Pitchin' with Pritch: Bad weekend for Husker and Plainsmen football fans

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If you are a Husker football fan and a Plainsmen football fan, or only a fan of one of those two teams, this past weekend was a tough one. Disappointment from what happened on the field at Michigan and disappointment here because nothing happened football-game-wise on Haenfler Field. 

I don’t know where to start or what to think about either of the situations, but I have lived in Nebraska long enough and lived in Perkins County long enough to feel the sting that came with the weekend. The Huskers are mired in a losing streak that is bad enough, but I for one thought that maybe at this point the worst the Huskers would be is 2-2, and the Plainsmen could be 3-1 or 2-2 at the worst. 

Actually, the Huskers are not as big of a surprise as what the Plainsmen are dealing with this season. Plainsmen football has been more than just a little successful for a long, long time. There have been some ups and downs, but for the most part, the seasons have been marked with more wins than losses. Participation figures have been high, with freshman-sophomore games, JV games and varsity contests most years. 

Diminishing school enrollment has hit Perkins County Schools as it has many schools in Western Nebraska. Most of the schools on the schedule have been there through the years with the only difference now being the games are eight-man instead of 11-man. 

With all that said, I still never thought I would see the time when PCS would forfeit a game because there were not enough players to play the game. I know from experience in coaching that numbers play a bigger part in fielding football teams than it does other sports, and at the present time, the numbers game is influencing sports offered for boys and sports offered for girls.  

On the girls’ side of things, when you only have 25 to 30 girls in the entire high school and you offer more than one sport a season, numbers per sport can drop quickly. Moving ahead in the winter sports, PCS girls will be D2 in basketball and the boys C2, but basketball is different than football or volleyball. 

So PCS finds itself faced with the problem that the participation number for football is low, and the injury number has risen to the point where you face the possibility of starting a game, but not being able to finish it. Then you look at the game from a safety point of view and if the other team has juniors and seniors and you have to play freshman and sophomores, you run the risk of more injuries. 

It isn’t a matter of the players being in shape or not, freshmen and sophomores are not mature enough in most cases to battle junior and senior boys. Even if you have adequate numbers 9-12, you still try to match up class-wise in drills so you don’t get people hurt. 

There could be pages of stuff written about what causes the numbers situation and I don’t think there is one big thing, but a number of smaller things, that cause the situation to happen. 

I do strongly believe there are enough boys at PCS to field a football and a cross-country team in the same season and maybe even have a few left over. I also know if a person doesn’t want to do what it takes to be an athlete and put in the work, then it is a difficult thing for them and the coaches. 

I also think there could be some regret that not participating in activities will bring in later years. 

One of the advantages of being in a smaller school is the opportunity to participate in a number of activities if you so desire. It is an advantage that more should look into before they graduate.

Huskers

The Huskers were terrible in just about every phase of the game at Michigan. They made mistake after mistake and again dug a giant hole for themselves. They had trouble even seeing the field I would think from as deep down as they were. 

Coach Frost has more work to do than I thought and it is going to take some time and effort plus a ton of patience from the coaches, administrator, players and the fans to get this program back on its feet. 

At this moment, I look at the schedule and I don’t see many wins there. 

Even after adding Bethune-Cookman on Oct. 27, a FCS school, I look at the teams they play before they get to them and wonder if that will be a win either. There is a reason Coach Frost got a seven-year contract. It might take a majority of the seven to get things going in the right direction. Hope I am wrong on that.

 

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