Merrick, N.Y. ? On a crisp autumn night, hundreds packed a school auditorium, but not for a pep rally, for Mepham High School’s football season was canceled before it even began.

Students attend a pep rally at Mepham High School in Bellmore, N.Y. The school's 2003 football season was canceled amid allegations that three varsity football players sexually assaulted three freshmen during a training camp hazing.

Instead, the gathering was a tense school board meeting to deal with a scandal that has rocked this Long Island community: Three varsity football players have been accused of sodomizing three freshmen teammates in August during a hazing at a training camp.

The community’s anguish surfaced at the meeting Wednesday as parents, students and faculty in the working-class district argued over whether coaches or administrators should be fired, lamented the season’s cancellation and expressed sympathy for the victims.

The tumult had been building for weeks. In an interview, Todd Frenchman, whose son plays on the team, criticized the cancellation, saying, “They made the entire team guilty by association.”

He also accused school administrators of being slow to discipline the attack suspects, who were not suspended until nearly two weeks after classes began.

“They were walking around, either physically or verbally intimidating” younger players, he said.