Moore Catholic (N.Y.) suspends football team's 2025 season

Add another high school football team to the ever growing list of those deciding to forgo the 2025 season. Moore Catholic High School of New York City becomes the latest program to make the tough decision to cancel this upcoming fall’s campaign.

According to a Advance/SILive.com report, Mavericks athletic director Mike Ponsiglione confirmed with the outlet the decision to suspend the football program due to low player numbers, safety concerns ahead of the 2025 season.

“It’s disappointing because we did the best we could, but due to the fact we only have 21 kids in the program, we don’t feel it’s a safe environment for them to play an entire football season,’’ Ponsiglione said via the report. ”We need them healthy and to be put into a position where they can succeed and you can’t expect them to play both sides of the ball and special teams for an entire season with only 21 kids.”

Last season, Moore Catholic went 5-6 in the New York Catholic High School Football League (NYCHSFL) and they saw their season end with a 42-28 loss to St. Peter’s in the postseason. Plot twist is the very team they lost to at the end of the season is where their former head coach, Nick Giannatasio, ended up joining forces with per the report.

Giannatasio had just capped his ninth season with the Mavericks and back in March, both he and administration decided to part ways. As a result, Giannatasio bolted for St. Peter’s and per the report, a number of transfers from Moore Catholic have followed the former head coach over.

The report added that though the school did find a replacement in Anthony Barnes, the program only had a rostered 21 players as the 2025 season inched closer. With numbers standing pat, the school’s administration made the final call on the upcoming campaign.

Moore Catholic president Gina DeSantis, per the report, sent an email to the Mavericks’ student body regarding the state of the football program:

“In early Spring 2025, at the request of the football coaching staff, a series of meetings were held with MCHS leadership to discuss the status of the program. The opening message, delivered to us by the head coach, was that as the team had a disappointing season and “no one” wanted to come to MCHS to play football. We found this reasoning rather curious, as over the last (nine) years, the program had enjoyed seasons of tremendous success. The coach gave us a written document outlining what in his opinion needed to be accomplished to move the football program forward in the coming year. One of the recommendations from a lengthy list, was that the school accept students who are neither academically, socially or emotionally qualified to meet the rigor of a Moore Catholic student-athlete. Listed was the recommendation that the school admit students who are academically unqualified. MCHS has made significant investments to elevate academics, an achievement which has been recognized through two international accreditations, Cognia/AdvancED and Middle States Association. As the school would not consider this action for any athletic or co-curricular program, the decision was made to not accept this recommendation. As the philosophies did not align, it was mutually agreed that the football coaching staff and the school would part ways. Families involved in the football program were understandably upset. Our families, and our school community, want only the best outcomes for our students. Unfortunately, family decisions were often made based on false information. We can say this as many parents and students repeated the same messaging which contained similar inaccuracies. While we respect the decisions of each family, the result was an unanticipated decrease in the number of student-athletes involved in the football program. The inability to maintain the appropriate roster numbers make fielding a team a question of safety for our student-athletes. Given this, the school has made the difficult decision to suspend the Football Program for the 2025 season, effective today July 11, 2025. MCHS does not shy away from the hard work of rebuilding. The football program, while valuable, is one of many extra-curricular and co-curricular offerings. This pause is an opportunity to reset the program in a manner that aligns with the Mission and Vision of Moore Catholic High School.”