By Tom Gilchrist
Staff Writer
CARO — Citing safety concerns for players on Caro High School’s varsity football team and following a vote by team members, Caro Community Schools officials canceled the varsity football season Wednesday after six of nine games, backing out of a home game against unbeaten Millington that was set for last night.
In an email to the Advertiser, Caro Superintendent Mike Joslyn stated that “It has come to a point in our Varsity Football program where the school is very concerned with the safety and overall morale of our student athletes participating on our Varsity Football team. We have played six out of nine games and our team has struggled to keep kids physically healthy and we feel that many of our younger athletes are being asked to participate at a level that is beyond their physical abilities.”
Two-thirds of the players on the varsity team voted Wednesday morning to end the season, according to Joslyn.
Caro, 1-5 overall, has been outscored by a total of 207-42 this season. The Tigers started the season with 25 players on the varsity and have maintained about 22 players on the squad, including eight sophomores who have been moved up to the varsity, Joslyn stated.
“We have had multiple injuries which have significantly impacted practices and where athletes should naturally be positioned as players,” Joslyn stated in the email. “We had two young men quit the team last week and two young men quit Monday.”
Caro’s cancellation of its varsity season left Millington scrambling, unsuccessfully, to find an opponent for last night.
“It’s not a good situation,” Millington Athletic Director Dewey Munson said Wednesday. “It’s something that we’re having a meeting on right now. As far as varsity football, it’s not going to happen on Friday. There’s nobody to play.”
This coming Friday, Caro had been scheduled to play at Essexville Garber for Garber’s homecoming.
Garber initially couldn’t find an opponent but was contacted by Standish-Sterling Central High, which lost by two points to Garber on Oct. 3 and also was looking for a team to play this coming Friday, according to the Garber Athletic Department. So Garber agreed to host Standish-Sterling again for homecoming.
Caro’s decision isn’t the first time a Michigan high school has opted to quit playing football in the middle of a season. Oscoda High stopped playing after four of nine games in 2006, drawing state and national media attention following the decision.
Caro plans to field a varsity football team next year, according to Joslyn, who stated “We would prefer to finish out the season and we are very sorry for our seniors and for the impact on the other schools that are still scheduled to play our team.”
Caro was set to host Cass City on Oct. 24.
Caro school officials will move all juniors and sophomores to the junior varsity team. Seniors are welcome to stay with the junior varsity for the rest of the season, but will not play in any games, according to Joslyn.
Joslyn stated “we feel we have come to a point where our students’ safety outweighs the need to finish the Varsity season.”
Chuck Peasley, 69, of Sanilac County’s Evergreen Township in the Cass City school district, said he supports Caro’s decision to end the season.
“They just need to be safe with the boys,” said Peasley, dining with his wife, Ruth, in the Caro State Street Diner.
“Football’s a rough game,” added Carol Harmon, 72, of Dayton Township, seated at a nearby table.
“My husband (Gary) still has trouble with injuries from football,” Harmon said. “It isn’t bad trouble, but he still feels the injuries.”
Andre Dennis, 29, of Caro, didn’t oppose Caro’s choice to end the season early. But Dennis said the football program “isn’t gym class — it really does help the students by keeping them active and involving them in the school system, really.”