Correspondent file photo / Robert Hayes Sebring McKinley coach Anthony Agresta gives direction to his team. The Trojans will participate in 8-man football this fall to overcome a decrease in numbers.

While not currently sanctioned by the OHSAA, 8-man football took another step toward reaching that goal. The Ohio High School Football Coaches Association announced in late June that it would be hosting an 8-man football state championship starting this season.

The Northern 8 is the only conference in the state for 8-man football at the moment, but this announcement could open the floodgates for more schools to make the switch.

This directly affects Sebring McKinley, who made the switch to 8-man football for the 2023 season. The Trojans are the local torchbearers, and the only team in eastern Ohio.

Sebring has already seen some benefits in the transition.

“It’s created a lot of excitement within the school and within the community. I can tell you that,” Trojans coach Anthony Agresta said. “We’re thrilled. We needed a little shot in the arm, and it gave us one.”

It’s not an easy decision to make, but if the choice is between 8-man football and no football at all, for Agresta, the choice was simple.

“I think everybody that was in the decision-making process knew that decision had to be made. And it was the right one,” Agresta said. “We needed to keep the football program alive. In a town like Sebring, it’s a small town. They need it. Friday nights are important.

“The program was getting to the point where it couldn’t be sustainable. Losing 8, 9, 10 games a year and having to play schools that were putting, minimally, twice the amount of players out on the field that you were. That’s not an exaggeration. That’s what we were faced with, sometimes close to three times the amount of players.”

There’s been a learning curve in playing a new type of sport, but at the end of the day, it’s still football. In fact, the learning curve has affected the coaches more than the players.

“It’s still football,” Agresta said. “You still need a good offseason program and the strength and conditioning program, the speed and agility program. I think that football will always be about blocking and tackling. Nothing’s ever, ever going to change that.

“I think the biggest change comes through the coaching staff. I’ve been coaching 11-man football for over 30 years, and this has forced us to maybe put our thinking caps on a little bit to find out what are we going to do offensively, what are we going to do defensively, do a little film work and find out what some of the other schools that play 8-man football do, and look at some of the schools that are successful and see what they’ve done. I think the biggest changes have been for the coaches, but as far as the kids go, they’re putting in their work and they’re preparing themselves to play.”

In addition to Sebring, all of the other league members (Danbury, Holgate, St. Mary Central Catholic, Stryker and Toledo Christian) are located in Sandusky or further west. St. Mary Central Catholic, located in Sandusky, is the closest team to the Trojans.

While in its first year of competition as an 8-man squad, Sebring is trying to serve as an ambassador to help grow the game in the area. Agresta is hoping this announcement serves as a spark to some other schools in similar situations.

“We think that it will definitely (help grow the game),” Agresta said. “We had independently talked to some schools. There’s the unspoken things like, ‘Do we really want to do this? Is it even high school football?’ And I think that the Coaches Association running the playoffs, a lot of school boards and school districts are going to look at this as an opportunity to field a football team, and I think some other schools are going to say ‘It’s been hard for us to do this 11-man thing, maybe we can make this transition.’

“I don’t know how much time is going to elapse between people doing it, but I think with this announcement, you’re going to see some more schools do this. There’s no question.”

Sebring has contests with local schools including the Valley Christian JV squad, as well as two games with Chalker’s JV squad as it works its way back to fielding a varsity team.

While it’s a Plan B for the Wildcats, switching to an 8-man schedule full-time is something they’ve discussed. Their main focus is building things back up to a varsity 11-man schedule, but they’re testing the waters just in case.

“That option has been laid out; it’s been talked about a few times,” Chalker coach Justin Kren said. “It’s always been available if the numbers start to do a downfall. I will look into anything to keep football here as long as I can, by whatever means it takes.

“It’s an option to keep the sport around to let the kids play. That’s my end game. My end goal is to have a sport around so the kids have the option to play.”

While it’s an option for non-football schools to step onto the gridiron, the idea hasn’t been on the radar of the non-football schools just yet.

Badger athletic director Patrick Carney said that starting an 8-man football program was not something they were considering at the moment.

Things can change in an instant however, and as the 8-man game continues to develop, it could be seen as a more viable option.