HAPPY HEMPSTEAD

For as long as anyone can remember a football coach has never been fired at Hempstead High School. As the picture on the opposite page so clearly shows, the game is played strictly for fun. Players on the bench flirt with the cheerleaders and the coach gets paid a whopping $800 a year. The people in the stands are just as interested in the local gossip as they are in the score.

The yellow-hooded baton twirlers who drag Hempstead High's big bass drum past the school's 100-piece band and 24 glockenspielers (left), the frantic cheerleaders led by crouching Phyllis Dwir (right) and the loyally anxious parents with bemused little sisters (below, right) are all part of the weekly entourage which turns out to watch Hempstead (below in white) play neighboring rivals like Lawrence High

Sad on the sidelines, intent members of Mineola's squad show classic football expressions during an urgent moment in last year's game with Hempstead

SIX PHOTOS

FARRELL GREHAN