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Eight-man vs. 11-man football in question once again

The question of whether Perkins County should play eight-man or 11-man football came back in front of the Perkins County School board at their Oct. 16 meeting.

Earlier this year, the Nebraska School Activities Association (NSAA) board approved a plan to use boys enrollment only to determine football classification, beginning with the 2018 season.

Schools with boys enrollments of 47 and under will be eligible for the Class D-1 and D-2, eight-man playoffs.

Perkins County enrollment for grades 9-11 submitted to the State Department of Education on Sept. 29 stood at 51 boys and 21 girls.  

Under the new rules, Perkins County is ineligible for the eight-man playoffs for the 2018 and 2019 seasons. 

However, because of low football participation numbers, moving to 11-man doesn’t seem to be a viable option. Perkins County currently has 20 participating in football.  

“That number doesn’t make me happy as a football coach,” said Activities Director and Head Football Coach Lance Steffen. 

Board member Ryan Hendricks said to have 51 boys and only 21 girls is highly unusual. 

Board President Jayson Bishop said it’s hard to argue that counting boys-only enrollment for the classification is not a fair way to do it, but it’s unfortunate that the year they made the change is the year Perkins County boys enrollment is high. 

Steffen recently attended an NSAA district meeting discussing the football program. He said many schools are in the same boat as Perkins County.

“I tried about every angle I could to find a way to make us eligible [for playoffs] if we declare eight-man and there was nothing,” said Steffen.

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