Six-man football is back in Kansas for the first time since 2003 – and is expected to remain long term.
Weskan, situated just a few miles from the Colorado border, had just 33 students in the last KSHSAA classification release, the state’s seventh-smallest enrollment and lowest among schools that aren’t part of a co-operative agreement for football.
Weskan had an inexperienced group with few players, and went winless in football in 2008 and ’09. The Coyotes improved in ’10 and ’11 and finished 8-2 and 7-2 with Eight-Man, Division II playoff appearances the last two falls. The Coyotes had 14 players with five seniors in 2013.
Last fall, veteran coach Marc Cowles and the Coyote administration started to look at the 2014 season as the statewide scheduling meeting in Salina approached.
Cowles believed Weskan was looking at between nine and 11 players for this season. Weskan approached rival Wallace County, a powerhouse that finished as Eight-Man, Division II state runner-up in 2013, about a co-operative agreement for 2014, but Wallace County’s board said no.
“The timing was just not right,” Cowles said.
For a time, Cowles said Weskan “wasn’t sure” what it would do. Cowles wanted to still have a team. He believes football teaches “great life lessons” and believed the school would lose students if it didn’t have football.
Several far west schools talked to Weskan, and the Coyotes are officially playing six-man football this fall. The Coyotes are the first Kansas school to play a six-man varsity schedule since Herndon in 2003. Weskan is expected to play five varsity contests and could play some opponents’ J.V. teams on Mondays.
Weskan is scheduled to play Greeley County in Week 1, Wheatland-Grinnell in Week 2, Bird City-Cheylin in Week 5, Golden Plains in Week 6, and Triplains-Brewster in Week 8. Weskan will not be eligible for the state playoffs or compete as part of a district.
Cowles said he had no trouble filling officials for six-man games. Six-man plays on a smaller field, and has some different rules, including a field goal worth four points and every player eligible to catch a pass. Six-man football remains strong in certain parts of the country, namely Texas, Wyoming and Colorado.
“All very encouraging,” Cowles said.
In the winter, the KIAAA (Kansas Interscholastic Athletic Administrators Association) voted 8-1 in favor of adding a six-man division for the next two-year football cycle, starting in ’16-17.
In the spring, Terry Ostmeyer, Wheatland-Grinnell’s principal and the then-president of the Western Kansas Liberty League that includes Wheatland-Grinnell and Weskan, presented in front of KSHSAA on behalf of the WKLL.
Ostmeyer said the reaction has been positive, but the main question in forming a six-man classification is finding a good number for a six-man enrollment threshold.
“Our league has felt for some time, with our declining numbers and enrollment – not only the declining numbers in enrollment, but the number of kids who were going out for football, that we needed to do something to enable those small schools to still have the enjoyment of Friday night and have a football game,” Ostmeyer said. “We saw that as an opportunity to hang onto that.”
KSHSAA by-laws state there needs to be a minimum of 24 schools to create a new classification. Ostmeyer likened a six-man classification to the recent addition of bowling as a KSHSAA-sponsored sport.
“Very similar to how bowling was done,” Ostmeyer said. “It takes 24 schools, and if we can get 24 schools to commit to that, I think it will be a reality at the next football cycle – there will be a six-man division. That’s our hope anyway.”
Ostmeyer said that if six-man doesn’t have the necessary 24 teams, certain schools would likely play six-man regardless in two years. Cowles also agreed, saying if nine to 10 schools agreed to play six-man, it could create an independent league.
“If we are not successful in creating a six-man division, there will be some schools that will opt out of an eight-man assignment and just play six-man football on their own,” Ostmeyer said.
“A lot of these western Kansas schools – it’s going to become more popular,” Cowles added.
However, some of the state’s smallest schools would like to stay eight-man for as long as possible. Jeff Hostetter, who has coached the last 24 seasons at Hope, will coach the newly formed co-operative agreement between Hope and White City, called Rural Vista.
Hostetter expected Rural Vista to have numbers in the low 20s. Hostetter said he doubted six-man was considered for Hope and White City, citing both travel and the growth of eight-man. In 2006, Kansas had 47 Eight-Man, Division I schools, 45 Eight-Man, Division II schools and 59 Class 2-1A schools, according to preppowerindex.com. This year, the state has 50 schools in both eight-man classes and 40 in 2-1A.
“You would have to travel so much to play,” Hostetter said of six-man. “Eight-man is getting to be a big deal now. … There is a lot of 2A schools playing eight-man football.”
Nathan Broeckelman, Tribune-Greeley County’s head football and wrestling coach, will coach his Jackrabbits against Weskan in Week 1. Broeckelman was an assistant his first year and Greeley County had just 11 players out for football, but around 15 boys who didn’t play.
Last season, Broeckelman took over as head coach and had 17 players out. This fall, he expects around 20 to 21 and said the elementary school currently has strong numbers. Broeckelman discussed six-man football with his superintendent last year.
“I think we will be fine,” Broeckelman said. “I think we will stay eight-man. That’s one thing that we are going to try to make sure that we can do is hopefully keep our numbers up to stay eight-man. … If we dropped down to six-man, there is going to be a lot of kids who aren’t going to be able to participate or play.”
Broeckelman said it was difficult to play eight-man football with 11 players because someone was always either hurt or not eligible to play. Last year, Wheatland-Grinnell had 12 players, but lost two in preseason because of injury and couldn’t finish the fall. In 2003, its final year, Herndon had a 13-player roster, according to the McCook Gazette, and played a Nebraska schedule.
Herndon finished 9-2 and took state runner-up in Nebraska and was ranked in the Top 25 in Sports Illustrated’s six-man poll throughout the year. The next fall, Herndon consolidated with Atwood to form Rawlins County. Eleven years later, Weskan becomes the next Kansas team to play a full six-man slate – with more likely to follow.
“The reality of the situation is our enrollment numbers are getting lower and our schools and our communities still have an enormous amount of pride and still want that educational opportunity, and that extracurricular opportunities that go along with it,” Ostmeyer said. “That’s kind of what we are after – the excitement that football generates and the opportunity for the kids to still play it.”
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