Macon East to play 8-man football after participant numbers dwindle

Macon East coach Glynn Lott made the difficult decision to transfer his football team to the AISA’s eight-man league for the next two seasons. The factor was based on having just 11 players in preseason practice. (Tim Gayle)

By TIM GAYLE

With a deadline rapidly approaching, Macon East Academy coach Glynn Lott was expecting the first day of classes to provide an opportunity to increase the participation on the Knights’ football team. 

It didn’t.

So last week, with just 11 varsity players participating at football practice, Lott made the decision to switch to eight-man football.

“It’s been received well,” Lott said. “Our kids had a rough year last year and they saw the numbers. We thought we had more. Some we thought were coming out didn’t. Some we thought were coming (by transferring) didn’t. But there was no choice. We had a certain date we had to make that decision by. After that date, we would have to pay a forfeiture fee for each game that we had to forfeit. There’s no way we could finish the season, not with 11.”

Last year, the Knights added three players early in the season which offset the loss of players at points in the season due to injury, but the adjustments led to struggles and a 1-9 record. Beating Abbeville Christian clinched a playoff berth for the Knights but they were shut out in the first round of the state playoffs.

Lott would later call the season one of the most difficult in his 29-year tenure as head coach, something he didn’t want the players to have to endure again this fall. So he called Alabama Independent School Association athletic director Roddie Beck to tell him the Knights would not field a football team this season.

Instead, Beck offered him a ready-made schedule for 8-man football. New AISA member Hope Christian had signed up to play 8-man but couldn’t get the program started in time, so Beck offered the Knights an opportunity to play out Hope Christian’s schedule.

“When I called Roddie Beck at the office, I didn’t even know 8-man was an option,” Lott said. “He said you could still get this schedule, so we were lucky to be able to get that so we could have a team and hopefully be pretty successful at it.”

Lott said the Knights’ roster fits the requirements for linemen in 8-man but Macon East will be thin on depth at receiver. Eight-man football utilizes three linemen (instead of five), three receivers, a quarterback and a running back on offense and three linemen, one or two linebackers and three or four defensive backs.

“Right now, I have six offensive linemen and you’ve got to have five in 11-man and three in 8-man, so it just gives us some depth at some positions,” Lott said. “Receiver is probably our thinnest position because we have six (skill players) and you need a quarterback, running back, split guy and two receivers, so there’s five of them.”

The Knights had worked in the offseason to come up with a new offensive and defensive scheme for this fall, but now must adapt that philosophy to an 8-man concept.

“The rules are pretty much the same, it’s who is ‘on’ and ‘off’ (the line of scrimmage) with the receivers that is the hard part,” Lott said. “And on defense, knowing who is ‘on’ and ‘off.’ People will shift at times and you have to figure out who will become the eligible receiver.”

Macon East Academy becomes the second AISA program to switch to 8-man football because of declining participation, joining Eufaula’s Lakeside School, which struggled to find enough offseason participants after a coaching change. Ironically, the Knights will open the 2024 season at home against Lakeside on Aug. 30.