Thursday, Oct. 25, 2012: Tottenville game postponed after girl's suicide

   Leading off today: Friday’s PSAL football game between Tottenville, ranked No. 2 in the state, and Staten Island Curtis has been pushed back to Sunday after a Tottenville student took her own life by jumping in front of a train on Wednesday according to various New York City media.

   Freshman Felicia Garcia, 15, was allegedly bullied by fellow students amid rumors that she had sex with four members of the unbeaten football team last weekend, sources said. New York City police have begun questioning the students accused of harassing Garcia as well as the four players and were combing through social media for evidence of bullying.

   “I hope the football team feels guilty for what they did to her,” Stephanie Imparato, who said she was friends with Garcia, told The New York Post.

   “They said at no time was the victim pressured into doing anything,” one of the police sources told the The New York Daily News.

   Tottenville girls soccer coach George Kaplan said that all “non-necessary activities” were suspended at the school on Wednesday when news of the girl’s death was received.

   “At a time like this, it’s not about football,” Curtis AD Eric Ritzer told The Daily News. “It’s about making sure everybody is OK. Right now, we want to do what’s best for the students.”

   The Board of Education assigned a crisis team to Tottenville, described by some students as besieged.

   Garcia was driven to her death after two 17-year-old schoolmates gossiped about the alleged encounters.

   “Kids are saying she had sex with some guys from the football team at a party after the game,” an unidentified friend of the girl told The Daily News. “Later on they wouldn't leave her alone about it. They just kept bullying her and bullying her.”

   On Monday, Garcia tweeted, “I cant, im done, I give up,”

   School officials reportedly met Wednesday with one of the 17-year-old boys, who denied harrassing the girl. Leaving the office, Garcia ran into the other 17-year-old and exchanged words, the sources said. From there, she went to the Huguenot station of the Staten Island Railroad, where some players allegedly continued taunting Garcia. She handed her phone to a friend and killed herself as stunned classmates watched.

   “She wouldn’t have done it if she wasn’t bullied,” friend Alissa Compitello, wrote on Twitter. “All this girl wanted was to be left alone. And nobody could do that for her.”

   Bookkeeping mistake: As usual, it's the kids paying for mistakes made by the adults. This time it's the Carmel field hockey team dealing with disappointment.

   The team was banned from the Section 1 tournament Wednesday despite a 13-3-1 regular-season record because the Rams exceeded the maximum of 16 regular-

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season games.

   “We are doing whatever we can to get back into sectionals,” senior Aimee Albano told The Journal News. “Our whole team was running around the school crying. We’ve been working so hard since August, putting in hours and hours. We just want to go on.”

   Carmel coach Andrea Caso and AD James Sangirardi informed the team of the problem Wednesday afternoon. “Literally, a riot broke out when people started asking questions,” Caso said. “(Sangirardi) admitted that the error was his own because he should have checked that there was 16 games and not an extra.

   “There was no plan for what to do. If there’s not an appeal process, we need to make one. It’s not an error of (the players).”

   Sangirardi did not return the paper's phone call seeking comment.

   There's no real recourse for Carmel. Other teams in other sports across the state have made the same mistake in recent years; none received reinstatement to the postseason.

   If Carmel officials did not know the rule or did not count the number of games on their schedule, then shame on them. It's not as if the 16-game rule is a secret. The limit is noted at the top of the first page of the Section 1 field hockey handbook, the paper reported.

   Extra points: David Rhyde, 56, has resigned as boys basketball coach at Hamilton High after 29 seasons, the last 11 as head coach. Rhydehad a 100-111 record, including 2-16 lat his alma mater.