Star multi-sport athlete at Carle Place High School forced to choose between football or soccer
WESTBURY, Long Island (WABC) -- Soccer of football? That's the tough decision for a standout student-athlete on Long Island after his school told him he no longer can play both sports.
Ryan Leary, 16, dazzles on the pitch. The high school senior was captain of his soccer team last year and is a two-time All-State athlete. He's led his Carle Place High School soccer team to a state championship. Soccer is who he is.
"It's been my whole life. Ever since I was four my dad put a soccer ball on my feet," Leary said. "I mean there's pictures in my baby crib and there's soccer balls in there."
But Leary is a rare talent. He's a multi-sport athlete.
Last year he also played on the high school's football team as the kicker, and he said last spring the school gave him permission to play both sports again this year. Then suddenly, right before this school year started, that decision was reversed.
"I was heartbroken. It was hard to hear. It's the sport I love, and I wanted to play football," Leary said.
"He's been devastated by this and torn and meant to feel like he did something wrong and as a parent it's hard to see," said Ryan's father, Patrick Leary.
The 16-year-old and his parents say they were told the decision was reversed in part because this year he is playing a new position on the football team: wide receiver.
In a statement a school official says, "The district's thinking is grounded in safety and security for all student-athletes and in fostering equity for all team members... it is inadvisable for a student-athlete to play two high-contact sports in the same season."
But the head of Section 8, the governing body for high school athletics in Nassau County, says there is no rule that prohibits a student from playing two sports in the same season.
In fact, he says Ryan Leary's switch to wide receiver doesn't necessarily put his safety at any more risk either.
"If you look at the Section 8 handbook, there's no such thing as just a kicker in football," said Patrick Pizzarelli of Section 8. "Because a kicker, they block the kick, they become a player because he can make a tackle and a kicker on a kickoff he may have to make the tackle. So, the kicker is a football player."
Right now, Ryan Leary is only playing football. He says he was forced to make a tough decision because the football season had started first.
"I felt like I was being torn apart from a team, and I felt like I was betraying a team no matter what I did," he said.
In the meantime, he's hoping the school will allow him back on the soccer team.
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