So Garinger High will field a varsity football team after all. Here’s what we know
On Tuesday, Garinger High School football coach Shon Galloway told The Observer that the Wildcats would not have a varsity football team, citing a lack of experience and a lack of numbers.
That changed about a day later.
Garinger athletic director Art Malorzo told The Observer on Thursday that the school has reversed its earlier decision and would field a varsity football team this season.
The Wildcats will begin the season Friday, Aug. 20, against Harding.
“We are back to playing a varsity schedule,” Malorzo said. “We’ll move forward with the team we have.”
Marorzo said he couldn’t comment much beyond that, saying Garinger would only field a varsity team.
Efforts to reach Galloway on Thursday afternoon were unsuccessful.
Earlier this week, Galloway told The Observer that a big part of the reason the Wildcats decided to play junior varsity only was because he only had 28 players and 21 of them were freshmen or sophomores who had no or very little playing experience.
Garinger has two seniors and N.C. High School Athletic Association spokesperson James Alverson told The Observer that the NCHSAA does not have a rule prohibiting seniors from playing junior varsity, and that if it chose to do so, Garinger could play junior varsity only with those seniors.
In Orange County, Cedar Ridge High has announced it would not have a varsity team, after losing several returning players to transfers.
At Garinger, Galloway is Garinger’s 12th coach in 10 years and will try to rebuild a program that has had two winning seasons since 1995. Last spring, Garinger was 0-7 and was outscored 309-14.
