LITTLE ROCK — Imagine your team is 3-0 and set to begin the conference season at home, but there is no one to play.
That's what happened to Class 2A Union Christian on Friday because its scheduled opponent, Hartford, dropped football this year because it didn't have enough players to field a team. Union Christian was faced with a similar situation in Week 10 after Decatur dropped football, but the Eagles managed to find a replacement, Mount Ida, for that game.
"We tried to keep our kids focused in practice, but it was hard because they knew we didn't have a game," Union Christian Coach Bob Hattabaugh said. "If nothing else, not having a game hurt us because we didn't get any better."
It could be even worse next year for Union Christian, which is scheduled to play Western Yell County, Hartford and Decatur the final three games. If all three schools fail to field teams, that could leave Union Christian withonly seven games and nearly a month off before the start of the playoffs.
"Hopefully, that won't happen, but it would put us in a bad situation if it did," Hattabaugh said.
Many schools in Arkansas' smallest classification struggle each year to field teams. There are no simple solutions, but perhaps it's time for the Arkansas Activities Association to consider eight-man football for Class 2A.
In 2008, 17 states played eight-man football, including Oklahoma, Missouri, Kansas and Tennessee. Allowing a school like Union Christian, for example, to play eight-man football against teams from Oklahoma certainly would give the Eagles a better chanceat playing a full schedule.
"I'd be glad to do it," said Hattabaugh, who coached for several years in Oklahoma. "There's several eight-man teams in eastern Oklahoma, like Sallisaw Central, Gans and Watts, up near Siloam Springs, I know that would love to play.
"It's hard to play 11-man football when you're down to 15 or 16 kids like a lot of teams in our league. If you're playing eight-man football, 16 kids gives you more depth and a lot better chance to compete."
Decatur Coach Bill Brockert said he wouldn't be in favor of playing eight-man football in Arkansas. The Bulldogs have 20 players on their junior high team and are expected to decide by Christmas whether to field a varsity team next year.
"I coached eight-man football in Kansas and it's like a track meet," Brockert said. "Besides, you reduce the number of players on the field when you're really trying to get morekids involved. I just don't see how it would work."
The rules differ in eightman football, beginning with a field that is 80 yards long and 40 yards wide. High-scoring games are commonplace, but Hattabaugh disagrees that eight-man football is easier to play.
"You can't hide a bad player in eight-man football," said Hattabaugh, who has 22 players on his team this year. "You've got to be good tacklers or the ball carrier is going to go a long way."
Hattabaugh said a handful of teams in Northwest Arkansas played eight-man football in the 1960s, but the AAA has sanctioned only 11-man teams for more than 40 years. Many details would have to be worked out, but perhaps it's time to try eight-man football to help small schools in Arkansas field a team every year.
The subject is at least worth some serious discussions.
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Sports, Pages 31 on 09/27/2009