Strong set to compete in eight-man football
In recent years, Strong’s numbers for varsity football have continually dwindled.
During the 2020 season, the situation came to a head with Strong playing much of their schedule with only 11 players.
With their numbers not improving, a decision needed to be made about the future of football at Strong.
The result was that starting this fall, Strong will join a growing contingent of schools that are playing eight-man football. Strong’s school board is slated to discuss the issue at their meeting next week.
“When eight-man originally started in the state of Arkansas, Strong was involved in the initial conversation, and each year when they’ve held meetings in Little Rock, we’ve typically had a representative there,” said Strong-Huttig Superintendent Kimberly Thomas. “It’s just that it never fit for us. We always believed that we could improve with numbers, that we could get enough kids that would come out and that we could fill the team and everything would be OK.
“This last year, our numbers dropped due to COVID partly, but not entirely, but due to the fact that a lot of parents were concerned about their children participating. At one point during the year, we only had 11 varsity football players. That’s a difficult task to take. The kids, every game that they could, they played, but now, we’re looking at where our numbers are for spring, we have about 14, 15 students that are varsity football play
ers, and that’s still really low numbers.
“The athletic director (Anthony Avery) and myself were on a Zoom with the AAA (Arkansas Activities Association), and the conversation came up about eight-man football. We inquired, called, had a conversation, attended a couple of other Zooms and we just believed, talking with the coaches and looking at what our children would be able to do if they had the opportunity to play and be competitive. We have some great athletes, we just know that a varsity football team with 11 players is just hard.
“This eight-man option is available, it’s out there, we’ve attended meetings before and had conversations in the past. We just feel that now is the time.
“Across the state, they were looking for at least 16 2A schools, and the possibility of eight-man being sanctioned for this upcoming school year made that transition a lot easier to make that decision because now our kids actually now would be able to possibly compete and do really well in eight-man.”
The Bulldogs will join two former members of the 8-2A in the eight-man ranks in Woodlawn and Hermitage.
“We became that 16th 2A school,” Thomas said. “Hopefully, it gets sanctioned. We’re really hopeful for it that they will vote and make it a competitive sport for the upcoming year.
“There are other schools, Hermitage, Woodlawn, that have had to make some changes before. They played 11-man and their numbers dropped. They’ve had great success. Their kids have enjoyed it. They feel like it’s been a positive thing for them.
“All of those people that I’ve talked with that have made that transition, they just felt like it was a chance for their kids to still have a chance to compete.
“The alternative is if we don’t increase the numbers and we go into the fall, we end up with players hurt, we would still have to forfeit the rest of the season, and we really don’t want to take that chance.”
As far as the future goes, Strong’s junior high team finished second in the conference last year, and Thomas said that the Bulldogs’ numbers are much higher in the seventh and eighth grades.
“That’s just the thing. It’s weird because our junior high squad, we have about 24 boys that are playing junior high football,” Thomas said. “Seventh and eighth grade are some of our larger classes in the district, but our current senior class is only 14 students total.
“When you look at the 11th-grade group, the lion’s share of the team this year, we had several 11th-graders that were playing, but we didn’t have as many coming up from ninth grade as we had that were leaving from 12th grade.
“It’s kind of one of those, three, maybe four years from now, our chances of having a solid senior high football team are pretty good just based on the elementary enrollment, the kids that are moving up, but our kids right now, it’s kind of like we’re in a drought.
“They’ve talked to all of their friends. The people that are playing are playing, and with COVID, some of the parents wouldn’t allow them to this past year, so we’re hopeful we can pick up some more kids. Just looking at what we currently have right now and what could potentially be on the team for next year, our numbers are just limited.”
When asked about the possibility of Strong returning to 11-man football, Thomas said it would be evaluated annually.
“I would just say right now we’ll take it year by year,” Thomas said. “Just based on our current numbers, we’re just making the best decision that we can for our current varsity team. If our numbers improve and increase and things go well, we wouldn’t take any options off the table.”
Since making the decision, Thomas has received plenty of feedback.
“I would say it’s mostly been positive,” Thomas said. “We have had some concerns from people that they’re not familiar with eight-man, so they have some questions about it, but when we really start looking at the reality of how many games we almost couldn’t play last year because of our numbers, and then moving forward, that reality of if numbers aren’t increased, the likelihood that we would not be able to play football at all really kind of brings it all home if we want to have an opportunity for our students to participate.
“We just feel that this option gives us the greatest possibility for our students to be able to competitively compete, and compete against people that they can match up against. It’s kind of like a hard reality to accept, but the people that I’ve talked to, they’re excited that our kids will have something new. It gives them hope that we can continue to have football in the Strong-Huttig school district.”
Thomas had plenty of praise for Strong’s student-athletes and is looking forward to what lies ahead.
“Our kids have amazing heart,” Thomas said. “They’re dedicated, they’re committed and they just want an opportunity to compete, so we’re just looking forward to what the future brings for athletics to the Strong-Huttig school district.”