It is said that New York City is like no other place on Earth. To its public school football coaches, the phrase takes on an entirely different meaning. The Big Apple is, in many ways, high school football's final frontier. The sport somehow is managing to survive in an environment where all too often it seems the forces are aligned to squelch it out. By and large, high school teams in the city are under funded and many operate with no money provided by the Public Schools Athletic League. Some teams are playing in decaying facilities. Others have no home field and must scrounge for any open patch of park land to hold a practice. School spirit is in decline. Pep rallies are a rarity. And the fastest growing component of the population is new Americans who think football is a game played with a round ball and two big nets. "You look around and sure, you see high school football. Some of
Continue Reading
This article is available to American Football Quarterly subscribers.
Get instant digital access to this issue and the complete archive.
