Maryland High School Won't Field Football Team, Ending Nearly 70-Year Run

For decades, Hancock Middle-Senior High School in Western Maryland has proudly worn the label as the smallest high school in Maryland with a football team.

That run ended Friday morning.

Principal Andrew Kaetzel issued a press release Friday (Aug. 21) announcing that due to a lack of participation, Hancock would not field a team this fall. Excluding the 2020 COVID-19 year, Hancock had fielded a team every year since the launch of the program in 1957.

"Over the past several weeks, school staff have worked to recruit enough student-athletes to support a football program this fall," Kaetzel wrote. "Despite those efforts, there are not enough students committed to participating to field a team for competitive play. As a result, Hancock was required to notify the Maryland Public Secondary Schools Athletic Association (MPSSAA) that it will not participate in varsity football competition this season."

Hancock's Small Enrollment Made Football a Year-to-Year Challenge

Hancock had a reported high school enrollment of 146 students, approximately 116 in grades 9-11, according to the latest MPSSAA figures. This means that both the largest public high school in Maryland (High Point, with nearly 4,000 students) and the smallest (Hancock) will not field varsity teams this year due to a lack of participants.

Hancock's decision to not field a team this fall leaves following schools with an unexpected open dates, two weeks ahead of the official MPSSAA season openers: Berkeley Springs (W.Va.), Green Street Academy, Northern Garrett, Bath County (Va.), Pine Grove Valley (W.Va.), North Star (Pa.), Tussey Mountain (Pa.), and SEED School. Ironically, SEED School is now the smallest enrollment MPSSAA school in Maryland with a football team.

Panthers Found Ways to Keep Football Alive

Hancock has long fought – and, remarkably, won – the battle to find enough players to keep its football program going. Success with the win-loss record was rare. The measure of victory was simply fielding a team. There is a story from the 1990s that captures the struggle: On the first day of practice, the head coach told his players that instead of practicing, they would go into town and find a friend to join the team -- anything to ensure Hancock could field a team that season.

Hancock compiled a 209-414-5 record under 14 coaches between 1957 and 2025. The program had just three winning seasons since 2005 and made only four postseason appearances in its history, most recently in 2013. For the past four decades, Hancock competed as an independent, allowing the school to construct a schedule around similarly sized programs with comparable levels of competition.

When the MPSSAA adopted an open playoff format in 2021, allowing every school to enter the postseason, Hancock declined the invitation each year. Participating in the playoffs would have meant facing a top-seeded opponent in the opening round – a difficult proposition for a program already struggling with roster numbers. Hancock is the only MPSSAA program to opt out of postseason participation in every year of the open playoff format, including 2025, when the team shut down early because of a lack of healthy players.

Hancock's 2025 Season Ended Early

Under first-year head coach Greg Cartrette last year, Hancock lost its first six games by a combined margin of 238-22. The Panthers ended their season after an Oct. 10, 2025, loss to Stonewall Jackson (Va.) because of a lack of healthy players and forfeited their finale against county rival Clear Spring.

"HMSHS recognizes that football has a long history in our community, and we understand this news will be especially disappointing to our students, families, alumni, and community members who have supported the Panthers through the years," Kaetzel wrote.

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