The high school football season will be a little shorter this fall, and for some teams there will be fewer games.
The N.C. High School Athletic Association cut a week out of the football season by trimming the regular season to 11 weeks. In previous years, teams had 12 weeks to play 11 games and teams had a bye week when no game was scheduled.
But this fall, the season begins on Aug. 19 and the playoffs start on Nov. 4. Schools have 11 weeks to play up to 11 regular-season games. If teams play 11 games, there are no off weeks.
Without byes, teams in conferences that have an odd number of league members - the nine schools in the Tri-Nine 4-A and the seven schools in the Piedmont Athletic 4-A, for example - need to schedule a late nonconference game.
If there are nine league teams, four will play conference games and one will need to find an outside opponent.
"It has been very hard to put a schedule together," said Bob Hill, the Hillside athletic director. "We almost ended up with a nine-game season."
Finding an opponent can be tough because all the teams in conferences with an even number of schools already are playing league games late in the season. The Cap Eight and Greater Neuse River teams, for example, begin playing league games on the fourth playing date and play conference opponents the last eight weeks of the season.
To fill an 11-game regular-season schedule, Hillside needed a game on Sept. 23, the sixth playing date. Fuquay-Varina needed a team to play on the last regular-season date, Oct. 28. Instead, both teams will play 10 games.
Apex is one of four Tri-Nine 4-A teams that will be playing 10 games.
"I wish we were playing 11 games because there would be more fun," said Apex senior Jake Tart, a 6-foot-1, 180-pound safety.
Economic issues
Hillside's Hill said he couldn't find a team to play his defending state champions.
"There were a lot of factors in not finding an opponent, but the biggest, I think, was that our team was so successful last year," Hill said. "It seemed like after every game we won in the playoffs I'd get a call from someone who had considered playing us but decided it wouldn't work out."
Hill said the economy was a factor, too.
"There were some schools who were interested, but they didn't think they could travel this far with the economy like it is," Hill said.
Bruce Hemphill, the Fuquay-Varina athletic director, said it would have been difficult to find an opponent on the last playing date and that coach Ryan Habich really preferred having an open date.
"He likes to have a week without a game somewhere during the season," Hemphill said. "It worked out that our bye week will be on the last week. If we have a successful season, we can have a week off before the playoffs start."
Apex coach Bob Wolfe said the Cougars were able to match open dates with Northern Durham (Oct. 14) but couldn't find a team for the season-opener, Aug. 19, the night when many teams will be playing endowment games. Boo Riggsbee, the Northern AD, said he is still looking for a team for the second playing date but thinks the Knights will end up with 10 games and not play an endowment game.
If teams play 11 games, one of the games must be an endowment game from which a portion of the proceeds goes to the NCHSAA Endowment. Interest on the funds in the endowment fund help cover the playoff expenses in all sports. This year, the association is distributing $1,000 to each of its member schools to help with other expenses.
Playing an endowment game also can help seeding for the playoffs.
If a team plays 11 games, which must include an endowment game, the team can drop one nonconference loss for playoff seeding purposes. An 11-0 team and a 10-1 team would be treated identically during the seeding process.
Teams that play only 10 games cannot drop a loss for seeding.
Going out of state
Lee County coach Burton Cates wanted to play 11 games and believes he was lucky to match a Sept. 23 open date with nearby Pittsboro Northwood, a member of the Carolinas 10 1-A/2-A that begins its league season the next week. Lee will play three Tri-Nine games before the Northwood game and five league games afterward.
"We started looking for a game very early and were excited to work with Northwood," Cates said. "This is a little bit different."
So different that Southern Durham and Hillside added out-of-state opponents.
Southern will play Washington (D.C.) Dunbar on Sept. 9 and Hillside will travel to Summerville (S.C.) Goose Creek to play Summerville Cane Bay High as part of a doubleheader on Sept. 3.
Hillside expects its share of the gate receipts to cover its expenses.
"If the opportunity to play in South Carolina had not come along, I don't know what we would have done," Hill said. "Scheduling football was harder this year than ever."
