A new state-sponsored style of football could bring the sport to more Indiana high schools, but local athletic directors don’t believe it will be a feasible option for them in the near future.
The Indiana High School Athletic Association is considering starting 8-man football for schools with smaller enrollments that don’t have football right now as early as the fall of 2021.
Schools that don’t offer football already and have enrollments under 300 students, like Lanesville, Northeast Dubois and South Central high schools could participate, if approved at the IHSAA’s upcoming meeting scheduled for Tuesday. The state would need at least 16 teams to agree to the pilot for the 2021 season.
Locally, there are challenges to make 8-man football a new option.
“We currently have three fall sports for male athletes to participate in, and it would be very difficult to find participants for an 8-man football program without diluting and depleting our existing programs,” said Dr. Ryan Apple, athletic director at Lanesville Junior-Senior High School.
Eight-player football was created for smaller populated schools but have produced college and professional athletes. ESPN wrote about Dean Steinkuhler in 2008, who was the second overall pick in the 1984 NFL draft. The former University of Nebraska offensive lineman played 8-man football in high school. An internet search also found current Dallas Cowboys linebacker Leighton Vander Esch and current Chicago Bears running back Tarik Cohen played 8-man high school football.
The 8-player game is played on a more narrow field. Lanesville has a more narrow non-traditional track, which could hurt the school’s ability to offer the sport, without other changes, if the school wanted to pursue the sport, according to Apple.
South Central has a similar issue. The school’s softball field sits inside its track, and football wouldn’t be able to be played there.
“I would support looking into this, but we have a big hurdle to jump through,” said South Central’s athletic director, Tony Hall.
The IHSAA first announced this plan at its June 25 meeting in Indianapolis. The plan also has an outline for the fall of 2022, where schools with more than 300 students that already offer football could possibly move to an 8-player program. This could include schools like Crawford County that have had participation issues in the past.
Jerry Hanger, Crawford County’s athletic director, said he has seen fewer students want to participate in athletics in recent years. He said he’s not interested in moving.
“For us, it won’t matter if it’s an 8-man or 11-man game,” Hanger said.
Hanger said the football program already has to travel far distances for games, and an 8-player program would add a new challenge with longer bus rides, at least until more schools adopted this version.
The IHSAA said schools with more than 300 students could move to an 8-player program if the school shows enough evidence of declining enrollments and fewer younger students participating in youth football leagues or junior high football that could legitimately raise concerns that a program could struggle to field a traditional team.
Schools would be required to classify their football program for two years at a time. Once schools are classified, the IHSAA will classify the 11-man football teams as follows:
• 32 largest schools in class 6A;
• 32 smallest schools in class 1A; and
• 64 teams in class 2A, 3A and 4A.
Class 5A will be adjusted with the remaining schools.
The 11-man football tournament will be played as usual with bye weeks in class 5A. There will be separate 8-man tournaments for the two 8-man divisions, both concluding the weekend of week 10 of the Indiana high school football season, which is the opening week of sectionals for the traditional game.
The IHSAA did not say if large schools, such as Floyd Central and New Albany, would be able to offer both sports, assuming they could continue to meet all Title IX requirements, which requires educational institutions to provide equal athletic opportunities to all students, regardless of their gender.
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August 19, 2020 at 08:43PM
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