8-man football 'an interesting alternative,' and it's coming to Indiana high schools

[Muda69]

https://www.indystar.com/story/sports/high-school/2022/04/14/8-man-high-school-football-coming-indiana-2022-pilot-season/7274754001/

Quote

Waldron and Fort Wayne Blackhawk Christian are high schools that appear to have little in common on the surface.

Waldron, a rural public high school in Shelby County with 161 students, has been around since the horse and buggy days of more than a century ago. Blackhawk Christian, a private school of 245 students in metropolitan Fort Wayne, opened in the early 1970s.

One similarity the schools share: no football.

But that is about to change.

Waldron and Blackhawk Christian are two schools planning to participate this fall in a pilot season of eight-man football offered by the Indiana Football Coaches Association and supported by the Indiana High School Athletic Association. The schools eligible to participate, currently, are those that do not have football.

“It was something we wanted to research from our own families — does this make sense for Blackhawk Christian? And we felt we could add to our program without subtracting anything," said Blackhawk Christian athletic director Joel Cotton.

Blackhawk Christian is one of eight to 10 schools planning to play eight-man football in the pilot season, said IHSAA assistant commissioner Robert Faulkens, who oversees football for the IHSAA. Faulkens attended the IFCA annual clinic last month, where eight-man coaches from Illinois, Iowa, Michigan and Ohio discussed the intricacies of the game, as well as the finances of starting a football program.

“The interest is there,” Faulkens said. “But going from interest to reality in football is a difficult move. Starting a football program is a big financial commitment, from facilities to equipment to finally playing the game. But having eight to 10 schools that are on the cusp of playing eight-player football is a good number. When they have success, I think we’ll see more schools have interest moving forward.”

Eight-man football might seem like a foreign concept in Indiana, where all 314 teams in the 2021 state tournament played traditional 11-player football. But eight-man football is prominent in several states, particularly in the Midwest. Missouri and Iowa crown state champions and the game is popular in Kansas and Nebraska, where small towns with low enrollments field teams. Eight-man football is an emerging sport in Illinois, which now has nearly 30 schools playing the game. 

There is some history of eight-man football in Indiana, though it is likely largely forgotten. The Pocket Athletic Conference in southwest Indiana started an eight-man league (an outgrowth of the six-man game started in the 1930s) in 1948 with Rockport, Richland, Poseyville, Oakland City, Mt. Vernon, Owensville, Cannelton, Tell City, Dale and Petersburg participating. The Wabash Valley League — made up of Cayuga, Covington, Ladoga, New Market, Perrysville and Veedersburg — played eight-man football until 1963. Others, like Kentland, Morocco and DeMotte in northwest Indiana, played eight-man until the 1960s.

Several local schools, including Center Grove, Beech Grove, Lawrence Central, Pike, Greenwood, Speedway, Decatur Central, Plainfield, Danville and Franklin Central, played six-man football for a brief time in the late 1930s and/or early ‘40s before transitioning to the 11-man game. In the post-consolidation years of the 1960s, following the Indiana School Reorganization Act of 1959, the small schools that were still playing eight-man football no longer existed and the game faded away in Indiana.

But now might be the right time to bring reduced-player football back. There is potential, in the future, for schools currently with football but struggling with numbers to move to eight-man football. In recent years, there have been instances of teams canceling games due to low numbers or even dropping the sport entirely.

“We talked with some coaches in other states and they made a strong argument for eight-man football so we went to work on who would be interested around here," said Fort Wayne Snider coach Kurt Tippmann, who is providing leadership for the IFCA on eight-man football. "The idea is give more kids the opportunity to play football in the state of Indiana, whether that is schools in danger of not having enough to play or a new school emerging.”

Faulkens said there is no real timetable for expectations beyond the pilot season and there are still many questions going into the first season.

“We’re in no hurry,” Faulkens said. “Two of the biggest hurdles are the financial part and the travel. If we only have 10 teams across the state playing, those schools are going to be pretty far apart. They may have to meet in the middle or play a team twice or even go to play a team in another state. The goal is to have a (postseason) tournament at some point, but we’re not going to force a timeline because what if you don’t meet those timelines? We want to give this a chance to work.”

