Published: August 09, 2008 01:48 am            

A whole new ball game

Official football practices begin Monday for area high schools. Tyler Mussmann can't wait for them to end. It's not that he hates practices. He is just eager to huddle at midfield with his East Central teammates and close practices with a group yell of “Raiders.”

It's a battle cry they haven't heard in Miles, Iowa, for a few years.

After spending the past two seasons in a co-op arrangement with Preston, East Central is on its own again in football this fall. It is a new experience for many of the players, even some of the seniors. But there is something new about the game for all the players and all the coaches this fall at East Central and Preston.

They are the first schools in eastern Iowa to switch from 11-player to eight-player football. The game, which has made a gradual move eastward since earning state sanction in 2000 with teams mainly in western Iowa, has allowed both schools the opportunity to return to the days when they had their own identities on the field.

“Everyone is psyched to have it back,” Mussmann, a senior tailback, said. “It's great to have Raider football and to be able to say 'Raiders' at the end of practice.”

Austin Hughes, a junior at Preston, can relate to those feelings.

“It will be nice to get that school pride again,” he said. “It's nothing against the East Central kids, but it's nice to be Preston.”

Sharing a program kept football alive for both schools with dwindling numbers of athletes, but the decision to try eight-man football by several schools in the eastern part of Iowa has given both Jackson County schools the chance to fly solo again.

“The kids we've had in here have real positive attitudes and seem excited,” Preston coach Kevin Behr said.

East Central coach Rick Meisner isn't surprised to see schools take the new option.

“I'm not surprised at all with the economy the way it is,” he said. “A lot of kids are working, and we're getting fewer and fewer kids going out. It's either eight-man or drop the sport. I think it's a good alternative for a lot of schools.”

Still, he sees some drawbacks.

“Preston and East Central have been sharing for 16 years,” he said, referring to classes. “It defeats everything these schools have been working toward. The state of Iowa has encouraged sharing like this. Class-sharing is one thing, sports another.”

When it comes to sharing sports, though, it's difficult to get everybody behind a combined program. So often, a school is the focal point of a small town's identity, and the sports teams often put a spotlight on the school.

That is one reason Mussmann is returning to football after two years away. Although there were much more over-riding reasons involved, he said the co-op arrangement was a small factor in his not going out as a sophomore or junior.

“It was a real easy decision (to return),” he said. “I'm a diehard Raider guy. I like the Preston guys, but they were always our rivals.”

Despite the rebirth of a rivalry and school spirit, numbers still are limited at East Central, and that is a concern for Meisner.

He said he expected 16 players (freshmen-seniors) to report Monday on the first day schools in the state can hold practices.

“We have zero players who started a varsity

        

• Click to discuss this story with other readers on our forums.