West Virginia Sports
Some W.Va. schools struggle to field football team
AP
CHARLESTON, W.Va. (AP) — Under the lights on a Friday night, 22 student athletes gather on the high school gridiron to grind it out for football glory. On the sidelines, dozens more wait for their chance to get in on the action.
That's true for Class AAA and even Class AA schools. But for some schools, like Hannan High in Mason County, the sidelines are sparse.
"The numbers game is always going to be a disadvantage for us," said Dave Barr, head football coach at Hannan, where enrollment totals less than 150 for grades nine through 12.
The Hannan Wildcats, who stand at 0-9, have played most of this football season with just 13 or 14 players on the entire team.
"It makes practice really difficult because there have been weeks when I didn't have anybody to line up across from," Barr said.
Barr and several other coaches around West Virginia say there's a simple solution for small schools like Hannan: eight-man football.
Eight-man football is fairly common in rural areas of more than a dozen states, mostly west of the Mississippi River. It's typically played at high schools where small enrollment makes fielding a full team for traditional 11-man football a challenge.
Officials with the state chapter of the National Football Foundation think the concept could work well in areas of the Mountain State and are asking the West Virginia Secondary Schools Activities Commission to consider it.
Mike Dunlap, president of the chapter, sent a letter Friday to WVSSAC Executive Director Gary Ray outlining a proposal that would give the state's smallest Class A schools the option of playing football with fewer athletes.
"It's certainly not intended for big schools to field an eight-man team along with an 11-man team," Dunlap said. "The sole purpose is to allow kids who are not currently having a chance to be allowed to compete, to be able to compete."
Of 51 Class A Schools in West Virginia, 18 have fewer than 150 students available to play varsity sports. The disparity between the largest Class A school, Richwood High in Nicholas County, and the smallest Class A school that fields a football team, Notre Dame High in Clarksburg, is a difference of nearly 300 students.
Many schools on the smaller end of the spectrum, such as Hannan, struggle year after year to come up with enough players to limp through a season. Nine Class A schools in West Virginia don't have a football program at all.
"What we're trying to do is offer an alternative to keep our traditions alive but not take away from traditions we already have," said former Marshall University Football Coach Bob Pruett, who is involved with the National Football Foundation and supports the eight-man proposal.
Van High in Boone County was almost forced to cancel its football season last summer because of low turnout.
"I was ready to move," said Steve Price, head football coach at Van.
Parents and school officials rallied to recruit enough players to save the season, but Price admits it's not the first time Van's team has been put in jeopardy. However, he isn't convinced eight-man football would ever get off the ground in West Virginia.
"It's going to get to the point in the next four or five years where they close so many schools (due to consolidation) that it might not matter anyway," Price said.
This season, West Virginia has 121 active high school football programs. That number is expected to decrease to 117 in the next two years because of consolidation plans in both McDowell and Mingo Counties.
Fred King, athletic director at Paden City High School in Wetzel County and a vocal opponent of school consolidation, said he believes eight-man football would go a long way toward boosting school spirit and community pride in small towns. Paden City has fewer than 100 students at the high school level and just 17 players on its football team.
"We think it would really re-excite the bottom of the heap," King said of eight-man football. "It could give more kids an opportunity to go to the playoffs. There are probably 15 to 16 teams that will never see the playoffs again at this point."
Consolidation actually compounds the problem that Barr, the Hannan coach, is facing. Hannan High received a major facelift just three years ago, and there are no current plans to merge the school with any others in Mason County.
"It's not going anywhere anytime soon, and I don't see our numbers going up anytime soon," Barr said. "We're running out of teams we can play."
Barr said being constantly outmatched is taking a toll mentally and physically on his squad. For example, Hannan's closest contest this season came against Williamson High School. The Hannan Wildcats were leading at halftime 16 to 14, but ended up losing 44 to 16.
"We got in the middle of the third quarter and they didn't have anything left," Barr said. "Seven or eight of my players never come off the field."
The Wildcats also lost to Wahama, a Class A powerhouse in West Virginia, by a score of 60-0.
"I'm sure when you're a player and you look across the field and the opponent has 40 or 50 kids and you look at your team and there are 12 of us, that's really hard," Barr said.
Both Barr and King estimate as many as eight West Virginia high schools might be immediately interested in joining an eight-man league, including those that don't have football programs right now.
Dunlap suggests the option be limited to high schools with enrollments lower than 150. He adds that more than 100 private schools in the state also might choose to join the WVSSAC if eight-man football were instituted.
Ray, the WVSSAC executive director, said he hasn't yet read the letter from the National Football Foundation or had a chance to discuss their ideas. To his knowledge, this is the first time the concept of eight-man football has been introduced to the commission.
Ray said it is the WVSSAC's policy to consider any proposals brought to its attention but it's too soon to comment on the prospects of eight-man football.
"It would be like adding another sport," he said. "It's something we'd really have to take a hard look at."
While the rules vary from state to state, eight-man football is played with three fewer players on each side of the ball than in the traditional form of the game. The positions most commonly eliminated include two offensive tackles and a wide receiver as well as two defensive backs and a lineman.
Teams sometimes play on a shorter and narrower field, and quarters can be shortened or kept on a running clock. As a result, the tempo of the game is often noticeably faster and scores tend to be higher.
Pruett is somewhat familiar with the eight-man game after recruiting a number of students from schools in other parts of the country that play it. The coach doubts fans or players themselves would notice much of a difference.
"You have to block and tackle just the same," Pruett said. "It's still football."