The preliminary plans are for the teams planning to play eight-man games this fall to play on Saturdays, likely with at least one of those in a jamboree style event.

“The first few games will need to be teaching opportunities,” said IFCA executive director Bob Gaddis. “We don’t need to reinvent the rules. As a point of interest, in Iowa, they use regular high school fields and paint a temporary sideline because the field in eight-man is narrower. Our vision at the end of the year would be to bring them to a place like Grand Park and have all the teams there together in one place.”

Gaddis said there around 18 schools that have expressed interest, but there will not be that many involved the first year. One of those, Lakewood Park Christian, supports the eight-man idea and has interest for the future but does not plan to play this fall.

Evansville Christian athletic director Paul Dunham said his school, which is on track to become a full IHSAA member this summer, is in the same wait-and-see situation. “We are going to hold off on football for right now,” Dunham said, adding football could diminish progress made in established programs like soccer, cross -country and tennis.

Trinity Lutheran, a school of 146 students near Seymour, is in the process of building its elementary school program, but athletic director Brad Dickey said the school is not ready to add football “for another couple of years.”

“As for eight-man, it is an interesting alternative,” Dickey said. “It only takes 16 to scrimmage and 20 to 22 kids can get you started.”

A model for future programs exploring the eight-man game might schedule a visit to Waldron. Corey Barton started a youth football program at Waldron in 2015 and switched the youth program to eight-man football last year. He also started an eight-man football program last year at neighboring Morristown, which could have interest in playing eight-man depending on the success of the Waldron program.

“We do need to raise money,” Barton said. “The school is not going to pay to fund this first year, so we’re on our own to raise money for shoulder pads and practice equipment. But I think we’re in a good spot because we’ve established our youth program here and know what we need for our program.”

Barton estimates it would cost about $19,000 to get the football program off the ground, though he expects that cost could be offset by grants, a summer golf outing and other fundraisers. Barton is not a teacher at the school, but does have help from teacher Chandler Miller. Barton said more than 30 boys at the school have expressed interest in playing football, most of those with experience playing in the Waldron youth league.

“Our hope is that we could play between four and six games this year,” Barton said. “We have a field (at Waldron), but don’t have goalposts. But the schools we met with at the (IFCA) clinic made it sound like extra points were so rare (teams regularly go for 2-point conversions) that you could probably get through a game without goalposts.”

Barton said eight-man football is the right fit at Waldron, a school where “basketball is king, but is not for everyone.” He said it is likely the school might retain or attract students it has lost in the past who would like to play football at the high school level.

“Football is America’s sport,” Barton said. “You’re talking about more people in the community coming out to watch not only their kids play, but cheerleaders and other kids, too. It becomes a community event. I know there are some teams waiting and looking at 2023 to get started, but I’d rather see us on the forefront of it and get started this year.”

Greenwood Christian is another school that could be in for eight-man football, possibly as a bridge to playing 11-man football. Athletic director Devin Gray said the school is in the process of hiring a football coach in the next few weeks.

“Starting football is something I’m super passionate about,” Gray said. “We hope to know whether we are committing to eight-man or making the push to 11-man in the next few weeks (following the coaching hire). The advantage to eight-man would be to not threaten the numbers of other fall sports, like soccer, and to phase in kids who have never played football. The advantage of 11-man would be to jump into a sport that is already recognized. Playing eight-man would be more like a club sport at first, but it would allow us to instill a culture of football within our school, too, and get families familiar with the sport without fulling jumping in right away.”

Blackhawk Christian’s Cotton said the upfront cost of starting football “is a little intimidating.” He said it was likely the school would use refurbished equipment from other programs in the Fort Wayne area at first. But beyond the financial piece, the unknowns of the teams playing eight-man and potential schedules for this fall create some issues.

I think the biggest hurdle is trying to picture it because we don’t already have it in Indiana,” Cotton said. “What does this look like with schedules? One of the things coaches from other states encouraged us to do was have the opportunity to play at least one home game, even if that is at another (nearby) school. You want to have that experience for your community to see what it really is like with the pep band and cheerleaders and families. Because probably this first year, we are going to have to travel to play some games.”

