Molloy creates football team for 'little guys'

Molloy makes its home debut Saturday at 7 p.m. against St. Thomas Aquinas at Mitchel Field in Uniondale.

Kevin Maher

Sep 26, 2024, 9:47 PM

Updated 2 hr ago

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There is a new college football team on Long Island this year, but this one looks a bit different.
There are no big behemoths on the offensive line. No towering wide receivers. No big bruising running backs.
In fact, these players aren't big at all.
Molloy has created a "sprint" football team, where the basic rule to play is simple.
"Every single player on the field has to be 178 pounds or less," said Thomas Everding, who plays offensive lineman at Molloy.
Brian Hughes is Molloy's first year head coach. He spent most of his career coaching "regular" football at LIU-Post. He's says he is enjoying this new challenge.
"To me, it's football heaven. You're giving these guys something back that they thought was taken away: their identity in the game," Hughes told News 12's Kevin Maher.
"It ends up being that like the average size dude comes and plays," said Molloy quarterback Paulie Drummond.
Some of the Molloy players joined the team from other sprint football squads.
Others transferred from Division III teams. But wide receiver Ryan Tropp, from Oceanside, signed up after he was on campus and saw an article about the team being created. He hadn't played football in three years. This was his chance to suit up again.
"Even if you've never played football it's a chance to get out there and play," said Tropp.
But in sprint football, to stay on the field, you have to step on a scale and make weight twice a week.
Coach Hughes says the weight limit is a challenge for "maybe two or three guys right now."
He also uses the weight limit as part of his recruiting pitch.
"You'll get a faster opportunity here because of your size and you're not going to have to spend your career in college gaining weight and gaining weight to try and get on the field," said Hughes.
Right now, there are about 50 players on the team. Hughes said he'd like to get that to 70 players in the future and he already has a bunch lined up for next season.
Molloy makes its home debut Saturday at 7 p.m. against St. Thomas Aquinas at Mitchel Field in Uniondale.