High school football officially sidelined

Windsor, Ont. -

The football community is trying to reverse a decision by all three local school boards to down football for the upcoming school year.

Gino Facca, a football dad, and his son Dean dropped letters off to each board Thursday morning requesting a meeting to discuss the decision.

“All I want to do is make sure that we can get these kids to play,” Facca said.

In a joint release early Thursday afternoon, the Windsor and Essex County Secondary Schools Athletic Association (WECSSAA), the Great Essex County District School Board, the Windsor Essex Catholic District School Board and the French Catholic board, said the decision was not made lightly, but made in the best interest of the safety of students.

Facca was not happy about the release, “I'm appalled. I was offering them a way out to save face.”

According to the release, the decision is consistent with other school boards who have also opted out of football.

Listed as determining factors: the need to recondition and certify helmets, coaches need to be certified and teams need to hold 10 practices with full pads before the season begins. The boards feel there isn't enough time to make all of that happen in a safe way.

“Why is London playing? Why is Niagara playing? Are their boards better than ours?" questioned Facca.

Mike Stenning, head football coach at South Collegiate in London, says in his years of teaching the Thames Valley District School Board has been involved in re-conditioning helmets and ensuring coaches are certified.

“Our board has been really supportive of certifying our coaches and making sure everyone is qualified to be involved in the sports they're involved in.”

A petition is posted at change.org to help bring football back to the local gridiron this fall. Facca is fighting for that to happen.

“I'm not going away. My kid's not going away and the rest of the students aren't going away. And there's about 3,000 parents that signed that petition that aren't going away."