The Hollister High School football season is officially cooked, with the San Benito High School District pulling the plug on the varsity team’s entire remaining schedule. This isn’t some late-season slump; we’re talking about a program that started the season strong, sitting at 2-0 before everything went sideways.
From 2-0 Hot Start to Full Stop
Superintendent Shawn Tennenbaum dropped the bomb in a letter to the school community on Monday. The reason given for canceling the rest of the season? “The number of available student-athletes is not sufficient to safely field a team for the remainder of the scheduled games.” Think about that. A team with a winning record, just two games in, suddenly doesn’t have enough players to play safely. You hear that and you gotta wonder what in the world happened behind the scenes.
Coaches, Forfeits, and Deafening Silence
This whole mess really kicked off back on September 10. That’s when head football coach Thomas Sullivan got put on administrative leave, and the district launched an investigation into the program. Former head coach Chris Cameron stepped in as interim, and the varsity team actually played one game under his guidance. But then, boom, just hours before their next scheduled matchup on September 17, the school announced the team was forfeiting the game. The district has been super tight-lipped about the decision to bench Sullivan and open this investigation. Tennenbaum’s letter repeated that they’re “limited in the information it can provide” because the matter “involves students and remains under review.” They’re asking the community to respect student privacy and allow the review to proceed, but when a whole season gets nuked, people are gonna talk, right? And for all the teams that were supposed to play Hollister, there’s no silver lining either. According to Monterey Herald reporter John Devine, those teams can’t even swap out the forfeited game for a nonconference opponent.
This situation is just a total gut punch for everyone involved, especially those kids who worked their tails off for that 2-0 start. While the district says they’ll provide more info if and when they can, the questions aren’t going anywhere. You gotta feel for those players and the community wondering what’s next.
This article was created with AI assistance and published under Seattle On Tap’s editorial standards. See our Editorial Policy.
Originally reported by Yahoo Sports.
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