Cardinal Stritch suspends varsity football for 2024-25 school year

Cardinal Stritch has announced it will not have traditional varsity football for the 2024-2025 school year.
Bill Berry, the school’s president/head of school, said in a news release July 9 that the difficult decision was announced with a “heavy heart.”
“The athletic department and coaches have been working diligently for months to replace the 12 seniors that participated on our team last year with new and existing students that have shown interest,” he said.
“Due to many internal and external factors, we did not have enough participation to safely field a team,” Berry said, citing concerns over limited substitutes for rest, injuries or illness.
“We understand the disappointment many feel at this announcement, especially since we managed to return to the football field during the 2023-2024 school year,” Berry said. “It is our belief and desire that we will come back with an eight-man team which will better reflect our school size and numbers. We already have the numbers, coaching staff and facilities – we just need a schedule, which makes it hard to transition this late in the game for the 2024-2025 school year.”
Berry said Cardinal Stritch continues to build its football program in fifth through eighth grades, noting they “have been very strong and competitive over the last few years.”
“Retaining these students, along with the current high school students that will still be eligible to play next season, makes us confident in this decision. During this one-year hiatus, we will ensure that our coaching staff will work with our younger student-athletes in order to prepare them for the next level,” he said.
On the positive side, Berry also announced that – with the support of Father Scott Woods and the parishioners of St. Jerome in Walbridge – Cardinal Stritch will have a secondary gym that will be upgraded and fully utilized by all Cardinal Stritch for both practices and games/matches. Cardinal Stritch plans to use that gym as the base for its newly reconstituted youth wrestling program (grades 3-8) with a high school program planned in the next two to three years, he said.
“We understand this may cause a lot of emotions for what may be another ‘loss’ this year,” Berry said of the halt to the football program. “Please know our administration is committed to ensuring our students still have a full experience with pep rallies, dances, band, and all the extra events and activities that make lasting memories while in school.”