The Rensselaer City School District has announced that its 2019 varsity high school football season is canceled, due to a lack of participation.

Last week, varsity coaches put out a call for more players to join the team, saying they'd have to cancel the season if the program didn't have enough players by Monday.

"Obviously if you look at our field, you look at or bleachers, this is the sport where the investment was, where the crowds come, where the community is interested and we never want to lose a sport like this," said Rensselaer City School District Superintendent Joseph Kardash.

"The players are understandably heartbroken, struggling with accepting that we couldn't have a team."

Rensselaer City School District joins the national trend of dwindling high school sports populations. Of the 31 Rensselaer students who signed up to play football in the spring, only eight showed up on the first day of practice.

"Some of them went out and worked really hard to recruit other players. They showed a lot of peer leadership," said Kardash.

The school waited until the start of this week to make the final call. By 9 a.m. Monday, only 19 kids were in the locker room, some not even eligible to play and lacking a physical exam.

"Sports drive a lot of the school pride. School pride drives willingness to try new things and innovation and parent participation. And so it absolutely undermines everything that we do," said Kardash.

Kardash says the district is hopeful it can recruit enough players for a team next year. The possibilities of an eight-man football team or a co-op team have also been explored.

The district thanked those who supported the team, and said the coaching staff is committed to making sure students have an opportunity to play one way or another next year.