A high school in Missouri has made the decision to cancel its varsity football season due to low turnout from upperclassmen.
According to Ky3, Springfield Public Schools athletic director Josh Scott told players that the hope is to build program up through the JV program.
David Bitok is a senior football player at Central High School, said he felt betrayed by the decision to cancel the season.
“I woke up at six in the morning. I went to football. Then had a ten-minute break, went home, got food, and then went to work. Then went right back to football, and I barely saw my family,” Bitok told Ky3. “My siblings are about two years old, so they go to bed early, and that was all summer cause I was committed to this. I have an urge for it, and I love my team.”
Scott said part of his duty is to ensure that students are playing against teams with similar age and skill levels.
“We’re looking at the realistic situation of: are we going to have freshmen as 14-year-old boys to play against 17-year-old young men?” Scott said. “We thought the best way to build the program - and have a football program in the future was to build them up through a JV schedule and have our freshmen, juniors, and our sophomores play together, and hope to talk to our opponents to give our seniors the ability to play also so that they could still play football their senior year. It would just be at the JV level.”
Scott said players would still have the opportunity to grow and improve their skills.
“They still have an opportunity to be a part of the Bulldog Football Family," Scott said. "And they still have the opportunity to make our school better in how they act and interact within our school on a daily basis. This is not a decision that anyone wanted to make, but with the numbers and safety purposes, it’s a decision that we had to make.”
