High school cancels remainder of football season due to lack of available players

OXFORD, Neb. (KSNB/Gray News) - A high school in Nebraska says it has made the difficult decision to cancel its remaining football games for the season.

Southern Valley Schools announced Tuesday they have canceled the remainder of their 2024 high school football season due to a lack of available players.

The cancelation includes both the varsity and junior varsity teams.

The district said the decision did not come lightly, but they could not in good conscience put the few players they had left in a tough position.

“For us, numbers-wise, we didn’t have enough kids available to put a safe product out on the field any further,” Josh Lanik, Southern Valley Schools activities director, said. “We had 10 or 11 healthy bodies in grades 9 through 12 total.”

Lanik continued, “We as an administration talked to the coaches, and made that decision this morning to cancel the rest of our season. From a safety standpoint, we had to make that decision. Some of our varsity kids aren’t quite varsity ready yet and we’d be doing them a disservice. With a clean conscience, we couldn’t put those kids out there on a Friday night.”

The football team is currently 0-5 and 6th in Class D1 District 9. They were scheduled to play at Hi-Line on Friday at 7 p.m.

Their other scheduled games included hosting North Platte St. Patrick’s on Oct. 11 and Dundy County Stratton on Oct. 18.

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