OLEAN - Archbishop Walsh Academy has suspended its football program for the fall 2009 season, school officials recently announced.

The announcement was made after it became clear the program would not meet the number of available players as specified by New York State. Donna Sweet, principal, said cancellation of the 2009 season would not mean the permanent end of football at Archbishop Walsh.

“The school is taking a year off from the football program,” Sweet said. “It is our intent to groom our JV level players and be ready to play next school year. We are totally committed to a well-rounded sports program and will continue to promote football as the core program of fall sports. As enrollment of the school increases, so will the viability of the program.”

Archbishop Walsh is still exploring the possibility of playing a JV football schedule this fall, Nate Farnum, athletic director, said. In addition, Walsh has resurrected its boys’ varsity soccer program and has scheduled nine games for the coming season.

“Interest in boys’ soccer was at its highest since 2005,” Farnum said. “We had the kids and we had a great coach in Jorge Tufino, so we decided to move forward with soccer. It was not a matter of soccer over football. It is our intention that as the school grows, we can develop both the football and soccer programs here at Walsh.”

Archbishop Walsh had been a member of the Monsignor Martin Association in football. The school will play an independent soccer schedule and is still looking for four more games to fill its slate.

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RKT wrote on Aug 30, 2009 11:53 AM:

" This has to do with three things.

The first is the very low enrollment Archbishop Walsh has. This isn't the 1960's and 70's when Olean had a population around 24,000. The available student base in a city now of 14,000 just isn' there anymore. How amny does Walsh graduate now...25 a year???

The second is that kids nowadays aren't interested in team sports as they used to be. Nintendos and Playstations have taken over. The WNY area just does put out NFL quality product like a state like Texas does. The area doesn't really nurture high school football like Ohio and Texas do in their high schools.

Soccer has taken over as a sport because of its non contact nature and its cheaper for school districts to put a soccer team on the field than a football team. The only problem is that there is no audience on Friday or Saturday evenings to watch soccer. It's just too boring for 90% of Americans. "

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