By LYNDON ZAITZ of the Keizertimes
The 2024 McNary junior varsity football season has been canceled.
In a Facebook post on Oct. 8, coach Connor Astley said the decision to cancel was due to the continued injuries and safety concerns of the team.
“The coaching staff and I felt that we have reached the point of canceling the remainder of the JV football season,” wrote Astley.
He continued that the decision was not made lightly.
“Nor did we want to make this decision, but felt it was the necessarily course of action” to protect and give our JV players the best possible course success in the future, wrote Astley.
The team was scheduled to play North Medford on Thursday, Oct. 10, with games the next two weeks scheduled against North Salem and South Salem.
The JV team was small, starting the year with 20 players on the roster. Throughout the first five weeks of the season, the team has had injuries that resulted in many players being out for multiple games if not for the entire season.
“We felt that more injuries would occur if the season continued since the remaining players would play both sides of the ball without rest and potentially play positions that they were not used to. These were the safety concerns that we had for the players if the season continued,” said Astley.
He said the players were “obviously disappointed.”
The JV team will scrimmage to give them “game like” situations to continue to develop as players and a team, the coach said..
The players will have opportunities to travel and be a part of the varsity’s remaining games. They will practice with the varsity team and have opportunities to play in varsity game.
“We want all JV players to get healthy and be a part of the program,” Astley wrote in his Facebook post.