County's Class A Teams Slim Down

The county’s three Class A football teams are meager this season.
Not one team has more than 35 players, which is about average for all three.
Frontier has added a couple late in the week to reach 31, while North White is right at 30. Tri-County, meanwhile, is under 30 for the second-straight season with 21 kids.
“A couple classes that have gone through are small and it’s killing us,” Tri-County coach Jeff Hettinger said. “Football’s a numbers game. It’s hard to scrimmage and create depth if you don’t have the numbers.”
As it stands, all three junior varsity seasons have been nixed. It’s a move none of the coaches want to make but the numbers have forced the decision. The result of no JV squad is limited to no playing time for back-ups and no development.
“I don’t think there’s any question it does make it difficult,” North White coach Jim Davis said about not having a JV team. “There’s not a chance in the world some kids will see time in a varsity game. They would have had the chance to develop in JV.”
Each coach has a different perspective on the lack of players but none are confident they know why all three schools are down this year. For Tri-County, two small senior and sophomore classes are hitting football hard.
“It’s really going to impact all Tri-County sports,” Hettinger said.
Martz is pleased with his 11 seniors on the team. He thinks the numbers game goes in cycles for all Class A schools.
“If you’re around single A long enough it comes and goes in cycles,” said Martz, who’s been as low as 21 players at Frontier. “I don’t know that it’s a concern but it’s more of a reality that you know your numbers aren’t always going to be great.”
Davis doesn’t know if it’s just one thing keeping kids away from coming out for football.
“These kids 15-18 years of age, you just never know what to expect out them,” Davis said. “I don’t have any answers for it.
“There’s probably a different reason for each kid.”
Regardless of the reason, all three coaches will think about trying to develop some of the talent that was supposed to be playing JV. And all three coaches will be hoping to avoid injuries.
“Single A is hard,” Martz said. “I take a lot of pride in coaching single A.”

Published in the Herald Journal in August 2009.