By Roger Sims, rsims@linncountyjournal.com
LA CYGNE – Prairie View Activities Director Mark Hough announced on Wednesday, Sept. 4, the the Prairie View High School varsity football team will open its 2024 season with a game against Saint Louis Priory School on Saturday, Sept. 7, at 1 p.m. at home.
The move comes following the announcement last week that the Osawatomie High School will not be fielding a varsity football team this season. The Trojans were slated to start the season by playing the Buffalos at home on Friday evening, Sept. 6.
Hough said that an all-district pep rally planned for Friday would be delayed until Homecoming week later this season.
As a result of Osawatomie's decision to forfeit all varsity games, members of the Pioneer League made the decision to cancel the Trojan junior varsity team's schedule with Pioneer League schools, so the junior varsity game scheduled against the Buffalos on Monday, Sept. 9, has been canceled.
In the statement released on Thursday, Aug. 29, Osawatomie district officials said Pioneer League officials informed them that if the school was not able to play a full varsity schedule that league games with junior varsity would also be cancelled. Apparently by the time the statement was released, the school's athletic director Jordan Kupersmith had scheduled at least five junior varsity games with non-league opponents.
Paul McKee, an assistant coach with the Pleasanton Blu-Jay football team said the Blu-Jay junior varsity team would play Osawatomie. Pleasanton is a member of the Three Rivers League.
The Osawatomie district statement faulted a lack of upperclassmen coming out for the team for its decision.
"Due to the lack of upperclassmen returning to the program, parents and other districts expressed overwhelming concern about how Osawatomie would continue a full football schedule without a varsity team," the statement said. "Our players' and students' safety is our priority over everything else. Due to our numbers, we had to forfeit a Varsity or JV schedule. We could not do both.
"After several meetings within the district (including high school administrators, coaches, the superintendent, and two members of the Board of Education) and a meeting with the Pioneer League, it has been determined that for the 2024-2025 season, Osawatomie High School Football will play a JV/C-Team only schedule and will forfeit all varsity games this year.
This will mean no Friday Night Lights, which will cause us to shift some of our fall traditions and make alternative plans for things like Homecoming."
As stated above, however, the junior varsity teams will not compete with Pioneer League school this year.
"While we don’t want to take away some of these long-standing traditions, to keep a varsity schedule would cause our very young players to face teams that are much larger and stronger, putting their physical safety at a great risk," the district statement continued. "We received multiple emails and phone calls from parents sharing the same concern, which helped lead us to this decision. We will take this opportunity to build these young players' skills and focus on strength and physical safety."
The statement said that seniors who previously decided to opt out of the season cannot return to play JV only.
"This decision was made because they chose not to play; therefore, we cannot allow them to return to play in a lower classification."
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