La Conner High School football future in doubt

Community members and La Conner Schools officials met Thursday to kick around ideas on how to structure the high school football program given fallen enrollment.

Unless 25 La Conner High students firmly commit by mid-March to playing football this fall, only three viable options remain for the upcoming season – eliminate football, play an eight-man schedule with no post-season opportunity, or combine with the 2A state championship 11-man Anacortes High School program – La Conner secondary principal and director of athletics Christine Tripp said.

“We want a decision made in a month or so,” Tripp said at a 90-minute Feb. 8 public forum at the La Conner Middle School Library. “(Football) schedules are being crafted as we’re speaking now.

“We’ve been struggling with numbers in football for several years,” Tripp noted. “We’re a small 2B school with a football program having small numbers.”

In fact, said Tripp, the school is the state’s smallest 2B school in terms of student enrollment. Even so, it offers football and boys’ soccer in the fall.

Last year, 23 boys turned out for soccer. The football team had 18 players on its roster, with as few as 13 available for some games due to injury or illness.

“The last couple years,” said Tripp, “we’ve had to opt out of a couple games for lack of players.”

“In a perfect world,” she said, “you want at least ‘two times plus’ the number of players on the field for a football roster.”

That equates to around 25 players for 11-man football and 18-20 for an eight-man program.

“We’re also considering safety,” Tripp said. “We’re cognizant of that.”

The Washington Interscholastic Activities Association had denied La Conner’s petition and subsequent appeal to compete as a playoff eligible eight-man program the next two years, she said.

Dave Alvord, a standout on the Braves’ 1973 league title winners who played college football, asked why the state nixed the appeal.

Tripp said the WIAA ruled that despite its shrinking enrollment and small freshman class, La Conner is large enough to play 2B 11-man football. The decision did not consider that the district also fields a fall soccer team.

“Some small schools have soccer and no football,” Tripp said, “and some have football and no soccer.

“They ask ‘how are you recruiting kids to play football?’” Tripp added. “They ask ‘how do we know you’re trying to grow the program?’ They want you to try to get back to that 11-man level if you’re a 2B school.”

Tripp said the WIAA has denied “many, many appeals” this year. Most involved school districts requesting not to be moved up into larger enrollment classifications.

“Sedro-Woolley is having to move from 2A to 3A and I don’t think they’re very happy about that,” said Tripp.

Head coach Charlie Edwards said that at this point a 2024 football team would welcome eight returnees plus a handful of incoming freshmen. The roster would be grown with transfer students and first-year players from the sophomore, junior and senior classes.

“I’m a football coach,” Edwards said, “but more than anything I’m a La Conner fan. I do want football players, but I’ve talked kids who aren’t playing football into playing soccer.”

Like many at the meeting, Edwards is a La Conner alum. He said he constantly encourages students to participate in the school’s extra-curricular programs. Ditto Tripp.

“Every day,” said Tripp, “I’m out in the hall talking to kids about doing extra-curriculars. We’re pounding the pavement.”

She noted COVID-19 and its aftermath, along with increased after-school student employment, has impacted participation.

Even so, Tyler Zimmerman – who played multiple sports in the 1990s – pointed out that the district had a robust roster when the Braves won the league football title during the shortened 2021 COVID-19 spring season.

“We had 30-35 players then,” said Zimmerman. “It wasn’t that long ago that we had participation.”

School board member Kim Pedroza asked if parental concerns over player safety has resulted in fewer numbers. The consensus in the room, however, was that improved equipment and newer tackling techniques make the game safer.

Tripp, who provided survey for attendees to fill out, said another public meeting will be held before a decision is made on the future of Braves football.

Steve Johnson, a member of stellar school football, basketball and baseball teams in the 1980s, noted the irony of former football power Concrete High School now playing an eight-man schedule.

“Concrete won back-to-back state titles,” he recalled, “and the only team they lost to was La Conner. It’s not like we haven’t had talent here.”