If eight-man football ever does make its way to the Mountain State, it may still be a long way off. But for some coaches, there will be no hesitation once the option is in the playbook.
"If this happens, we're in," Barr said.
That's true for Class AAA and even Class AA schools. But for some schools, like Hannan High in Mason County, the sidelines are sparse.
"The numbers game is always going to be a disadvantage for us," said Dave Barr, head football coach at Hannan, where enrollment totals less than 150 for grades nine through 12.
The Hannan Wildcats, who stand at 0-9, have played most of this football season with just 13 or 14 players on the entire team.
"It makes practice really difficult because there have been weeks when I didn't have anybody to line up across from," Barr said.
Barr and several other coaches around West Virginia say there's a simple solution for small schools like Hannan: eight-man football.
Eight-man football is fairly common in rural areas of more than a dozen states, mostly west of the Mississippi River. It's typically played at high schools where small enrollment makes fielding a full team for traditional 11-man football a challenge.
Officials with the state chapter of the National Football Foundation think the concept could work well in areas of the Mountain State and are asking the West Virginia Secondary Schools Activities Commission to consider it.
Mike Dunlap, president of the chapter, sent a letter Friday to WVSSAC Executive Director Gary Ray outlining a proposal that would give the state's smallest Class A schools the option of playing football with fewer athletes.
"It's certainly not intended for big schools to field an eight-man team along with an 11-man team," Dunlap said. "The sole purpose is to allow kids who are not currently having a chance to be allowed to compete, to be able to compete."
Of 51 Class A Schools in West Virginia, 18 have fewer than 150 students available to play varsity sports. The disparity between the largest Class A school, Richwood High in Nicholas County, and the smallest Class A school that fields a football team, Notre Dame High in Clarksburg, is a difference of nearly 300 students.
Many schools on the smaller end of the spectrum, such as Hannan, struggle year after year to come up with enough players to limp through a season. Nine Class A schools in West Virginia don't have a football program at all.
"What we're trying to do is offer an alternative to keep our traditions alive but not take away from traditions we already have," said former Marshall University Football Coach Bob Pruett, who is involved with the National Football Foundation and supports the eight-man proposal.
Van High in Boone County was almost forced to cancel its football season last summer because of low turnout.
"I was ready to move," said Steve Price, head football coach at Van.
Parents and school officials rallied to recruit enough players to save the season, but Price admits it's not the first time Van's team has been put in jeopardy. However, he isn't convinced eight-man football would ever get off the ground in West Virginia.
"It's going to get to the point in the next four or five years where they close so many schools (due to consolidation) that it might not matter anyway," Price said.
This season, West Virginia has 121 active high school football programs. That number is expected to decrease to 117 in the next two years because of consolidation plans in both McDowell and Mingo Counties.
Fred King, athletic director at Paden City High School in Wetzel County and a vocal opponent of school consolidation, said he believes eight-man football would go a long way toward boosting school spirit and community pride in small towns. Paden City has fewer than 100 students at the high school level and just 17 players on its football team.
"We think it would really re-excite the bottom of the heap," King said of eight-man football. "It could give more kids an opportunity to go to the playoffs. There are probably 15 to 16 teams that will never see the playoffs again at this point."
Consolidation actually compounds the problem that Barr, the Hannan coach, is facing. Hannan High received a major facelift just three years ago, and there are no current plans to merge the school with any others in Mason County.
"It's not going anywhere anytime soon, and I don't see our numbers going up anytime soon," Barr said. "We're running out of teams we can play."
Barr said being constantly outmatched is taking a toll mentally and physically on his squad. For example, Hannan's closest contest this season came against Williamson High School. The Hannan Wildcats were leading at halftime 16 to 14, but ended up losing 44 to 16.
"We got in the middle of the third quarter and they didn't have anything left," Barr said. "Seven or eight of my players never come off the field."
The Wildcats also lost to Wahama, a Class A powerhouse in West Virginia, by a score of 60-0.
"I'm sure when you're a player and you look across the field and the opponent has 40 or 50 kids and you look at your team and there are 12 of us, that's really hard," Barr said.
Both Barr and King estimate as many as eight West Virginia high schools might be immediately interested in joining an eight-man league, including those that don't have football programs right now.
Dunlap suggests the option be limited to high schools with enrollments lower than 150. He adds that more than 100 private schools in the state also might choose to join the WVSSAC if eight-man football were instituted.
Ray, the WVSSAC executive director, said he hasn't yet read the letter from the National Football Foundation or had a chance to discuss their ideas. To his knowledge, this is the first time the concept of eight-man football has been introduced to the commission.
Ray said it is the WVSSAC's policy to consider any proposals brought to its attention but it's too soon to comment on the prospects of eight-man football.
"It would be like adding another sport," he said. "It's something we'd really have to take a hard look at."
While the rules vary from state to state, eight-man football is played with three fewer players on each side of the ball than in the traditional form of the game. The positions most commonly eliminated include two offensive tackles and a wide receiver as well as two defensive backs and a lineman.
Teams sometimes play on a shorter and narrower field, and quarters can be shortened or kept on a running clock. As a result, the tempo of the game is often noticeably faster and scores tend to be higher.
Pruett is somewhat familiar with the eight-man game after recruiting a number of students from schools in other parts of the country that play it. The coach doubts fans or players themselves would notice much of a difference.
"You have to block and tackle just the same," Pruett said. "It's still football."
If eight-man football ever does make its way to the Mountain State, it may still be a long way off. But for some coaches, there will be no hesitation once the option is in the playbook.
"If this happens, we're in," Barr said.
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