It's a card every public school in the state has been dealt, but losing one game off the football season's schedule hits the Harvard Cup teams especially hard.
It was just a few years ago when the Buffalo Public Schools' league members added a nonleague date to each team's schedule.
The state's budget crisis sacked the Harvard Cup's opportunity to test its skills against the likes of Section V (Rochester area) power Aquinas and the Buffalo area's Catholic Schools (St. Joe's, Canisius and Cardinal O'Hara).
While the situation is something Riverside coach Tony Truilizio must accept since it's not going to change this year, he's still disappointed -- and not just because his defending Harvard Cup champions won't get a rematch against an Aquinas crew that handed the Frontiers their only loss of the 2008 season.
"They're a great benchmark team," Truilizio said. "You see where you stand when you play an Aquinas. ... It's just another step in the wrong direction for football (in general in the state). Where other states are playing at least three more games a season, in a four-year period, they would be playing five years (worth of games) compared to four (in New York) because of the extra games."
Do you think the public schools in Section VI and the Harvard Cup will ever get that additional game back?
---Miguel Rodriguez
tagged
Harvard Cup | High school football | Riverside
