Shaun O’Hara Senior Bowl is off in 2026, victim of low participation, but could come back next year

After two years, the Shaun O’Hara Senior Bowl won’t be played this year, but not for a lack of trying.

Though the game was a fun – and one last opportunity to take the high school field for dozens of student-athletes – Hillsborough head coach Kevin Carty, Jr., who organized the game with now-former Watchung Hills head coach Rich Seubert – told Central Jersey Sports Radio Wednesday that the game will not be held this year because they don’t have enough players to participate.

The Shaun O’Hara Senior Bowl – an all-star senior game featuring mainly players from Somerset County, but also from the rest of the Skyland Conference teams that play in the Big Central for football – came about in 2023. It was the successor to the Basilone Bowl, which began in 2013 in conjunction with the Marine Corps, with the goal of raising money to help wounded soldiers.

But like everything else after the COVID-19 pandemic, things took a toll, and the game failed to make a profit in the 2022 edition, which led then-Montogmery head coach Zoran Milich – who was helping organize the game at that point – to announce it was going on hiatus to reorganize and focus its efforts on 2024.

With the involvement of Sean O’Hara – a standout at Hillsborough High School, with Rutgers, and the NFL’s New York Giants – and hos Shaun O’Hara Foundation, the game got new life in 2024, and was held at his alma mater that year and last June as well.

Carty says only 55 players had opted to participate, which would have meant about 22 per team, not counting the occasional drop-out from players, and that simply wouldn’t have been enough to hold practices or play the game.

Carty did say that there was the possibility the game could be revisited next year, if enough players opt-in.

Click below to hear Central Jersey Sports Radio’s Mike Pavlichko talk with Hillsborough head football coach Kevin Carty Jr. about the future of the Shaun O’Hara Senior Bowl:

PAST COVERAGE OF THE SHAUN O’HARA SENIOR BOWL:

• Team Rocky wins second annual Shaun O’Hara Bowl over Team Otto, to benefit the Shaun O’Hara Foundation
• Shaun O’Hara Bowl coming back to Hillsborough, as standout seniors, coaches get ready for second annual All-Star showcase
• Who’s playing in the 2025 Shaun O’Hara Senior Bowl at Hillsborough? We have team names, coaches, and full rosters
• Team Rocky tops Team Otto 21-7 in inaugural Shaun O’Hara Foundation Senior Bowl
• WATCH: Video from the halftime ceremony at inaugural Shaun O’Hara Senior Bowl honors Hillsborough legends Otto Gsell, Rocky Forte
• One last ride: Top Somerset, Hunterdon senior football players to clash in inaugural Shaun O’Hara Foundation Senior Bowl
• Big Central football standouts from Somerset, Hunterdon Counties to star in inaugural Shaun O’Hara Foundation Senior Bowl