Springfield-area high school football team cancels 2024 varsity season

This week, the 2024 Sangamo Conference football schedule will definitely not be what it was planned out to be after Riverton said it would forego its varsity football season due to low turnout.

“When 90 percent of your team is (underclassmen), that’s the route we had to take,” Riverton third-year coach Colton Piper said.

The Hawks went through their fourth winless season this year since the season of 2016.

On Monday, the Riverton school district issued a statement saying firing him was a ‘hard choice,’ though the program will have a junior varsity slate next season.

Piper stated that other coaches at other schools in the Sangamo Conference with whom he speaks claimed that both Tristan Tolley and Andrew Watson, Riverton’s two seniors, can play for the JV team.

“It’s not ideal; no one’s the happy with this situation; there is no cheering, ‘Yay, we get to play JV. ’” “Oh man it stinks for my two seniors, they’re four-year guys normally you never want to see anyone sit out even just a game let alone the whole season much less in the middle of one, it’s a health and safety thing-we have no choice. ”

Tolley described Monday as one of the black days in his and Watson’s life, given that Watson is his close friend and his teammate.

Tolley has been on this team for four years not assuming he would get news like that on Tuesday. I am just glad that we could play and better yet, if in the coming years, we can work hard again so that we could get a slot in varsity.

As for the particular work of Tolley and Watson they have had discussions of what it all translates to and how the only thing to do is to plunge forward with it.

Thirty helmets were given to the players this Summer said Piper, who apparently never had more than 22 players at any one practice session. The participation rate at the practice session on Monday was quite low; only 13 players showed up.

Dutch has laid plans for two seniors, two juniors, and 16 to 18 freshmen and sophomores for JV and varsity teams.

Piper speaking about such examples stated there is an instance in another place that created such situations and the result was successful. Dan Carlson, the then Litchfield varsity team head coach had timely come to this decision to make a stop on the Purple Panthers’ COVID-19 spring 2021 hacked-off four successive winless seasons with a 0-9 record. Fuji Sở fit the Panthers recorded an 0-9 performance in the fall of 2021 However, the team ended a 47-game losing streak in 2022, and earned a postseason bid for the first time in 16 years last season.

Unbeknownst to the audience, Piper humbly expressed the following about success of the new S/C Pipeline; “I get when the news first got out, nobody was happy — and I’m not going to sit here and say I’m thrilled about it — but there is a potential where if we have success and this works out, Litchfield just did this. ” I understand that Sullivan, and Sandwich were in a situation like this around COVID or after COVID and both teams reached the playoffs last year as well, So people it has been done and it has worked before I am not saying I will guarantee something here but perhaps it is the baby steps we need.

It’s rather interesting to hear Piper that there may be the personnel at the younger levels for such a turnaround.

Amidst others, Piper said: “We have a group of sophomore skill players that are going to be really good someday and they’re competitors and obviously, they’re upset. ” “They want to play the best we can get,” he said recalling the aftermath of the match Nobody was happy.

Tolley assures the audience that he and Watson will be taking the senior leadership of the company to the next level.

The plan for this year is to endeavour to educate them in the best way possible and have them emulate us, Tolley added. ‘Perhaps more kids come out next year, and it progresses onto the varsity level. ’