The Don Bosco Catholic Secondary School Eagles football program, made famous by the late Rob Ford, is no longer.

John Yan, senior communications coordinator with the Toronto Catholic District School Board (TCDSB), confirmed reports that the Etobicoke school had shuttered its football program this year.

“That’d be a local school decision,” said Yan. “There were not enough (students) to field the team.”

Enrollment has been declining at Don Bosco for two years, with only 30 Grade 11 students and 60 Grade 12 students currently enrolled, Yan said. There is a student accommodation review committee underway, which should file a report in the new year about the enrollment issues.

Students suggested to media a double murder at the school in 2014 was cause for enrollment issues, but Yan said he wouldn’t speculate or pinpoint one issue contributing to the dwindling student numbers.

Yan said the end of the Eagles didn’t have to do with Ford’s dismissal as coach, either.

“Team numbers actually increased after he left,” said Yan. “They won the Metro Bowl Championship two years after Mr. Ford left … There is no linkage between his departure and the demise of the program.”

Ford was head coach of the football team from 2002 to May of 2013, when he was dismissed by the TCDSB and banned from coaching at any Catholic school in the city.

The TCDSB’s decision to remove Ford from coaching the Eagles did not appear to be related to the crack cocaine scandal that made Toronto’s former mayor a household name.

In the now-public video Ford appears to smoke crack cocaine and refers to Don Bosco players as “just f---ing minorities.”

Even before the video came to light, Ford angered teachers and parents of the Etobicoke Catholic secondary school with comments they said depicted it in a “demeaning way that was filled with untruths.” Concerned parties claimed Ford conveyed the false impression that Don Bosco was an unsafe and gang-infested place whose only redeeming feature is football.

But throughout his term as mayor, Ford defended his coaching “hobby” to critics, saying he helped disadvantaged teenagers.

His solicitations to donors for his football foundation — using his city hall letterhead — triggered an integrity commissioner’s investigation, a demand for repayment and participation in a later vote on the matter, which broke conflict-of-interest rules and nearly cost him the mayoralty.

Yan said repeatedly that Ford’s commitment to the players and school itself was “extraordinary.”

“There’s a deep and abiding respect among the players for Rob Ford the coach and human being,” he said. “He really did care about the players.”

But Ford drew widespread criticism from the city for his involvement with the team. Among other things, he was observed skipping hours of his own executive committee meeting to coach.

Itineraries obtained by the Star also suggested the former mayor took most afternoons off during football season.

Ford was found to have taxpayer-paid staffers help manage the team as well, a practice that prompted criticism from the Canadian Taxpayers Federation.

Aides used a government car to attend games and practices — once even while Ford was away on business. And staffers asked the province about money for a football field — on more than one occasion.

When Lowe’s wanted approval to build in Ford’s ward in 2010, he successfully persuaded the company to spend $75,000 to upgrade the locker rooms for the Don Bosco football team — which will now go unused.

And on the field, Ford allegedly threatened a teacher, appeared to be drunk at practices, swore at students and deferred criminal background checks for himself and staff. These incidents were discovered from documents released via a freedom-of-information request, which both the TDCSB and Ford attempted to withhold from the public.

One allegation from the documents suggested that Ford made players roll around in goose feces.

But many remember Toronto’s former mayor as a mentor and father figure to his football players. At Ford’s funeral in March, many of his former players told reporters he was an “excellent coach.”

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It is unclear whether the football program will be revived in the future.

Doug Ford did not return the Star’s request for comment about the shuttering of his brother’s former team or his performance as its coach, but told CityNews he thought the news was “a shame.”

With files from Daniel Dale