Wausa considering a move down to six-man football

WAUSA — Following a 1-7 football season that included a number of injuries and being left out of the playoffs, the Wausa High School program is at a crossroads:

Does it remain a member of the eight-man game or does it take the leap and drop to sixman football for the next classification cycle for the 2020 and 2021 seasons?

“They are considering it,” Wausa superintendent Brad Hoesing said about the district school board. “We have numbers for two years here where we won’t have lower numbers out, but we will be heavy freshmen/sophomore. If it does go, it will go for a two-year cycle only.”

Wausa head coach Adrian Alonzo has been dealing with dwindling numbers and that has fueled consideration for this move if not for the long term for just the near future.

“I am only going to have about 13 to 15 kids out next year and only six of them being upperclassmen,” Alonzo said. “We are always one or two injuries away from being non-competitive.

“(The move down) is being considered.”

Since the Nebraska School Activities Association took over the six-man code of football, the interest grew, according to Alonzo, and he says 29 teams have declared their intent to play at that level starting next year.

Alonzo said that the numbers look promising over the next couple of years, but that would mean that the program would almost be made primarily of underclassmen.

Thus, the ideal is to play a two-year cycle as a six-man varsity program while playing an eight-man junior varsity schedule, while the numbers grow from top to bottom.

“In the groups that we have coming, there are going to be some special athletes,” Alonzo said. “I think our participation is down because we are getting beat up. These younger kids know that there is an opportunity for them to play as a freshman and get tossed around by a senior for four quarters.”