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LFA moving to 8-man football

Q

Quags22

Senior
Aug 15, 2006
2,280
917
113
Got an email from my alma mater that the Caxys are moving to 8-man football next year.

Here are some exerts from the email:

LFA was one of the first high schools in Illinois to field a football team; 124 years later, football remains a fall athletic program offering but will be shifting to an eight-player format for the 2017 season.

Traditional 11-player football requires at least 40 students to sustain both Varsity and JV squads; with our numbers averaging 33-34 players over the last four years, we dropped our JV team.

The same rules, techniques, and overall game structure apply to both 11-player and eight-player football; the primary difference is having three fewer players on each side. Caxy players should be able to adapt quickly to the format, as they already have experience playing multiple positions on both offense and defense.

Talented athletes who aspire to play college-level football will continue to have the opportunity to be seen and evaluated by college coaches; in fact, there are a number of athletes currently playing in collegiate 11-player programs who come from eight-player high school programs.

I realize LFA is a small school (425 students). But with football numbers beginning to dwindle, is this a wave of the future?


 
I

i011763

Freshman
Nov 12, 2001
755
80
28
Who will they be playing against. I think that there was a period of a couple of years where the CPS had 8 man football in maybe 2005ish
 
F

ftballfan21

Redshirt
Jun 28, 2001
23
35
13
Quags57 said:
Got an email from my alma mater that the Caxys are moving to 8-man football next year.

Here are some exerts from the email:

LFA was one of the first high schools in Illinois to field a football team; 124 years later, football remains a fall athletic program offering but will be shifting to an eight-player format for the 2017 season.

Traditional 11-player football requires at least 40 students to sustain both Varsity and JV squads; with our numbers averaging 33-34 players over the last four years, we dropped our JV team.

The same rules, techniques, and overall game structure apply to both 11-player and eight-player football; the primary difference is having three fewer players on each side. Caxy players should be able to adapt quickly to the format, as they already have experience playing multiple positions on both offense and defense.

Talented athletes who aspire to play college-level football will continue to have the opportunity to be seen and evaluated by college coaches; in fact, there are a number of athletes currently playing in collegiate 11-player programs who come from eight-player high school programs.

I realize LFA is a small school (425 students). But with football numbers beginning to dwindle, is this a wave of the future?
Click to expand...
The dumpster fire continues for the CCL
 
N

NNFAN

All-Conference
Sep 9, 2001
10,054
1,600
0
I can't imagine winning many games with only eight guys on the field, they'll get murdered. ;)
 
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J

JMcgee!!

Redshirt
Aug 12, 2016
94
19
8
This is the same direction I see St Francis going in a couple of years. 3-4 seniors, half of juniors not playing next year. Some friends close to the school say the recent drop in male enrollment and poor marketing overall is hitting male sports very hard. I hate to see this happen as an alumni but poor leadership will do that.
 
C

Cat Box

Senior
Sep 23, 2012
1,118
718
0
Spartanalum13 said:
This is the same direction I see St Francis going in a couple of years. 3-4 seniors, half of juniors not playing next year. Some friends close to the school say the recent drop in male enrollment and poor marketing overall is hitting male sports very hard. I hate to see this happen as an alumni but poor leadership will do that.
Click to expand...

Stop yourself.
St. Francis has 800 kids. I have had very detailed conversations with the admissions office, finance office, IT staff etc. about how they run their business because they were a client of mine from 2011-2014. I also had my 8th grade son shadow there last year. We were both very impressed with the school.

What I learned about the school is that they have well over 200 applicants for only 200 seats in each freshman class. They are able to be selective and turn people away because they have essentially capped enrollment at about 800 students. This number is the "sweet spot" for the size of facility and staff.

Every school goes through ups and downs in the mix of talent of their athletes. You can see it a few years in advance. St. Francis will be just fine. They are in a great market with no limit of interested families to have the means to send their kids to a quality school like St. Francis.

Aurora Christian has had similar challenges with football numbers being down. Only 6 seniors this year and 5 seniors last year. This also translated to 2-7 and 4-5 football seasons the last two years. We have big numbers coming up from the lower levels, however - you can see it coming.

Despite having only 260 kids in the high school, boys basketball is doing exceptionally well with a Super Sectional appearance last year. Girls volleyball had their 1st appearance in a Regional Championship and that with 3 freshmen starting.

I wish we had the troubles St. Francis has with 800 students - turning families away. Please. The Spartans will be just fine.
 
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J

JMcgee!!

Redshirt
Aug 12, 2016
94
19
8
Cat Box said:
Stop yourself.
St. Francis has 800 kids. I have had very detailed conversations with the admissions office, finance office, IT staff etc. about how they run their business because they were a client of mine from 2011-2014. I also had my 8th grade son shadow there last year. We were both very impressed with the school.

What I learned about the school is that they have well over 200 applicants for only 200 seats in each freshman class. They are able to be selective and turn people away because they have essentially capped enrollment at about 800 students. This number is the "sweet spot" for the size of facility and staff.

Every school goes through ups and downs in the mix of talent of their athletes. You can see it a few years in advance. St. Francis will be just fine. They are in a great market with no limit of interested families to have the means to send their kids to a quality school like St. Francis.

Aurora Christian has had similar challenges with football numbers being down. Only 6 seniors this year and 5 seniors last year. This also translated to 2-7 and 4-5 football seasons the last two years. We have big numbers coming up from the lower levels, however - you can see it coming.

Despite having only 260 kids in the high school, boys basketball is doing exceptionally well with a Super Sectional appearance last year. Girls volleyball had their 1st appearance in a Regional Championship and that with 3 freshmen starting.

I wish we had the troubles St. Francis has with 800 students - turning families away. Please. The Spartans will be just fine.
Click to expand...
Cat box,

Francis had 167 freshman last year n their male enrollment has been a problem for the last 3 years. You might want to check with your contacts again. They have no trouble getting females, it's getting and keeping makes that is the problem. They could be looking at their 3rd football coach in three years. Their main feeder school saw a big decrease of students heading to Francis with a big increase to Benet. My info is very recent, their last three years have seen 80 or less males in each class. Just saying keep your eye on this one. Unless changes happen they will have a beautiful football field with no team. They just hired a new director of admissions to help fix the problem. Hopefully it helps.
 
C

Cat Box

Senior
Sep 23, 2012
1,118
718
0
Spartanalum13 said:
Cat box,

Francis had 167 freshman last year n their male enrollment has been a problem for the last 3 years. You might want to check with your contacts again. They have no trouble getting females, it's getting and keeping makes that is the problem. They could be looking at their 3rd football coach in three years. Their main feeder school saw a big decrease of students heading to Francis with a big increase to Benet. My info is very recent, their last three years have seen 80 or less males in each class. Just saying keep your eye on this one. Unless changes happen they will have a beautiful football field with no team. They just hired a new director of admissions to help fix the problem. Hopefully it helps.
Click to expand...

Clearly my information is not as recent as yours. Sorry to see the numbers dropping. What is the reason for the challenge in attracting males?

On another topic - did you play football at Francis or just a fan? If so, what position?
 
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