While there might be some trepidation at first, Faulkens is confident “once people see it, they will be believers.” Gaddis said the long-term vision for eight-man football is not to judge it based off the pilot season, but after four years. It is likely smaller schools currently playing 11-man football will join, or at least explore, eight-man football after this season.

“Our reason for doing it is to give kids an opportunity if they want to play,” Gaddis said. “We've had several schools struggling to keep numbers due to sport specialization and those kinds of things. For schools that are down to 16 or 18 players, it would make sense to explore eight-man football in the future.”

What does 8-man football look like?

>> The biggest difference in eight-man football from traditional 11-man football is the offensive numbers. It is common for the games to be played in the 40s, 50s and 60s – even higher sometimes. Formations require five players on the line of scrimmage and in certain formations the three offensive linemen are eligible to catch passes.

>> The field sizes vary for eight-man football. The length of the field can be 80 or 100 yards, though the width is 40 yards instead of 53 1/3 (the length for Indiana is still in discussion).

>> Eight-man football is a growing sport. The Alabama Independent School Association unveiled an eight-man division in football last month. Arkansas, Arizona, California, Colorado, Georgia, Idaho, Illinois, Iowa, Kansas, Maine, Michigan, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, New Mexico, New York, Nevada, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Washington and Wisconsin are states where eight-man football makes up the bulk of the more than 1,000 eight-man teams playing in the country. Six-man football is popular in Texas, along with Montana and Nebraska, while nine-man football is played in Minnesota, Oregon and the Dakotas, predominantly.

Meh, I wish them luck but am skeptical that this will take off.  Call me when the like of Rossville fields a team or Clinton Central, with an slowly eroding 9-12 enrollment, decides to switch to 8-man football.

  

[oldtimeqb]

46 minutes ago, Muda69 said:

https://www.indystar.com/story/sports/high-school/2022/04/14/8-man-high-school-football-coming-indiana-2022-pilot-season/7274754001/

Meh, I wish them luck but am skeptical that this will take off.  Call me when the like of Rossville fields a team or Clinton Central, with an slowly eroding 9-12 enrollment, decides to switch to 8-man football.

  

The schools mentioned in the article are the correct targets, IMO.  The small private or charter schools and rural schools with a declining enrollment.

I would like to see places like Wood Memorial (Oakland City) and Oldenburg Academy join the ranks.  Perhaps even someone like Dugger Union.  Schools that have a history of football but can't see to field a full 11 man squad on an annual basis.

And whatever happened to all the "Lighthouse" schools?  I think there 2 or 3 of them around the state a few years ago but can't seem to find anything about them. 

[Muda69]

So under this 8-man system could an established Mega-School, say a Carmel, Ben Davis, or Center Grove field a team as well?  After all these schools often have very large rosters, and frankly there are athletes who spend most of their time "riding the pine" on the 11-man squad that could contribute and excel on an 8-man team.

 

[Wedgebuster]

Their are Ten Conferences of 8 Man Football in Michigan

Here is a link to their historical results

Lots of schools up here play 8 man, but it hasn't panned out how I think some intended it to.   A lot of communities hope that 8 man football will help a struggling 11 man program "gain traction" and then when numbers increase, the school will go back to 11 man football.   To my knowledge that has never happened.  Once you make the choice to go to the 8 man format, it seems to be a forever type decision.  

[Bonecrusher]

On 4/15/2022 at 12:54 PM, Wedgebuster said:

Their are Ten Conferences of 8 Man Football in Michigan

Here is a link to their historical results

Lots of schools up here play 8 man, but it hasn't panned out how I think some intended it to.   A lot of communities hope that 8 man football will help a struggling 11 man program "gain traction" and then when numbers increase, the school will go back to 11 man football.   To my knowledge that has never happened.  Once you make the choice to go to the 8 man format, it seems to be a forever type decision.  

Same in Texas, but with 6-man.  Only know of a couple schools who went up to 11-man, since I've been following, but many schools who went from 11 down to 6.  Some schools are destined to more or less stay at their current enrollment (geographical, economic, other reasons) and for them, fielding an 8 or 6 man team is better than not playing at all IMHO.