Sebring commits to 8-man football for 2023 season, seeks league membership

With consistently low numbers on the football roster and the school district facing dwindling enrollment while competing in a stout small-school conference, Sebring has opted to pursue a new option.

The Board of Education voted 5-0 Thursday to approve a proposal from first-year football coach and athletic director Anthony Agresta to switch from 11-man to 8-man football and petition the Northern 8 Football League for membership. That league consists of high schools located in northwest Ohio.

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"Doing this would require a lot of travel and there will be bigger transportation costs, and those are concerns, but we wanted to continue giving the community the Friday night football experience," Sebring principal Brian Clark said. "That not only includes the players, but the cheerleaders and the band."

Sebring has been a member of the Mahoning Valley Athletic Conference since 2017 and part of the Scarlet Tier since 2020, when the conference doubled in size, creating a Grey Tier. Clark said the Trojans plan to remain in the MVAC Scarlet Tier for other sports, noting the decision to submit the petition in mid-October.

"We wanted to be proactive, professional and a responsible member by making the decision at this time," Clark said. "It would gave the [seven other] schools a better chance to fill their football schedules."

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Clark said Sebring has enjoyed a healthy relationship with the MVAC Scarlet Tier since its formation and notes the petition to the Northern 8 would only cover football.

"The MVAC is one of the best small-school conferences in terms of logistics, it's very well run and there are great roads [for travel]," Clark said. "We have informal assurances that if we're accepted into the football league, we will remain in the MVAC [for other sports]."

Sebring football has historically battled low roster sizes

Sebring has struggled to win for decades in the Tri-County League, Inter-County League, Inter-Tri County League and MVAC. The Trojans haven't had a winning season in 30 years when the 1992 team coached by Mike Schott finished 6-4. Since 2000, Sebring has a record of 30-196, including this year's 0-8 overall mark and 0-5 against conference rivals.

Agresta inherited an inexperienced team lacking in overall numbers.

"When Anthony took over the program, there were only 10 players on the roster," Clark said. "He went out and got some more kids to come out, increasing the roster to 18, but seven players had never played organized football."

With the small roster, Sebring lost its first eight games and has scored in seven of them, reaching double figures twice in losses to Cleveland Lincoln-West (34-12) and Mineral Ridge (48-14).

"Seven players on this year's team are seniors, which will put us in a similar situation next year, and that makes it tough to compete in 11-man football," Clark said. "We just think it's time to try eight-man football."

Northern 8 Football League has six schools in northwest Ohio and Indiana

The Northern 8 Football League consists of Sandusky St. Mary Central Catholic (Erie County), Holgate (Henry County), Danbury (Ottawa County), Stryker (Williams County), Toledo Christian (Lucas County) and the Fort Wayne Kings Crusaders (Indiana), a home school.

Unlike the MVAC, the Northern 8 Football League, now in its third year, isn't sanctioned by the Ohio High School Athletic Association, but commissioner Joel Miller says there are competitive pluses.

"This is a situation where smaller [high schools] in smaller communities who wanted to keep football going, but they have dwindling numbers," Miller said. "This league is a great outlet for the sport. It's different because you're playing 8-on-8 and the field is narrower, but it's still 100 yards long."

With fewer players available for offense and defense, the personnel is different in eight-man football.

"Coaches will flex guys on offense," Miller said. "Teams will play with two less linemen and one back."

On defense, the preferred scheme is a 3-2-3.

Clark noted eight-man football is popular in Texas and has grown nationwide.

"There are between 72 and 84 teams that play eight-man football in Michigan," said Danbury coach and athletic director Keith Mora. "We start our regular season one week later than the OHSAA does, but we've been able to fill our open dates with schools from there."

Miller said Sebring reached out to the Northern 8 Football League for membership and confides there have been other inquiries.

"The hardest thing is scheduling, but we're willing to work with schools," he said.

Miller said Sebring's petition for admittance will be passed to the member schools for perusal and he anticipates a vote on the request to take place within a month.

"If we're approved, we would like to begin playing next year," Agresta said.

For now, the focus is meeting the 2022 regular-season schedule obligations, concluding at 2019 and 2020 Division VI state runner-up Springfield Local on October 21.

"One team dropped us because they didn't think we'd have a football season this year," Clark said. "Once we began the season, a lot of people thought we wouldn't finish it, but we're close. That's a credit to the kids and Anthony, who has also started to build our entire program from the ground up."

This article originally appeared on The Alliance Review: Small roster numbers prompted the decision for Sebring to change