Area High School Football scene to be different next Fall

February 23, 2022

Last week this newspaper passed on the information about the high school programs in Superior and Lawrence. This week we’ll expand a little to comment on area schools and what changes will be coming about.

To start our story, it is good to remember that the Nebraska Schools Activities Association (NSAA) checks student population numbers every two years to determine the number of boys and girls in each grade in high school. From these numbers, they divide the schools in classes: A, B, C-1, C-2, D-1, D-2, D-6.

The D-6 is for six-man football only and the track programs have only A, B, C and D.

The numbers for the 2022 and 2023 football season were just released and a number of area school are going to be affected.

Schools changing from 11-Man football to 8-Man football: (figures are boys in grades counted) Superior 53; Sutton 43; Sandy Creek 39.

Area schools changing from 6-Man football to 8-Man football: Silver Lake, 30; Deshler 28.

Superior, Sutton and Sandy Creek are all classified as Class D-1. Lawrence-Nelson, Silver Lake and Deshler are all Class D-27.

Because of the number of boys in school, the NSAA has ruled that seven Class D-1 teams will be ineligible for the playoffs at the end of the season. Superior is one of the teams.

Other area team information: Class D-1: Thayer Central 46.

Class D-2: Blue Hill 36; Kenesaw 35; Axtell 34; BDS 34; High Plains 31; Diller-Odell 28; Giltner 27.

Class D-6: Franklin 29; Wilcox-Hildreth 31; Harvard 27; Shelton 27; Meridian 20; Red Cloud 14.