Dolores High School football has been reclassified from 11-man to 8-man. This reclassification officially goes into effect for the 2022-2023 school year. The decision to reclassify was based on the following –
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Enrollment numbers at the high school over the past few years place us at the upper end of the 8-man enrollment cut point.
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Our level of participation in high school football has been very low over the past few years. Players that are not ready to play varsity football because of size and/or inexperience have been forced to do so and this creates a safety concern for the district. This year our low numbers caused us to play multiple games with only 1or 2 substitutes plates which leads to fatigue and a greater chance of injury. We even had to forfeit a game because we didn’t have enough eligible players to compete.
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Competitiveness – Dolores High School football has been attempting to rebuild for a few years now. Unfortunately, this has been an uphill climb in the 11man classification and in the league in which we play. Our league consists of schools that have greater enrollment numbers and/or higher levels of participation than Dolores does. Dolores has not been competitive in the league for a number of years now. This again, creates an opportunity for injury.
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Travel – the San Juan Basin League that Dolores competes within for other sports is composed of teams that are more local than the league the football team has been a part of. Instead of having to drive a maximum of 2 hours to Norwood or Nucla for league competition, the football team has to make 2-3 trips over Wolf Creek Pass to the San Luis Valley each year. These are long bus rides for our student athletes.
We will be holding a football meeting on Monday the 22nd to discuss changes to the 2021 season and beyond. MEETING WILL BE HELD IN THE LIBRARY AT 6:00 P.M.
GO BEARS!
