Lexington High School’s varsity football team forfeited the remainder of its season after its game on Oct. 15.
The team had 11 senior players on its roster this year. After several walked away from the sport due to injuries, the school thought it would be safer to end the varsity season, rather than leaving younger players to compete against more experienced teams.
“With a sport like football, matching athletes and allowing a healthy, safe environment is really important,” Naomi Martin, Lexington Public Schools’ director of athletics, told the Observer. “We got to a point where based on the number of junior and senior players left in the program, we couldn’t compete at the varsity level.”
Asked how many players left the sport during this season, Martin would not specify.
“We haven’t shared specific numbers publicly out of privacy for players’ and families’ decisions to stop playing football,” she told the Observer.
LexObserver reached out to players, asking why they left the team, but did not receive any responses.
The school’s decision came after the varsity team lost all of its games this season and by relatively big margins. In its last game on Oct. 15, LHS lost to Reading Memorial High School, 62-0.
Having enough upperclassmen on the varsity football team is important because it could be unsafe to have a 15-year-old freshman playing against an 18-year-old senior in a contact sport, Martin explained. A football team needs 11 offensive players, 11 defensive players, and 11 special teams players.
“Many times this year, those 11 were the same kids on offense, on defense, and on special teams, but that’s high school football now in Massachusetts because of the dwindling numbers” Martin said. “In order to put kids in a safe position, it really takes a lot more kids. We tried for a really long time to play at the varsity level and when it wasn’t good for our kids and it wasn’t safe, we made the decision to stop.”
LHS is continuing with its junior varsity (JV) football schedule for the rest of the season and offered remaining varsity players spots on that team.
“This has really worked for the needs of our program from both a skill perspective as well as the age and grade of the majority of our players,” Martin said. “As difficult a decision as it was at the moment, it’s been fantastic for us. We’ve had a lot of growth with our younger players and have had some more competitive games that fit where we are right now.”
LHS ended up forfeitting three games against Winchester High School, Arlington High School, and Concord-Carlisle High School.
Lexington isn’t alone in canceling games due to a shrinking roster. Quabbin Regional High School, Manchester Essex Regional Middle High School, and Saugus Middle High School also had to forfeit due to player headcount this season.
In Marblehead, only 57 students registered to play football this year — that’s down from 85 in 2025 and 95 in 2024, the Marblehead Current reported. Like Martin, Marblehead High School’s football coach, Jim Rudloff, could not point the Current to a single reason why rosters are shrinking.
Across the state, the number of high school football participants has shrunk by about 18 percent in the last ten years. Asked why, the Milton High School coach, Steve Dembowski, told the Boston Globe he thinks it’s because the sport demands a lot of students’ time and youth programs are few and far between in Massachusetts.
A Globe editorial argued the decline in high school football players in Massachusetts could be because families are more aware of the risk of injury tackle football poses. The Globe argued the safety protocols set by the Massachusetts Interscholastic Athletic Association are “are at best modest.”
“The MIAA…mandates a ‘licensed physician, licensed athletic trainer, or certified EMT’ be present for all games, but says nothing on the issue of trainers at practice…if there’s no one on site to diagnose an injury in real time during practice, students and their coaches are left to thrash it out,” the Globe wrote.
As for what the future holds for Lexington football, Martin said the school will decide what next season looks like in the next month or so. LHS may try to have a varsity team next fall; continue with just a JV team; do a co-op with another high school that needs support, meaning they would combine with another nearby school to have enough players for a varsity team; or allow football in eighth grade so students can play earlier and potentially be varsity-ready sooner.
“Across America, football is everybody’s front porch. In this country, we watch football on Monday nights, Thursday nights, Friday nights, Saturday nights, and Sundays, and I think it’s hard when you don’t necessarily fit in that ‘Friday night lights’ box as a community,” Martin said. “As the athletic director, it’s about wanting to continue to offer football, in a meaningful way, to the kids that want to play it.”
What an abomination this article is! The reasoning from AD Martin for the LHS Varsity football games being cancelled is absolutely untrue and completely misleading. What a shame that the AD feels it proper to make up stories to explain such a sad and dissapointing end to this year’s seniors football program! The truth is very simple- the seniors refused to continue playing football under an abusive and inept coach! A coach in any sport has the simple duty to inspire and motivate. A coach instills in the athletes the desire to not only win, but play the game AND enjoy playing the game. This LHS 2nd year varsity coach did nothing but EXTINGUISH that flame to play a game they worked hard on and gave everything for 4 years!
The coach and AD need to be removed to save the LHS football program!
M Leahy