Decatur football season in question

Bulldog coach hoping numbers increase when school starts and buses roll

— With just eight players out for the opening days of practice, Decatur is facing a serious decision on whether it will be able to field a team for the 2016 season.

Decatur Athletic Director John Unger said he’s hopeful more players will join the team once school starts, and puts the magic number at 20 in order for the Bulldogs to field a team this season.

“That’s our hope, is that once the buses start rolling, we’ll pick up more players,” Unger said. “We’re putting it out on Facebook that we need players. We will probably try and recruit kids walking the halls, but if a kid doesn’t want to play, then they don’t need to play.”

Unger said the decision on whether to scrap the season would be a school board decision.

He also said bringing ninth-grade players up from the junior high team would not be an option.

“We want the junior high teams to have success, so we want to leave the ninth-grade players where they are,” he said. “We have 20 players showing up every day for junior high practices, so we have good numbers there. And we’ll do everything we can to try and keep from canceling the senior high season.”

Unger said 20 is the ideal target number, but that anywhere from 17 to 20 could be enough.

“The safety of the players comes first before anything else,” Unger said. “We want to play, but we have to make sure we are putting a team on the field that can physically compete.”

The Bulldogs compete in the 2A-4 Conference. They are scheduled to open the season at Berryville on Friday, Sept. 2.