Illinois high school football team forfeits this week's matchup due to player shortage

Illinois’ Alleman High School has not participated in football since the 2022 season due to a lack of available players to field a roster. That changed this year, as 27 players went out for the team, and the Pioneers were back in business.

But with a slew of injuries affecting the team over the past few weeks, they’re reportedly down to just 11 healthy varsity players. As a result, they’ve opted to forfeit Friday’s game against 7A powerhouse Moline.

“We started the year with 27 varsity players and right now we have 11 healthy bodies for varsity, which is 10th through 12th graders,” Alleman athletic director Mark VanNatta told the Quad City Times. “We have 13 or 14 healthy freshmen, so with that, we just felt like it was the right move for us to not play this game.”

The Pioneers adminstration held the team out of the 2023 and 2024 seasons due to a player shortage as well. During the 2022 campaign — their most recent before this season — they also forfeited to Moline for player safety reasons.

They finished that season 1-8. This year, they opened with a 62-13 win in Week 1 over Walther Christian Academy. But since then, they have lost five straight games and done so while giving up 51 or more points in each of their past three games.

Alleman’s coaching staff is hopeful they’ll be able to play their final two games of the years — against Geneseo next Friday night before concluding the regular season at home vs. East Moline United on Friday, October 24. For Moline, they will move to 6-1 on the year and have their eyes on a deep run in the 7A playoffs later this fall.

This marks the second game statewide that has been canceled this weekend due to a shortage of available players. On Wednesday, the West Aurora (Ill.) program announced that its upcoming game against Larkin was canceled due to their opponents not having enough healthy players. 

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