Andy's Take: Forfeit, cancel epidemic in high school football?

If you’re an athlete at any level, youth, high school or even adult amateur, hearing the words forfeit or canceled elicits the same sense of dread.

It’s not only demoralizing for the team doing so, but also for the opposing club that essentially earned an ‘A’ or incomplete for doing nothing on the class project.

For those that don’t think it’s becoming an issue around the country, you might want to start taking closer looks at scores, results and how programs are handling being blown out or how they might see themselves not being prepared to play because of one reason or another.

One of our first cases of a cancelation involves a nationally ranked team in the No. 20 East St. Louis Flyers. Arguably the best team in the state of Illinois was all prepared to take on Gadsden County (Fla.) last week in the Gateway Scholars Football Classic, which was to feature another game and girls flag football contest. Instead, the classic was canceled due to the Jaguars having to back out of their agreement with the Flyers.

Less than a few days before the game, Gadsden County informed East St. Louis they wouldn’t be making the trip. A game that was months in the making and about 72 hours away from being played, was canceled in a matter of minutes, thus leaving the Flyers left hanging.

If you don’t know, the Jaguars ran into trouble just before the regular season started, with Gadsden County being slammed with the Florida High School Athletic Association (FHSAA) making a recommendation/ruling in late July that eight players and head coach Russell Ellington were all suspended for the 2025 season. Gadsden County initially fined $21,500 due to a number of FHSAA violations, with it later being dropped down to $1,000.

Gadsden County has reportedly still yet to name an interim head football coach and allegedly has between 20 to 25 players showing up to practices. That was enough for decision makers to make the call and cancel the game. But wait, via the FHSAA classifieds, the same Gadsden County is in search of a new game.

Is it a cancelation for the well being of the student-athletes or one to save the program the heartache of a loss? For whatever the reason may be, that’s one example of a cancelation in the books.

How about we head over to the Keystone State to the head scratching case of Shady Side Academy (Pa.) and their decision to forfeit/cancel their game against Clairton (Pa.) due to what the school deemed an “extraordinary rash of significant injuries across the roster.”

The Bulldogs were coming off a dominating 56-26 rout over Burrell the week before and opened the 2025 season with a 28-26 win over Greensburg Central Catholic. Two games and two wins. For most programs across the United States, morale would be high and everyone on the roster, banged up or not, would be anxiously waiting for the next time they take the field.

Nope, that was not the case here for Shady Side Academy and head coach Andrew Geisler released a statement about the reasons for canceling the game with Clairton: “Our players have battled through injuries and adversity with heart and resilience, and their 2-0 start speaks volumes about their character. But nothing is more important than their safety. This is a temporary setback, not a reflection of what this team can accomplish together this season.”

The Bulldogs reasons, valid or not, sparked outcry in the WPIAL community throughout, even prompting a head coach of another team to throw out how many players for him took the field against Clairton.

Serra Catholic head coach Akeeme Robinson said on social media ‘We played with 14 last week. 8 starters missing just sayin.’ 14 players and still playing the game is commendable in honoring the contest, but definitely a hardship on the players having to take the field for most of the afternoon or evening.

Getting back to Shady Side Academy’s rationale behind it all, was it injuries or another factor? The Massey Ratings predicted Clairton to win 48-12 over Shady Side Academy. Though there’s no way to really prove the latter may have been more of the reason, it raises questions about if other teams can play with low numbers, why can’t others?

Our last and final stops in making our case that cancelations and forfeitures are hitting high school football hard lies in the Midwest. We want to give two examples, one of a game that the nature of the score could lead the opposing team to forfeit/cancel games down the line and a contest that reached a half, forcing the program to cancel the rest of their season.

Score deficits are surely something that has been happening through the test of time, but in the case of Andale (Kansas) win over El Dorado last week. In 2024, the Indians defeated the Wildcats 68-7, a score that though by 61 points, proved a point for Andale: Utter domination.

This year’s edition, eh, last season’s walloping didn’t seem to satisfy Andale. They needed to someone out-do 2024’s result tenfold. The Indians dismantled the Wildcats in a 104-0 decision, marking the largest margin of victory this fall by any team.

A win by that many points deters folks on the other end of it. Not many can say they’ve been involved in a 100-plus point loss. Pushing coaches and players to their edge must’ve been on the assignment board because it wouldn’t surprise this sports writer if El Dorado at some point in the season had to cancel/forfeit a game due to injuries or low numbers.

It certainly makes you think when is enough, enough when lighting up a scoreboard to no end when it could in the long-term for the opposing team impact them that much greater.

Staying in the Midwest region, Siouxland Community Christian School (Iowa) 8-man football program decided after a half of football that they were not going to be playing anymore. Not just for the game, but for the rest of the season.

In the first game of the 2025 season, Siouxland Christian School was playing Coon Rapids-Bayard and fell behind 60-0 by intermission. Siouxland Christian didn’t return to the gridiron as they called the game, forfeiting the latter two quarters. The aftermath of the game, the school made the decision to halt the rest of the season and regroup for 2026.

These types of stories across the board are just a few of dozens we’re sure by season’s end will pop up across the country. Many ask what brings a program to its knees to make such a tough decision and the factors all vary.

Usually low participation numbers to lack of actual on-field practice time to knowing you might not stand a chance against your next opponent.

The old adage goes its not the first time you’ve seen or heard about it and it won’t be the last. Expect more of this to go on as high school football is just in the first quarter of the season. By the proverbial fourth quarter of it, there could very well be a lot more supporting this forfeit, canceling epidemic than anyone could ever imagine.

Stay tuned.

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