Around Allegany County or even the Section V area of New York state, when you hear Belfast, you think of one thing: soccer. Belfast Central School has one of the most prestigious soccer programs in all of Section V, where Belfast is known for our traditional style of play and our ways of getting the ball and attacking the goal down the sides of the field. For the last forty-five years, the soccer team has been under the coaching of Mr. Richard Sullivan and then his son, Mr. Mark Sullivan.  The local newspapers call Belfast a powerhouse in Allegany County soccer. Our athletes train hard, not just in soccer, but in every sport that Belfast offers. Academics is also a huge part of our program: if you’re failing, you cannot play sports at Belfast. This really persuades our student athletes to stay above passing.

The best two months of the Belfast sports year starts in the middle of August, two weeks before the first day of school.  Even if you don’t play soccer, you know of the hellish ordeal that the soccer athletes endure in the first two weeks of the season. This is conditioning week to our

coach, but hell week to the players. On the first day, there’s a three and a half mile run and then countless pushups and situps that we have to do over two weeks. It all prepares us for the famous Belfast invitational Soccer tournament. This includes four Allegany county teams: Belfast, Andover, Houghton Academy, and Bolivar-Richburg, all playing on the Belfast soccer field for a chance to win a pre-season trophy. Belfast varsity Baseball coach Derek Kenyon says, “Every school plays at their very best against Belfast: you can definitely see it on the soccer field.”

The rivalries Belfast has are some of the best stories I’ve ever heard, and some of the best games I’ve ever watched or played in. The oldest rivalry by far is the Fillmore rivalry. Fillmore is another very well-known soccer program just twenty minutes down the road. Fillmore is also ranked highly in games played, years played, wins, and winning percentage all time in Section V. This rivalry goes back to the late 70s or maybe even older than that. My dad has told me stories of playing them in the 80s, and the games would have been amazing to see. They say many state troopers had to attend these games because of fights between either players or fans. The rivalry continued this year as we played at Fillmore to open their brand new soccer complex with new turf fields. Belfast varsity handed Fillmore their first ever loss on that new field in a 2-0 win. This rivalry will continue for many years to come.

The Andover rivalry is a new and definitely up and coming one. This may have something to do with our current coach moving to Belfast from Andover. He always gets us pumped for these, and they are must- win games. Andover has definitely gotten the better of us these past few years. Andover has beaten Belfast more than any other school in the last few years. Soccer fans in the county know of this rivalry and definitely will be attending these games in the near future. There will surely be some games in the future that people will be talking about for years to come.

Belfast holds many records in Section V soccer. Former and current coaches Mark and Rich Sullivan have the most father/son combined wins in any sport in Section V history. Rich Sullivan coached Belfast Varsity soccer for over thirty-five years. He amassed a record of 453-163-53, 5th most in Section V history and the most in Allegany County History. Our soccer teams in the 70s, 80s, 90s, and the 2000s won countless titles, eight section titles to be exact, and over 20 county titles. Belfast is ranked fifth all-time in Section V boys soccer titles, which is tied with local school Canaseraga Central with thirteen Section V titles. Belfast is also ranked among some of the elite Section V schools with over 600 wins in recorded history and with a winning percentage of over seventy-five percent, which is definitely the highest in Allegany County soccer,  with the next closest school being Fillmore with seventy-two percent. Belfast is also one of few schools to have multiple undefeated seasons: three, to be exact. This current season, Belfast broke our own school record of thirteen shutouts in a season and also became ranked eighth all-time in goals allowed in a season with ten allowed in seventeen games. Belfast has also had three teams appear in the State final four tournament, more than any other Allegany county team. We also have thirty-one Allegany County Division II titles, probably one of the highest totals in the county.

These statistics prove that Belfast is a definite powerhouse in Allegany county. Three years ago, we finished 6-9-2, which was a terrible year for our standards. Since then, we are 26-8-1 with back to back Division II titles. With only losing a few seniors this year, our program is on the rise in every sport. Belfast sports will be a huge force to reckon with in the next few years, especially our soccer program.

Works Cited

“Section V Team Records.” Section V Team Records. N.p., n.d. Web. 28 Feb. 2017.