Athletic director cancels freshmen boys soccer season

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Several Glen Rock freshmen soccer players threw apples at their head coach, causing the season to be canceled.

by Ian Stephenson, Sports Editor

The Glen Rock freshmen boys soccer season came to a disappointing end recently, but not due to the team’s on-field performance.

Instead, the team’s season was cancelled after an incident in which two team members threw crabapples in the bus and hit head coach David Gold and another athlete following a game with Pascack Hills on Oct. 18.

“At Pascack Hills there were crabapples, and two players thought it was a good idea to pick it up and put it in the icebox and start chucking them around on the bus as we were coming home,” co-captain Ryan Hornish said. “It hit our coach and one of our players.”

Some players had been disrespectful during other times in the season, as well, according to Hornish and co-captain Jason Kapiloff.

With a 13 year tenure as the Glen Rock athletic director, Frank Violante said he “believes this is the first time” he has had to cancel a season.

Other players as well as Gold tried to stop the apple tossing, but they were unsuccessful.

“We tried but it was no use. It was out of hand,” Kapiloff said.

Hornish is now afraid that this could affect future freshmen teams. Without a freshmen team, ninth graders would have to play on JV or varsity, meaning it could be harder to make the team and there could be fewer opportunities for playing time.

Violante said that this incident has no effect on the future.

Kapiloff said that cancelling the season was not a fair punishment. He thought that the punishment should have been to the offending players only, while the rest of the team could continue its season.

“We were good,” Kapiloff said. “Imagine if we hadn’t fooled around and took it seriously. We would’ve been even better.”