Hempstead High School Athletics
From Journalism80
Through the years, Hempstead High School as produced a slew of championship teams and prominent athletes. The football program was considered a dynasty in the 1980s and the basketball team has been consistently good for last 30 years.
While the football program experienced loads of success for most of the 20th century, it hasn't been in a Nassau County Championship game since 1992, which the Tigers lost, 7-6, to Farmingdale and hasn't won a county title since 1990, an 11-3 win over Farmingdale.
The Hempstead community today has changed drastically from the days when football first started there in the early 1900s. The socio-economic level of the town has dropped tremendously and its residents are primarily of African-American descent. While surrounding district's such as Freeport and Roosevelt, which have similar racial levels, are extremely successful and have churned out a slew of championships, Hempstead doesn't stack up on the gridiron as it once did.
Grid Iron History
Long before the success of the 1980s, way back at the turn of the 20th century football was played in Hempstead. The gridiron history is very rich and the original games played are debated about today. Some feel the first games played were in 1899, to which the opposition says were town football games not sponsored or funded by the school district. According to longtime Hempstead statistician and historian, Don Ryan, the team in 1899 played two games a week and went undefeated, only allowing points against Jamaica High School that year. They beat Friends Academy, 16-0, Freeport, 28-0, and Rockville Centre, 18-0.
Hoops
Last week Hempstead lost to a powerful Copiague team in the Long Island Class AA title game at Stony Brook University, so the dominance on the court has been evident for a long time with the Tigers. There has always been a stereotype that schools with more African Americans are better on the basketball court. Freeport and Roosevelt may be good on the football field, but even with many African Americans, they do not compare to Hempstead, which has been a master down hoops lane for quite some time now.
