WHITTEMORE – Faced with low participation numbers, Whittemore-Prescott will be dropping down to 8-player football for the 2020 season.
The move, which was announced Thursday, will likely be permanent. The move from 11-player to 8-player football was approved by the MHSAA Wednesday.
When Whittemore-Prescott initially began its season back on Aug. 10, 28 players came out for its varsity and JV programs. Upon the school restarting its 2020 season Tuesday, only 14 players, including three freshman, came out for the team.
The school had not planned to field a JV team this year because of low numbers. With the move to 8-player, Whittemore-Prescott is exploring the option of a JV season.
The decision was a difficult one to make, but one that third-year coach Tommy Atkinson and the school felt was best.
“I would much rather go and put all my chips in on this just so these groups of kids who have had so many things taken away from them and have had such limited opportunities,” Atkinson said . “I didn’t want them to lose their senior year of football.”
Whittemore-Prescott is still in the process of piecing together a 2020 schedule, but already has four to five games in the works.
The Cardinals are in good company at the 8-player level, as fellow North Star League foes Atlanta, AuGres-Sims, Hale, Hillman, Mio and Posen have all made the move to 8-player in recent years.