Crossville High School (Ala.) won’t be playing varsity football this year due to a lack of available players.
The school’s principal Jon Peppers called it one of the most difficult decisions that he’s had to make. Peppers named several possible reasons, including COVID-19 taking some potential athletes into the workforce, per Shannon Allen at the Sand Mountain Reporter.
“When COVID hits, a lot of the dads took their sons to work with them so they could make a little extra money for the family, which makes sense… But once those kids started making money, then it was a little harder for those parents to not want them to keep working. I think that’s where we did lose a lot of kids at that time, because they started making money.”
It probably doesn’t help that there’s a general lack of interest in playing, since the team hadn’t won a game since the 2020 season – going 0-10 each of the last two years.
Crossville’s opponents will either find a replacement game or take a forfeit victory. Even though varsity football is out of the picture, they will still be fielding a JV team this year.
Alabama’s high school football schedule is slated to begin the weekend of August 24-25.
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