The spirit of football is alive in Sleepy Hollow with the Junior Horsemen Football and Cheer Program. Formerly known as the Wolfpack of Tarrytown and North Tarrytown, the four teams (one flag, two tackle and one cheer) range from grades K-6. To keep safety as a top priority, children K-2 participate on the flag football teams, while their older peers play tackle. Despite holding the name of the Horsemen, the program isn’t confined to Tarrytown and Sleepy Hollow and boasts teammates from the River Towns and beyond. This year, they are looking to expand their reach even more. Knowing that youth football and cheer programs are few and far between, the Horsemen welcomes children from beyond its towns borders to join their teams. Members of the Westchester Youth Football League, the Horsemen often go face to face with programs over double their size, such as Ossining and North Rockland. Despite this, they haven’t given up. In fact, the tackle team won five out of their seven games last year. The Junior Horsemen teams are truly small but mighty and still looking to grow. Applications for the next school year are already open, for those looking to be a part of this football community.
The transformation from the Wolfpack to the Horsemen was tumultuous. The program became the Horsemen in 2015, and since then, especially in the past three years, the new board members have been doing everything they could to get the program back on its feet, according to board member Haydee McCarthy. They’ve replaced old equipment, expanded transparency between the board and parents, renewed the program’s nonprofit designation, and organized fundraisers to keep the program afloat. Their next fundraiser, a Spaghetti Dinner at the Sleepy Hollow Senior Center, will take place on June 20th. The board is made up of five parent volunteers, all tirelessly working to revitalize the program and create a space for local, young aspiring football players and cheerleaders to grow, learn and compete. Even after a plethora of administrative issues, and the struggles with size that they still face, the problems facing the Junior Horsemen were not over, with their beloved football coach not having his contract renewed with Sleepy Hollow High School last year. Still, they have been pushing through.
Joining the Junior Horsemen will mean joining a passionate team with an administration that truly cares about the team and their students. McCarthy and her husband are longtime Sleepy Hollow residents. In fact, her husband was a Wolfpack team member. Growing up in the school district, she always loved its football and baseball-centric culture. However, in the modern day, McCarthy noticed the importance of football fading away, with more focus on sports like soccer and lacrosse. McCarthy became a member of the board looking to revitalize the spirit of the sport. A goal of the Horsemen, according to her, is to become a ‘feeder program’, inspiring children down a pathway to the modified, and later Junior Varsity and Varsity teams. According to her, “these programs create opportunities to create success on the higher levels”
If you or your child wants to become a Junior Horsemen for the upcoming school year, you can sign up on their website at www.juniorhorsemenfootballandcheer.com. Affordability and accessibility is a major goal of the program, and they pride themselves on being as inexpensive as possible. Practice will begin in the last two weeks of August for five days a week. During the school year, the younger flag players have two days a week of practice, while the tackle and cheer students practice for three days a week. If your town doesn’t have a football or cheer program for young children (and even you do), the Junior Horsemen will welcome you with open arms.
- juniorhorsemenfootballandcheer.com
