The Merrill Vandals would not delay the inevitable.
After qualifying for the Division 8 playoffs for the fourth time in five years last season, the Vandals made the decision to go to 8-man football for the 2020 season, becoming the first Saginaw County 8-man football team.
“It’s not if it’s going to happen, it’s when it’s going to happen,” Merrill principal and football coach Christian Wiley said. “We always get great participation, and that keeps us going. But looking at the numbers in our middle school, there’s really not much we can do about it honestly.”
The Vandals have posted 6-4 records four of the past five seasons, including last year. And the numbers promised another run at a playoff spot in 11-man football.
Wiley estimates the high school will have approximately 85 boys next school year, with 40 participating in football. Wiley said he will have 16 returning to play varsity and 24 playing on the junior varsity team.
The Vandals are in Division 8, based on their enrollment number of 206 students.
“The participation is great, and our numbers are actually good,” Wiley said. “But the problem is when you get to middle school, and every year it will get more challenging.”
According to Wiley, the seventh and eighth grades last year featured classes of eight and nine boys, with only seven from the two classes participating in football.
“My son is a fourth-grader right now, and when my son graduates from Merrill, our projected enrollment is 127,” Wiley said. “It’s going to drop drastically. You can see where we’re heading. It just doesn’t make much sense to do it for one more year.”
Wiley started debating about going to 8-man in September when he saw the middle-school enrollment numbers. By October, he started talking to other coaches. Merrill administrators formed a committee consisting of school board members, youth coaches, assistant coaches, Merrill superintendent John Sample and five parents of football players who were returning for the 2020 season.
“We sat down and looked at the pros and cons,” Wiley said. “We had a public meeting and invited everybody. We gave everybody a week to talk to committee members and provide their input. The committee voted, and we’re going to 8-man.”
The vote sent Wiley back to football school.
“I’m taking a crash course in 8-man,” Wiley said. “This has been a new venture for me and my staff. We’ve had Zoom meetings with 8-man staffs in Oklahoma. It’s a learning experience for sure.”
Merrill’s 8-man opener is Friday, Aug. 28 at Gobles with the first home game Friday, Sept. 11 against Vestaburg. The Vandals are not in a league for football this season, but they will remain in the Mid-State Activities Conference for other sports. Wiley hopes to join an 8-man football league for the 2021 season.
Merrill football player Logan Heath. (Photo and permission by Christian Wiley)
Wiley is also optimistic that the Vandals will be successful this season, with star quarterback Logan Heath returning.
“With us running the spread, it’s not going to be as much of a problem switching over to 8-man,” Wiley said. “There will be fewer players and more space, which is perfect for us.
“Our defensive coordinator (Tony Monk) is going to have a rough time. He hates to give up any scores, but you have to have the mindset that you’re going to give up scores in 8-man. It’s going to happen. You’re going to give up big plays, and you’re going to give up touchdowns. But we’re going to score a lot too.”
Wiley said the players may have been hesitant at first, but they have embraced the change.
“There’s probably a stigma about 8-man more than anything,” Wiley said. “People who aren’t familiar with it talk it down. Some of the kids said they didn’t want to play 8-man football. We started going to 8-man playoffs last season. The hits on those fields were just as hard as the hits on our field. There’s just more space, and the speed of the game is much faster.
“And there’s not a lot of kicking extra points or punting. With fewer down linemen, it’s too easy to block. Most teams go for two points.”
Wiley said the junior varsity team, with more than 20 players, may play some 11-man games if that’s the only option. He said a number of opponents on his schedule don’t have JV teams, so the Vandals are keeping the option open to play freshmen teams from larger schools, such as Swan Valley and Frankenmuth.
“We’re one of the only small schools that still has JV,” Wiley said. “So it’s a challenge sometimes to find games. We might have some 11-man games for the JV. It would give more kids an opportunity to play. They would have to be road games because we’ll have to change our field for 8-man.”
An 8-man field is 80 yards long and 40 yards wide, as opposed to an 11-man field that is 100 yards long and 53 1/3 yards wide.
The coronavirus pandemic has altered Wiley’s plans to integrate 8-man football, with practices, workouts and instruction limited to Zoom or email.
“We have the playbook together, and we’ll teach them some plays on Zoom,” Wiley said. “We have workouts they can do individually. But I think we’re going to be OK as far as our offense because there won’t be as great a transition because of the offense we were already running.
“Even this summer, if we get a chance to play, the plan was to play some 11-man 7-on-7 camps. It’s not that hard to change.”
Still, if Wiley had a choice, he would have stayed with 11-man football.
“I was adamant two years ago that we weren’t switching,” Wiley said. “And if our numbers were going to stay around 200, I’d love to stay at 11. But I’m realistic.
“It’s unfortunate, but there’s not much we can do.”
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