Missouri Eight Man Rises to 26 Teams

The ranks of eight man football will grow for 2019. There will now be 26 teams vying for a state title. New schools this year include Appleton City (Montrose), Drexel (Miami), LeBlond, Liberal (Bronaugh), and Rich Hill (Hume). Leaving eight man ranks this year will be St. Joseph Christian, who will form an 11 man coop with Northland Christian.

Among the newcomers, Miami of Amoret was an eight man power at the turn of the millennium, falling 48-40 to Chris Healy and the Worth County Tigers in the State Championship game. Sacred Heart, after getting to the State Championship game against Worth County in 2017 and dropping football last year, is resurrecting its program and joining forces with Northwest Hughesville.

LeBlond will be coached by one-time NEN girls basketball coach Eric Fairchild. The one-time St. Joseph football power fell on hard times recently, bringing out only 24 players last year, 12 of whom had never played football before. But they will be strong at the skill positions, which will make them an interesting matchup. The Golden Eagles will know right away how good they will be as they face off against Pattonsburg the first game of the year. Both coaches will be familiar with each other as Chase Roberts (Pattonsburg) and Fairchild (LeBlond) faced off many times when Fairchild was at Southwest Livingston.

MSHSAA rules now allow cooperatives involving three schools this year for all sports involving eight or more players.This means that girls softball and 11 man football schools can form three-way cooperatives, subject to enrollment restrictions. However, only Pattonsburg will feature three schools joining forces, as they have Gilman City and North Harrison in their cooperative again this year.