One season after having no athletes come out for the cooperative eight-man football program with Bowler High School, Gresham Community High School has jumped up to having two players on the now 17-person team.
From a school with a rich soccer tradition and only 83 students, getting students to try out for a sport that starts in August has proved difficult.
Junior Ryan Lassatore and freshman Jesse Wade each tried out for the football team for the first time this seaon but for completely different reasons.
Lassatore wants to become a cop and sees football as the easiest way to get to college, while Wade’s size and speed made him a good fit for the team.
With so few athletes coming out for the team, it is easy for players who play on both sides of the ball to become tired and lose focus, even with the transition this year to eight-player football.
“A lot of people think that (we’re) not going to be that good, but the reason we are not that good is (low numbers),” Bowler/Gresham head coach Andrew Meverden said.
Meverden pointed to Friday’s game as an example. The Panthers led by two touchdowns early in the contest against Menominee Indian, but could not maintain a lead against a team that can bring fresh players on the field each possession.
Bowler and Gresham are working together to split the costs of all their co-op sports, with Bowler taking control of football and Gresham paying for soccer.
At the end of each fiscal year, Gresham Athletic Director Jeff Zobeck sits down with Bowler’s Jeff DePerry, whom he considers a good friend, to make sure neither school spent much more than the other.
The expenses include sending a bus from Gresham to Bowler each day to drop Lassatore and Wade off at practice, and then pick them up again afterward to return them to the high school.
Meverden believes transportation and tradition could be the biggest factors in attracting more athletes.
“Just try to get rid of the excuses they have, first of all, and then try to make it fun for football itself,” Meverden said.
The disparity of numbers does not concern Zobeck, who sees large numbers of middle school athletes coming up the pipeline.
“We have 27 middle schoolers (in the football program), and 10 of them are from Gresham, so the numbers are balanced there. Soccer, we probably have that same number, with them sending eight, nine or 10 kids over,” Zobeck said. “Kids are trying things out; it’s exploratory for them.”
With equal numbers between football and soccer, it’s a good sign for the Panthers football program moving forward.
The win-loss record does not concern Zobeck, who sees the team as a positive for the school.
“I’d like to see more kids doing it, but at least some kids are taking advantage of it, and that’s kind of our goal: to give them options,” Zobeck said.
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