Huntington football players are conditioning themselves for the coming season, which officially kicks off on Monday, August 14 at 7 a.m. sharp. Will this be a special year for the Blue Devils? Only time will tell.
Huntington will participate in a multi-team scrimmage on Saturday, August 26 at 8 a.m. at Veterans Park in East Northport. The Blue Devils will host a second scrimmage on Friday, September 1 against Harborfields at 4:15 p.m.
The opening game of the fall campaign will be held at Blue Devil Stadium on Saturday, September 9 against rugged North Babylon. Kickoff is at 3 p.m. Huntington will host three other home games against West Islip, Deer Park and Riverhead and travel to Copiague, Smithtown West, Newfield and Bay Shore for away contests.
Huntington head coach Steve Muller.
(Mike Connell photo.)
Steve Muller enters his 22nd season as the Blue Devils’ head coach with a 119-78 record. His .604 winning percentage trails only legendary coaches William Class (74-41-16 in 20 seasons for a .626 winning percentage) and Frank Kubisa (24-12-1 in five seasons for a .662 winning percentage).
Huntington football has compiled an all-time record of 412-300-30 in 93 seasons of play. The Blue Devils trace their tradition to 1895, but research has found these early teams were not strictly filled with players from the Union School/Huntington High School, but more closely resembled town squads. (The Union School was renamed Huntington High School in 1897.)
A devastating injury to a player early in the 20th century resulted in a halt to the Huntington football program for two decades. It was resurrected as a pure high school team in 1924 with Alton R. Stevens as its first head coach.
Huntington’s first victory came on Saturday, October 31, 1925 when it blanked Hicksville, 33-0. The Blue Devils won the Rutgers Trophy in 1948, 1949 and 1952, denoting Suffolk supremacy. The program’s longest winning streak is 10 games coming over parts of 1947 and 1948.
Only Joe Lucey served longer than Muller has as Huntington’s head coach. Lucey coached from 1961 through 1987, compiling a mark of 125-95-9 for a .566 winning percentage over the course of 27 seasons.
Who will be this season’s stars? Huntington football has had its fair share over the years.