Is Eight Man Football Coming to a School Near You?

[Omega]

The Virginia equivalent of the OHSAA is on the verge of sanctioning eight man football. The prime motivator are schools unable to field 11 man teams due to declining numbers.

Would sanctioned eight man football in Ohio help schools facing low participation rates to safely field a team?Millersport comes to mind in SEO, and there are other schools like Notre Dame that seem to have number problems.

I have seen eight man football and it can be a quality product. Thoughts please.

https://www.roanoke.com/sports/high_sch ... a9217.html

[mattash]

Not seen it. But yeah I'm sure achools like Millersport, New Boston and Clay would be about it.

[danicalifornia]

No.

[fortdawg]

I would hate to see it....but if numbers continue to drop I don't see much of an alternative.

I'm not sure the casual or average fan realizes the drop in enrollment at a lot of schools. Graduating classes of below 50 are becoming more frequent.
Several schools in the Hocking are half the size they once were.
I'm sure that is being played out in other leagues.

[goUK]

consolidating schools would be a better option. Not huge schools, just get rid of schools that can't provide student athletes with multiple opportunities. Football, soccer, cross country, volleyball, basketball, wrestling, bowling, track, softball, baseball,tennis and maybe lacrosse. A school with 600-750 total students could accomplish this very easily. Male and female should have 2-3 choices per season. With bigger enrollment, this can also add more options for AP/CP courses in school. For reference, Jackson has around 750 students.

[KSW]

UK, what you are saying is a no brainer to me. But, these small schools have fought any and every idea of consolidation. Clay and New Boston being prime examples.

[madpolecat]

Consolidating schools within the same district is one thing (like in WV where each county is a single school district, or when Gallia County rolled the four high schools into one at River Valley.)

Not so easy when they are independent districts (like Clay and New Boston). That edict would have to be by mutual agreement, and that would only happen if both districts needed to do it to survive financially. Then they would have to deal with the political realities of the separate communities.

I'm not even certain how a state-level mandate from ODE would force district consolidation. Just imagine how fast the folks of Gallipolis would file an injunction if ODE tried to force the Gallipolis City Schools to merge with the Gallia County Local Schools.

[goUK]

originally these schools were perfect for football, basketball and baseball only back in the day, but with declining enrollment, some schools struggle to have quality teams year after year even with only 3 sports

[goUK]

Consolidating schools within the same district is one thing (like in WV where each county is a single school district, or when Gallia County rolled the four high schools into one at River Valley.)

Not so easy when they are independent districts (like Clay and New Boston). That edict would have to be by mutual agreement, and that would only happen if both districts needed to do it to survive financially. Then they would have to deal with the political realities of the separate communities.

I'm not even certain how a state-level mandate from ODE would force district consolidation. Just imagine how fast the folks of Gallipolis would file an injunction if ODE tried to force the Gallipolis City Schools to merge with the Gallia County Local Schools.

I would say 3-4 schools per county not 1 is what i am talking about. And yes i agree something like this would have to be state mandated. Scioto and lawrence counties have 7 or so in each county.

[madpolecat]

I think we have eight separate districts in Scioto Co. , not including the community school in Sciotoville and Norte Dame.