Big changes in store for Longhorn football next season

On Wednesday, Oct. 4, a meeting - open to the community, was held to talk about the idea of stepping Kimball Football down from eleven-man to an eight-man team.

“Not one person spoke negatively about going to eight-man,” Kimball Activities Director Ken Smith said. “I think everyone understands where we are with our numbers.”

According to the Longhorns Head Coach, Ben Aarestad, approximately 20 people attended, most were parents of players, but other interested community members were also in attendance.

Coaches and school staff presented reasons why they want to move to eight-man and what the benefits are going to be. Coach Aarestad added that he hasn’t heard a single negative reaction to the decision to play eight-man. Aarestad added that he and many others feel this is the best move for the kids at this time.

“With our numbers declining, eight-man football is where we should be playing,” he said. “More kids in the school that don’t already play football have come up to me saying how excited they are to play eight-man.”

Aarestad hopes the changes will give the kids a chance to compete again and for the younger kids to be able to play a junior varsity schedule.

The shift is expected to help Kimball build a stronger, more competitive program in the future. Kimball was able to play just one junior varsity game this season due to reduced numbers and, according to Aarestad, that is no way to build a program.

“Im hoping the kids will buy into this (eight-man) and it will make weight lifting and working hard an easier sell,” he said.

Eight-man is still great football and the games will still be tough to win but Kimball will no longer go up against teams in a bigger class.

“I think when we take the field next fall our kids will have a sense that we belong on this field with the other team,” Aarestad said.

He added that Kimball really hasn’t had a chance to win against teams like Chase County, even if the Longhorns were to play a perfect game.

As of Monday evening the Kimball Board of Education decided to go to an eight-man game, leaving most in the community awaiting next year’s season in hopes things change for the better.

“If we are in a good place with the number of kids, we can look at going back to eleven-man,” Smith concluded.