Idaho High Schools Nixes Six-Man Football
- Thread starter SavannahSixManFan
- Start date
freeagent
Six-man pro
Key line ... as schools continue to shrink, the issue will have to be revisited.
Here in Texas, many of the 8 man schools went to 11 man.
But in other states, the alternative is either going to be 6 man or athletic consolidation (for example, in my home state of Wisconsin, the WIAA allows neighboring communities to combine their enrollments and field one team in the smaller classes).
But even they are looking at 9 man football.
Here in Texas, many of the 8 man schools went to 11 man.
But in other states, the alternative is either going to be 6 man or athletic consolidation (for example, in my home state of Wisconsin, the WIAA allows neighboring communities to combine their enrollments and field one team in the smaller classes).
But even they are looking at 9 man football.
This whole situation makes me mad enough to spit nails. Lima, MT is only 70 miles from Leadore and 50 miles from Dubois (Clark County). We played these 2 teams twice each last year.
I will give you a little history on this whole deal, and maybe the rest of Montana will read it and hang their heads in shame. Lima reached out to Dubois about 6-7yrs ago and got them involved in the MT 6-man. They were having a tough time competing in the ID 8-man league so they dropped down and joined what was then the MT/WY/ID 6-man. A couple of years later Leadore (as the article mentioned who hadn't fielded a football team in a long time) started a program. As a community they bought all the gear, developed a field, put in goal posts, and started playing football. For Lima and West Yellowstone this was great as the rest of our conference games are all at least 250 miles away.
Suddenly in mid-season last year we heard that our ID teams had gotten a letter that notified them that they would no longer be able to play in the Montana league after the '09 season. This blind-sided all of us. Apparently the MHSA had just decided to kick the ID schools out on the recommendation of a couple of teams from the eastern part of the state. It was never put to a league-wide vote and the Idaho teams had no way to appeal this decision.
The article mentions Montana having 2 divisions in 6-man--thats just BS (Montana already has 3 crowded-field leagues as well as 8-man). There are only just a little over 30 teams state-wide that will play 6-man in 2010. If you look at a map of Montana it is just a little smaller than Texas, and our 6-man schools are scattered corner to corner. The Idaho teams fit well into a West/South conference allignment. The really sad thing in all of this though is that Leadore will only have a total of 8 boys to make an 8-man team with next year. They will shut down their program, and another school will loose the chance to play football. They are 50 miles away from Salmon, ID which is to far to commute to make up a co-op so the young men from Leadore might never get to play again.
I will give you a little history on this whole deal, and maybe the rest of Montana will read it and hang their heads in shame. Lima reached out to Dubois about 6-7yrs ago and got them involved in the MT 6-man. They were having a tough time competing in the ID 8-man league so they dropped down and joined what was then the MT/WY/ID 6-man. A couple of years later Leadore (as the article mentioned who hadn't fielded a football team in a long time) started a program. As a community they bought all the gear, developed a field, put in goal posts, and started playing football. For Lima and West Yellowstone this was great as the rest of our conference games are all at least 250 miles away.
Suddenly in mid-season last year we heard that our ID teams had gotten a letter that notified them that they would no longer be able to play in the Montana league after the '09 season. This blind-sided all of us. Apparently the MHSA had just decided to kick the ID schools out on the recommendation of a couple of teams from the eastern part of the state. It was never put to a league-wide vote and the Idaho teams had no way to appeal this decision.
The article mentions Montana having 2 divisions in 6-man--thats just BS (Montana already has 3 crowded-field leagues as well as 8-man). There are only just a little over 30 teams state-wide that will play 6-man in 2010. If you look at a map of Montana it is just a little smaller than Texas, and our 6-man schools are scattered corner to corner. The Idaho teams fit well into a West/South conference allignment. The really sad thing in all of this though is that Leadore will only have a total of 8 boys to make an 8-man team with next year. They will shut down their program, and another school will loose the chance to play football. They are 50 miles away from Salmon, ID which is to far to commute to make up a co-op so the young men from Leadore might never get to play again.
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