High School punts on football

In the case of Manassas Park, it's a relatively small school district and city completly surrounded by Manassas with no room for growth. There's only one high school in the city, and I don't know how complicated it would be to have a consolidated team across school districts.

 

You would think most state associations would have deadlines and roster minimums. Out this way, they seem to spend most of their time rejiggering the leagues to balance out the school enrollments. I get it - but don't see the benefit of driving past three or four other school for two hours to get to a school that has a closer enrollment.
And once again, those pink games the NFL does? Yeah it's for breast cancer, but also PR to encourage moms to keep letting their kids play football.

 

Some states allow two or more schools to combine forces to form a co-op team. Missouri does, but Texas does not.

Arkansas this year is introducing 8-man football on a trial basis. At last count they had seven schools, but would’ve had more if they didn’t start up at such short notice.

 

The Mississippi Association of Independent Schools (which includes schools in Arkansas and Louisiana, and has previously had some in Tennessee and Alabama) has had an 8-man league for about 12 years now. It's one of the best things they ever did. There were a bunch of these little private school teams that were either getting the shit kicked out of them in 11-man ball because their rosters were 15-17 people most seasons. These are schools with enrollments well below 100, located in very rural areas where they'll never get much bigger.
They introduced the 8-man league with seven or eight teams in the mid-2000s, and now there are 22. For comparison, there are only six in the lowest 11-man division. Most of the small 11-man teams have shifted over. It's been a viable lifeboat for some teams and a boon for others. The last three state championship teams have all been schools that either would have had to give up football or had had a decade or more of consecutive 1- or 3-win type seasons. There's even been some controversy sparked by people saying those teams should be playing 11-man football again, because as they've had success the rosters have spiked up to 25 or 30 people in some cases (basically all the boys in the school probably wanting to be part of something successful).

 

Wonder if 8-man could be an option for schools that can't field a full 11-man JV team. At least you'll have players involved in football activities and learning some of the schemes and terminology, which is what you're looking for on the JV level.

 

Two in northern Va have canceled their seasons. Manassas Park, as mentioned above. And Park View-Sterling. That one surprised me a bit, although maybe that’s on me.

I remember playing against MP as a sophomore in mop-up duty. I lined up against some 300 lb DT on every snap. I weighed half that as a left tackle. I called a few audibles and pulled most plays. Screw that.

 

New Jersey does... but not in football. I think the concern is the creation of super teams... or racism. Depends which state legislator you ask.

 

In Virginia, Park View HS in Loudoun County is suspending varsity FB this year and will, I think, play a JV schedule. The story I read said FB players can play for a neighboring county HS, but the catch is they have to transfer and attend that school.

Also, a group of smaller private schools have started an 8-man league. I used to deal with one of the schools and it was always interesting to hear the coach say he hoped some kids would come out when school started, but they were always younger kids with no FB experience.

 

This was blue font, right?

 

Seems like a good place to park this:

How a mystery football injury spurred a near-impossible run

 

I know that back in the day, Bland High School and Rocky Gap High School down in Southwest VA had a consolidated football team. No idea if that's still the case.