Late in Bishop Grimes’ season-opener on Sept. 15, head coach Jason Wait yelled for another player to get on the field and defend. With nearly a 50-point lead, the Cobras were switching positions around and, in the process, forgot a second linebacker.

The Cobras needed that player to complete their 3-2-3 defense. A standard high school formation would feature 11 players. But Bishop Grimes wasn’t missing an additional three players. They, along with 10 other teams in Section III, play eight-man football.

Six teams played in Section III’s inaugural season of eight-man football in 2017, making New York one of more than 30 states with participating high schools. Five more Section III teams joined the league for the 2018 season, which began on Sept. 14 and 15. A year after its inception in central New York, local teams across the state are embracing the game.

The most noticeable difference in the eight-man game is along the line, where there are three offensive linemen instead of five. Before the snap, five players are on the line of scrimmage instead of seven.

But the field is the same. Smoke still rises from a grill beside small concession stands. Parents still bring lawn chairs to line the fence beside the field. There are still interceptions, big hits and long touchdown runs.

“Eight-man football is still football,” said South Lewis head coach Mike Absolom.

Andy Mendes | Digital Editor

Providing opportunity

From 2012 to 2015, South Lewis won four games total. In 2016, the Falcons didn’t have enough players to field a varsity team.

In November of that year, Section III football co-chairman Keith Kempney emailed athletic directors to gauge interest in a switch to the eight-man game. When they spoke in December, the state football committee pointed out that more than 30 states have used eight-man football to combat roster-size issues, then-bishop Grimes athletic director John Cifonelli said.

By January 2017, South Lewis was one of four schools which officially filed paperwork to participate, along with Cooperstown, New York Mills and Bishop Grimes. Athletic directors and coaches from those schools met in February to formulate the rule differences.

Cifonelli met South Lewis athletic director Brian Oaks at the meetings. He saw the lack of a varsity football team bothered Oaks.

“You knew football was always the thing, that thing weighing on him,” Cifonelli said. “Like, ‘we have to do this, we’re gonna do this, we have to do this.’”

Instead of struggling to field a full team, by the end of the season, South Lewis had 21 players, more than the state minimum 12, and finished above .500, at 4-3.

Perhaps the biggest benefactor of the Falcons’ football renaissance was 117-pound running back, Aquan Moultrie.

“In 11-man we wouldn’t have been able to put him that position,” Absolom said. “Just size he wasn’t big enough.”

In the eight-man game, Moultrie ran for almost 130 yards per game and eight touchdowns. He returned the only kickoff he received all season 65 yards for a score.

Moultrie became a microcosm of the eight-man game at South Lewis. During the Falcons’ final season of standard football, Moultrie, then a sophomore, had two carries all season. The next year, in 2016, the Falcons didn’t have a team. But last fall, in South Lewis’ first eight-man season, Moultrie was the workhorse.

In the past, the Falcons struggled to win games. This season, South Lewis wants to get to the Section III Championship at the Carrier Dome, a game it fell one win short of a year ago.

At Section III Media Day in August, the Falcons stood 10 feet away from the defending champions, Bishop Grimes. Andrew Hoffman, a South Lewis senior, spied on the Cobras from his spot.

“Let’s go get them,” he said.

A chance to win

Before starting eight-man, Bishop Grimes had one winning season in 12 years. Then-athletic director Cifonelli supported the decision to switch to eight-man football when the opportunity came. His player numbers never quite added up, he said.

“Like a lot of small schools, we have three or four legitimate linemen,” Cifonelli said. “And then we have the 150-pound kid who’s not a skill player. So he gets stuck playing on the line. And those kids stop playing.”

Cifonelli said he knew there was one man he really had to convince: Cobras head coach Jason Wait. When he first mentioned it to Wait, Cifonelli said, “He kind of gave me a funny look.”

But Cifonelli sent Wait along online videos of the eight-man game, and he got a call that night — Bishop Grimes’ head coach was all in.

“A lot of parents were skeptical but they said, ‘Jason, if you think this is okay, we’ll take a look at it,’” Cifonelli said. “And almost instantly everybody fell in love with it.”

The 2016 Cobras went 2-5 and averaged 12.9 points per game. After the switch, Bishop Grimes went a perfect 6-0 in 2017 while putting up 46.3 points per game. Cobras quarterback Jordan Newman passed for more than 500 and an additional 300 yards on the ground in 2017. He contributed three touchdowns as a junior but 21 as a senior.

By the time November’s sectional final in the Carrier Dome rolled around, the game picked up steam. Bishop Grimes trailed New York Mills most of the way before coming back to win by two scores. As Cifonelli sat in the stands, friends unfamiliar with the game approached him and praised the variation of football.

Last year, some around the hallways at Bishop Grimes referred to the football team as “our eight-man football team,” Cifonelli said. Now, they’re “the football team.”

“I’ve been there 21 years, I don’t really remember at any point where I could say, yeah, that was when people were really excited,” Cifonelli said. “I think now is when people are excited about it.”

Expanding the game

When the initial meetings to form eight-man football in Section III took place, Cifonelli told people that there’d be at least 15 teams in the section playing eight-man football within five years. People thought he was crazy, Cifonelli said. Looking back, he believed his estimate was conservative.

Eleven Section III teams kicked off season two of eight-man football this September. Both Sections V (Rochester) and IV (Binghamton) have formed eight-man teams, and all the Class D teams in Section IX (Lower Hudson Valley) are playing eight-man football for the first time this season.

Morrisville-Eaton is one of the five teams to join for year two. Warriors’ athletic director Chris Doroshenko knew as soon as he heard about eight-man football that the switch could be useful for Morrisville-Eaton because of a relatively small senior class and low signup numbers.

When summer practice began in August, the Warriors were about five players short of the 20 kids they wanted, Doroshenko said. The numbers didn’t increase for day two.

“When we got to day three, and knowing that we wouldn’t even have enough to play the first week,” Doroshenko said. “We made that decision and the coach talked to the kids and the team.”

Doroshenko didn’t feel much pushback, he said. Most of the people he interacted with realized it was necessary if Morrisville-Eaton was to keep football.

Altmar-Parish-Williamstown joined eight-man football this season — head coach Scott Stanard had seen the writing on the wall for a few years, he said. The final push came when A-P-W suited up 20 kids in its final game last season, not enough for a full-team scrimmage.

Stanard’s message to players, when the Rebels made the switch, was straightforward.

“You still have to tackle, you still have to block and run the plays and execute,” Stanard said. “It’s just with three less guys on each side.”

Continued success

Bishop Grimes opened its title defense with a 62-8 win over New York Mills on Sept. 15, the biggest win since 2004 when Max Preps began tracking the Cobra’s scores.

“This foreshadows the rest of the season, hopefully,” Bishop Grimes linebacker Colin Cavanaugh said after the season-opening win. “We’re gonna work just as hard, if not harder, every game. Make sure we get back to the Dome.”

Wait referred to a losing history dating back 30 years at Bishop Grimes. Now his team is the defending sectional champions. South Lewis, a year removed from not having a varsity team, will challenge Bishop Grimes for that title this year.

After seeing the first season’s success, A-P-W, Morrisville-Eaton and other sections around New York state have a fresh opportunity to thrive in small-town football. Teams in their second season can string together winning seasons for the first time in more than a decade. And for teams that once couldn’t field a roster, football carries on.

“It’s the kind of football that fits the small-school athlete today,” Cifonelli said.

Published on September 24, 2018 at 12:32 am

Contact Billy: wmheyen@syr.edu | @Wheyen3