Fairfield Ludlowe takes on a great unknown during its FCIAC bye week. They have scheduled a team known as “Randolph” on the CIAC schedule. But it is a team better known as the Harlem Hellfighters.
Randolph Campus is its “host” school, but the Hellfighters are a co-op/club team made up of high school students from all around Manhattan. The team was founded by former NFL player Duke Ferguson because he was shocked at how few opportunities there were for Harlem’s youth to play organized football.
The Hellfighters also have not played a game this season, according to this recent article in the New York Daily News.
According to that article, the Hellfighters played in a PSAL championship game two seasons ago against a predominantly white school.
The New York State Sportswriters Association reported on its blog that Ferguson saw a racial epitath written on a bench, which was targeted at his team.
The Daily News said in its report that the Hellcats were removed from the PSAL’s 2008 schedule, and the team has a pending lawsuit against the city’s Department of Education.
For more on the Ludlowe-Harlem Hellfighters match-up, here’s Sean Patrick Bowley’s report from today’s Stamford Advocate.
Here’s my question….what kind of high school football program schedules a team like this??? I understand that sometimes the dates for non conference games are hard to schedule but c’mon! This was a disaster waiting to happen. I believe the athletic director and the coach should do what’s right and apologize to the players, parents, and community for this poor decision. There can be a lot of finger pointing but ultimately it should come down to who scheduled this game???? Here’s another question….who addressed this situation to the parents in the stands and spectators??? I do believe they deserve some answers and those should have come from the coach and A.D., not the athletes themselves.
Comment by c. deluca — November 8th, 2009 @ 11:05 pm
c. deluca, all legit questions and concerns.
Here’s one way to look at it though: It’d like when you do something good for someone else, and that person thanks you be slapping you in the face.
And I should ask… were you there for the non-contest?
Comment by Tim Parry — November 8th, 2009 @ 11:15 pm
I can appreciate trying to help another program but this didn’t help Ludlowe’s program or their athletes. It was a poor decision.
Comment by c.deluca — November 9th, 2009 @ 12:13 am