The Rockford Christian football team did a late about-face, and as of Friday morning the Royal Lions have dropped out of the IHSA's 11-man football system , and will play 8-man football this year.
The initial decision to not play 11-man this season was leaked on Thursday night, and the team amended that on Friday because they started re-working its schedule to field an 8-man team. It's all because they were low on numbers, headed into the season with just 15 players.
They have not yet finished re-scheduling their games, and are not sure if they can fill all nine weeks, but they have found a way to save their season.
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It's just not going to be the season they had hoped for.
"These kids really wanted to play 11-man this year, but that's not to be," Rockford Christian head coach Terry Gulley said. "So we're going to do what we can, and we're going to play 8-man.
"Up until yesterday, I thought we were going to be OK."
But that all changed quickly on Thursday. Word started to come down that they would not field an 11-man team, and other teams from the Big Northern Conference started re-working their schedule. The defending state champions from Byron already filled their void in Week 3 with Williamsville, the team that beat the Tigers 46-42 in the 2019 state championship game. Oregon also announced on X, formerly Twitter, that the Hawks have replaced Rockford Christian with Athens for as Week 9 opponent.
As for Rockford Christian's schedule, it reportedly has added three 8-man games already, and is trying to fill the complete nine-game schedule for the season. It has already been announced that the Royal Lions will not be eligible for the 8-man football playoffs this year.
"It's going to be tough no matter what. These guys wanted to play 11-man this year," Gulley said. "But it's still football, and they'll realize that. We can still have a good season here."
Gulley admitted that Rockford Christian is also looking into co-oping with another school for next year. The school's enrollment has dropped to 178 this year, which is low enough to co-op.
A couple of Rockford Christian's top players have reportedly transferred to different schools to try and play this season. Quarterback Jaden Williams is one of those, and he has allegedly been trying to hook up with Rockford Guilford or Boylan out of the NIC-10.
These defections will almost certainly hurt the Rockford Christian basketball team, which has been battling for conference titles and going deep into the playoffs the past three seasons.
Jay Taft is a Rockford Register Star sports reporter. Email him at jtaft@rrstar.com and follow him on X, formerly Twitter, at @JayTaft . Sign up for the Rockford High School Sports Newsletter here at rrstar.com . Jay has covered a variety of sports, from the Chicago Bears and Blackhawks to local youth sports, since the turn of the century at the Register Star .
This article originally appeared on Rockford Register Star: Rockford Christian drops down to 8-man football just before the season due to low numbers
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