F18mustang
10-06-2009, 12:55 PM
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Low numbers force Anton to forfeit rest of its games
Anton coaches and administrators went back and forth over the summer trying to figure out the best course of action for the 2009 season, whether to remain a 11-man school or play an outlaw six-man schedule.
At first, Anton was going to go six-man but late in the summer decided to remain 11-man for one more year. That forced two coaching changes and meant starting two-a-day practices with just 15 kids.
On Monday, however, faced with dwindling numbers due to injuries, academic casualties and other factors, Anton was forced to forfeit the remainder of its season – all five District 5-1A games – and will try to hastily schedule an outlaw six-man schedule against junior varsity squads with its 12 remaining players.
“We got up to 19 (players) at one time and then the injury bug hit us,” head coach Rob Buffa said. “It’s gotten to where we’re not even hitting during the week because we can’t take a chance of anyone getting hurt. If we had 15 players still we’d have gone ahead and finished the year, but to try and do it with 12, the last thing we want is to get into the middle of the game and get some more players hurt and have to quit. That would be more embarrassing than where we are right now.”
Buffa said the Bulldogs (0-5) have been playing mostly with freshmen and sophomores, the equivalent of a junior varsity squad. Of the 15 players to start the year, one was a senior, running back/cornerback Dylan Smith, and Buffa said he will likely miss the rest of the year with an injury. Three other players were juniors, and one of the players on the team was a foreign exchange student who had never seen an American football game before this season.
Against Wink on Sept. 18, Buffa said the Bulldogs lost their starting quarterback, who was also the starting middle linebacker, deep snapper and was on kickoff and return teams. That meant moving the punter to deep snapper as just one move to fill the void, leaving Anton with no punter.
“It’s not just one or two positions you’re trying to fill,” Buffa said. “It ends up being four or six. That’s how we’ve played the first five games.”
Buffa said the junior high Bulldogs have been playing at the six-man level all season and have had success with a 3-0 record. He is not sure what the administration will decide in terms of which level Anton will play in 2010 but will have to decide soon with realignment looming in February.
“Say what you want about the kids, but they’ve worked their butts off in practice and they’ve tried to the best of their abilities to compete during the games,” Buffa said. “We ended up playing other team’s JVs in the second half of games and we were competitive with them, and that’s what we should have been doing from the beginning.”
This is probably going to happen more frequently.
Low numbers force Anton to forfeit rest of its games
Anton coaches and administrators went back and forth over the summer trying to figure out the best course of action for the 2009 season, whether to remain a 11-man school or play an outlaw six-man schedule.
At first, Anton was going to go six-man but late in the summer decided to remain 11-man for one more year. That forced two coaching changes and meant starting two-a-day practices with just 15 kids.
On Monday, however, faced with dwindling numbers due to injuries, academic casualties and other factors, Anton was forced to forfeit the remainder of its season – all five District 5-1A games – and will try to hastily schedule an outlaw six-man schedule against junior varsity squads with its 12 remaining players.
“We got up to 19 (players) at one time and then the injury bug hit us,” head coach Rob Buffa said. “It’s gotten to where we’re not even hitting during the week because we can’t take a chance of anyone getting hurt. If we had 15 players still we’d have gone ahead and finished the year, but to try and do it with 12, the last thing we want is to get into the middle of the game and get some more players hurt and have to quit. That would be more embarrassing than where we are right now.”
Buffa said the Bulldogs (0-5) have been playing mostly with freshmen and sophomores, the equivalent of a junior varsity squad. Of the 15 players to start the year, one was a senior, running back/cornerback Dylan Smith, and Buffa said he will likely miss the rest of the year with an injury. Three other players were juniors, and one of the players on the team was a foreign exchange student who had never seen an American football game before this season.
Against Wink on Sept. 18, Buffa said the Bulldogs lost their starting quarterback, who was also the starting middle linebacker, deep snapper and was on kickoff and return teams. That meant moving the punter to deep snapper as just one move to fill the void, leaving Anton with no punter.
“It’s not just one or two positions you’re trying to fill,” Buffa said. “It ends up being four or six. That’s how we’ve played the first five games.”
Buffa said the junior high Bulldogs have been playing at the six-man level all season and have had success with a 3-0 record. He is not sure what the administration will decide in terms of which level Anton will play in 2010 but will have to decide soon with realignment looming in February.
“Say what you want about the kids, but they’ve worked their butts off in practice and they’ve tried to the best of their abilities to compete during the games,” Buffa said. “We ended up playing other team’s JVs in the second half of games and we were competitive with them, and that’s what we should have been doing from the beginning.”
This is probably going to happen more frequently.