PHEBA — In 2017, Hebron Christian School football coach David Foster had only one high school student at the Eagles’ first varsity workout.
That same day, the player quit the team.
With only a small group of ninth-graders and an eighth-grader willing to participate, Foster was forced to forgo varsity play. Instead, he gave his team a chance to play eight junior high games, simulating the feel of a real season. Hebron’s varsity cheerleaders lined the sideline on Thursday nights; the team even held a homecoming.
Despite the circumstances, Foster said, “it worked out.”
And while the situation four years later isn’t quite as drastic, Foster is well aware this season could follow a similar trajectory. Hebron has just five players committed to playing varsity football, including his nephew, ninth-grader Davis Foster.
The younger Foster was pressed into service on the high school squad last year (Hebron didn’t have enough players to field a junior high team) and said he’s not sure if his school will be able to compete in the MAIS Class 1A eight-man division again this fall.
“I’m extremely nervous about that,” he said.
So is his uncle, who has coached Hebron for 17 years in which roster size has often been a concern. In 2016, the Eagles only had four players between 10th and 12th grade; the year before, they had nine seniors but zero underclassmen. A ninth-grader and an eighth-grader rounded out a roster that made it as far as the state semifinals.
It’s nothing new for Hebron, which this year fell from Class 2A to Class 1A based on the number of varsity football players at its disposal.
Coach Foster said there are multiple reasons for the lack of interest in football, but chief among them is the fact that many students are choosing to specialize in another sport.
“A school our size, you can’t really pick one sport and play because it puts a bind on everybody else as well as the sports you like to play,” he said.
Foster said he has told players to see if their friends are willing to help out by joining the team. His nephew, who said the physical nature of football and the stress of the sport have made classmates shy away, admitted he takes a relatively direct tactic in recruiting.
“You’ve just got to suck it up and do something you don’t want to do,” Davis Foster said.
This season — if there is one — Davis and his teammates will be doing plenty. They’ll move around the field at will as the coach plans to “mix and match” at most positions.
“I told them, ‘I’ll let you all play running back a series,’” he said.
Sophomores Stephen Raines and Terry Loden will get their chance at tailback, as will the young Foster. All three players will likely rotate at quarterback, too.
Senior Drake Flowers and junior Wyatt Latham will be stalwarts on the lines for Hebron, but the Eagles will of course need more bodies at most positions to field a solid team. Coach Foster said he needs eight high school players to pair with a freshman and an eighth-grader for a total of 10, which gives Hebron a chance to spell injured or tired players when needed.
That’s roughly in the range of other small MAIS schools, though some 1A programs have as many as 20 players — enough, in Foster’s view, to compete in a larger division.
“If I had 15 high school-age kids every year — 15 to 20 — we’d be trying to play 11-man,” he said.
That scenario isn’t likely, but Hebron still might very well play varsity football this fall. Foster said there’s a decent chance he’ll be able to find enough players to field a high school team.
If not, 2021 will closely resemble 2017, when Foster spent his Thursday nights coaching junior high and hit the road on Fridays to watch his friends coach games around the area.
But if things go right and players flock to the football field, it’ll be like the Hebron that Foster remembers: where his son played for the Eagles; where his daughter led cheers on the sideline.
“That was something we did on Friday nights: We played football,” Foster said.
In 2021, he just hopes that tradition can continue.
Theo DeRosa reports on Mississippi State sports for The Dispatch. Follow him on Twitter at @Theo_DeRosa.
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