‘It's a shock': Fremont school sacks its football program as academic year ends

FREMONT - Six months after its previous football coach resigned, Fremont's Irvington High School notified its players and their parents this week that its efforts to hire a new coach were unsuccessful and it won't have a team this fall.

The decision has stunned and angered the school's football community as Irvington becomes the second Fremont Unified school to drop football.

Mission San Jose eliminated its program a decade ago.

"Friday night lights, football games, homecoming, all those things are the fabric of high school," said Ginger Fallorina Macadaeg, a parent of an Irvington junior varsity player. "To do away with that like they did at Mission San Jose, it’s like, ‘Man, we can’t lose that. We just can’t.'"

Irvington's varsity-eligible players have been told that they can transfer immediately to two schools within the district, Washington and Kennedy, under a hardship waiver if they wish to continue playing football.

American, the other Fremont Unified school still playing football, is absent from the list.

Washington coach Fernando Sotelo told the Bay Area News Group that he believes American is not accepting transfers because of its high enrollment (approximately 2,700 students for 2025-26). American officials didn't respond to a request for clarification.

Irvington's varsity players are also free to transfer to schools outside the Fremont Unified School District without consequences as long as there is no pre-enrollment contact from the new school, according to a letter Irvington's administration sent to players and parents that was obtained by the Bay Area News Group.

The players were told they cannot play football at another school and continue attending Irvington, which is ranked 51st in the state academically, according to U.S. News & World Report.

If players choose to transfer after the 2026-27 school year, they cannot use the hardship rule for eligibility.

Irvington principal Stan Hicks didn't reply to a request for comment.

Albert Sandoval, a JV assistant at Irvington last season, oversaw the program's offseason conditioning program during the spring. He said Tuesday that he offered to coach the team this fall but was not given an interview.

"It’s going to be very hard to create interest again in the program to bring it back if it officially goes away this year," Sandoval said. "So that’s my biggest concern, providing a sport for these kids to play and develop, make friends, make memories."

Sotelo expressed sadness that Irvington won't have a team this fall and also is concerned that restarting the program will be a huge challenge.

"It’s disappointing that they weren’t able to do that this year," the Washington coach said. "It’s a really good school, and they had a really good program. It’s a shock.

"When I started coaching here, probably two or three years into it, Mission shut down their football program, and a lot of it had to do with demographics and not enough interest and whatnot. And I didn’t think that would happen to any of the other schools, but I guess it did with Irvington. But I hope that next year, they're able to have a program."

In its letter to players and parents, Irvington's administration said it had been searching for a varsity and junior varsity coach for six months and had multiple interviews.

The letter also noted that the school has "only 17-20 eligible players combined across both JV and Varsity teams."

It added, "Even if we were able to hire a coach and staff at this time, we do not have enough players to safely field a varsity team or complete the required summer conditioning."

Anthony Jackson, who resigned as Irvington's coach in December, told the Bay Area News Group on Tuesday that he was stunned by the news, even though he stepped down in large part because he felt the administration was not supportive of football on a level required to succeed.

Irvington went 7-4 last season, making the North Coast Section playoffs for the first time in many years.

The Vikings were slated to be in the middle tier of the West Alameda County Conference's three-division competitive-equity format this fall, along with Arroyo, Alameda, Castro Valley, Piedmont and Tennyson.

At the time of his resignation, Jackson said he felt sidelined by Irvington's new power structure after the athletic director who hired him, Michelle Stone, was relieved of her duties.

Irvington's decision to drop football raises questions about the broader scope of the sport’s sustainability in Fremont Unified.

American, Kennedy and Washington are in the WACC's lowest division this fall.

All the schools in Fremont Unified that play football share Tak Fudenna Stadium, a district-wide field located on Washington's campus.

Jackson said Irvington had to manually draw lines on its practice field at its campus to scrimmage. He also said the practice field was filled with holes.

“The attention paid to it, the importance of it, the grace shown towards football is definitely different in different places," he said in December.

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This story was originally published June 2, 2026 at 3:55 PM.