(Milford)– There will be no Friday night lights shining this fall on one area football field.
The Okoboji school board voted unanimously Monday evening to scrap the varsity football program for the upcoming season, opting instead to compete only on the freshman and junior varsity levels.
School board member Phil Miklo made the motion. He tells KUOO news it boils down to numbers. Miklo says numbers for the freshmen and sophomore levels “are pretty decent”. He says if they can give those young players and new coaches a year or so to gain experience and get some success without getting hurt playing varsity ball, that they can then re-build the program for the future.
According to numbers presented Monday evening, it was estimated under a best-case scenario that a total of 21 juniors and seniors would perhaps participate this fall. Of that, it was stated about six of those kids would be ineligible for the first game and that two others would likely have to sit out due to injury. It was stated that about five others in the group didn’t play last year and hadn’t given a formal commitment or expressed any interest about the upcoming season.
