days before the start of the season because of a lack of players. The school, which combines with The Ross School for football, said at the time that it hoped to field a team this season. The schools still do not have enough players for a team.
Gregg Sarra is Newsday's high school sports editor and has been on the beat since the mid-1980s.
