Marty Gordon
The numbers game, or should we the lack of, will drastically two areas of high school football this fall in the New River Valley.
Auburn High School has announced it will not field a varsity team this year. Athletic Director Paul Dominy points to the lack of upperclassmen causing the problem at the Riner school. Two years ago, Auburn shut down their program half-way through its season. Last year, they were able to limp through a schedule, but not this year.
“We will not be fielding a varsity football team this fall. We had just two upperclassmen come out for football. We have 22 freshmen and sophomores in the program and our middle school program is healthy, so we feel like this is a short-term step back to help sustain long term growth for the program,” Dominy said on Wednesday.
This does cause problems for the schools, which are on Auburn’s 2024 schedule. The school was slated to play a home benefit game Aug. 23 against Holston and then officially start the season Aug. 30 against Narrows. The rest of the schedule includes the entire Mt. Empire District group (George Wythe, Galax, Giles, Ft. Chiswell and Grayson County). Eastern Montgomery will also be looking to fill its Sept. 20 date. Craig County and Eastside will also need new opponents.
Meanwhile, the Virginia High School League is planning for lots of scheduling problems because of the lack of numbers in officials. This will be the second year seven-man crews could be as little as five, and games could also be played on nights other than the typical Friday ones. Thus, Friday night games could be rescheduled for Thursday or Saturday nights. So far, no local school has reported rescheduling, but it could change quickly as the season starts in just three weeks.
