There have been a number of schools that have closed their doors or made the decision to discontinue athletics over the last few years, but you would be hard pressed to find another football program that has been through more adversity than Keystone College.
While other programs were making cuts to athletics in the face of the COVID pandemic, Keystone saw it's very first season of competition cancelled in 2020 due to the pandemic.
A winless 0-10 fall season of 2021 was followed by a 3-7 finish as their young roster began to mature into 2022 and 2023 saw a 2-8 finish.
Then, following a dip to 1-9 last fall, rumors began to swirl that Keystone College was preparing to shut their doors and while the subject of threats to their academic accreditation. Those rumors led to The Landmark Conference booting them from the league, leaving the program to schedule just two varsity programs, a JV team, and fill the rest of the schedule with some club teams.
While Keystone student athletes won't use a year of eligibility with the schedule they scrambled to piece together, a number of players decided to transfer elsewhere, leaving the program with a depleted roster the staff is hoping to build back up to about 75 players before the start of the fall.
Now, they're also losing Justin Higgins, who has stepped down to accept another coaching position.
Higgins, hired to build the program from the ground up five years ago, is the only coach the five-year old program has ever known.
Stepping in for him is pass game and special teams coordinator Hugh Kirwan, a former Marist (FCS - NY) linebacker who has been part of the staff the past five seasons.
The appointment of Kirwan is one aimed at providing some stability to a program that has had a tough time finding their footing, and some success this fall will help Keystone find a conference home to help provide further firm footing.