Would you, as the coach of a high school football team, knowing you were going up against a vastly superior opponent, suddenly cancel your team’s participation in the upcoming game?

Well, the Friday Night Lights were out between rivals St. Peter’s Prep and Kearny due to safety concerns.

According to this:

St. Peter’s Prep (New Jersey) had the resources and equipment to play however Kearny High (New Jersey) felt that St. Peters skill level was too extraordinary for them to succeed. Kearny felt as if they would be better off to forfeit the game rather than to risk player injuries.

Kearney’s (sic) Board of Education and superintendent co-decided that the team would be risking safety by playing St. Peter’s Prep. They informed the athletic director, John Millar on Friday morning that he needed to call the school and cancel the game.

St.Peter’s Prep was 2-0 before the scheduled game on Friday; the team had outscored their opponents this season 31-6 and 77-7, both of which took place out of state at rivalry schools. Kearny High on the other hand was 0-2 being outscored 90-8 this season.

Therefore the two schools were clearly not on the same level of competitiveness. The school was nervous of physical as well as mental injuries that could occur since the game most likely would have been a blowout.

The game will most likely be recorded as a forfeit, which is actually a disadvantage for St.Peter’s Prep coach, Rich Hansen. The game against Kearney could have been recorded as his 200th career victory yet he never even got to coach the team this weekend. He was also disappointed because it was going to give the younger kids a chance to compete on the Varsity level.

So here you have kids’ safety vs. the competitive challenge to take on a vastly superior team.

Which side do you choose?

As a parent, it’s very difficult to risk my kid’s health over a football game against a superior rival but isn’t that why the child is enrolled in the program to do in the first place? To compete!