Through simple addition by subtraction, the next football season at Menominee Indian High School became a lot more compelling.
The Eagles signed on to the Wisconsin Interscholastic Athletic Association’s eight-man football program, a move that figures to pump new life into the flagging state of affairs the school has endured on the field for the past seven or eight autumns.
“We started talking about going to eight-man football when we had a hard time getting players to show up for practice at the beginning of the 2012 season,” Menominee Indian Athletic Director Chuck Raasch said. “But low numbers have been a problem on and off since 2007.”
There has been no junior varsity football team at Menominee Indian for the past two seasons, due to both low numbers and the school’s having to cancel Monday JV games on account of too many injuries sustained at a Friday or Saturday varsity game.
The injury angle is what makes eight-man football a logical and wise option for smaller schools. Menominee Indian, which finished last football season with a 1-8 record, has an enrollment of 252; there were 23 players in the program last season, grades nine through 12.
“We’re hoping that a more ‘level playing field’-type of interest in football will increase at our school,” Raasch said. “Talking with schools that have gone to eight-man, we learned that there’s a sense of pride that comes with success on the field.”
Two years after its foray into eight-man football, Bowler High School Athletic Director Jeff DePerry left no ambiguity in evaluating its impact.
“Simply and basically, it saved our program,” he said. “We looked at our numbers, and the various safety issues involved in continuing with the 11-man football, and it wasn’t a difficult decision. It was an easy fit for us.”
DePerry, whose school co-ops in the eight-man program with Gresham, underscored Raasch’s point about the continual danger that players at smaller schools face competing against bigger schools with stacked rosters. Low turnout for 11-man football means that players from the lower levels — who ordinarily would not yet be varsity material — would often be called up to the varsity to fill the holes in the roster.
It is not only dispiriting for a 120-pound freshman to get knocked on his back side every play by bigger, more experienced opponents; it is a legitimate health concern, particularly given the spate of concussions the game routinely yields.
Bowler/Gresham went 6-3 in 2013, its first year of eight-man, and qualified for the 8-Player Jamboree. The WIAA divides eight-man football schools into North and South divisions. The jamboree is not a playoff, but an end-of-the-year showcase for the eight-man game featuring teams from the North vs. teams from the South.
“We lost that jamboree game 47-46,” DePerry recalled. “That’s another aspect of the eight-man game that really appeals to the kids — there is potential for a lot of scoring. There are games where teams are scoring in the 70s and 80s. Face it, young kids like to score, and they like to see a lot of scoring.”
A cursory glance at last year’s jamboree results illustrates his point. Two of the four games ended with final scores of 58-40 and 80-32.
“Some games seem to be more up-tempo and high scoring,” Raasch said. “Others are more traditional, with a grind-it-out style. I’m thinking, like with 11-man, you play to your strengths and try to take advantage of an opponent’s weakness.
“Like with any new direction, the reaction has been wait-and-see. But it’s still the same game, just with three fewer players. Once the players got on the field, they liked it.”
Menominee Indian hopes to have enough players for separate varsity and junior varsity teams. The varsity schedule is set — two games against Sevastopol and one each with Gibraltar, Bowler/Gresham, Lena, Green Bay NEW Lutheran, Oneida and Oakfield.
The last game of the year will be against a South Division team with the same won-loss record as Menominee Indian.
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