PORTLAND — During a Wednesday, Jan. 5, meeting of the Oregon School Activities Association’s Football Ad Hoc Committee, coaches and administrators from Oregon’s Class 1A schools voiced concerns over a proposal that could completely change how small-school teams operate.

In December, the ad hoc committee met and officially supported a reorganization of the state’s smallest football teams. This would combine Oregon’s 2A and 1A schools into three groups: a nine-man football Division 1 classification mostly made of 2A teams, a nine-man football Division 2 classification made of smaller 2A teams and bigger 1A teams, and a six-man football classification for the smaller 1A programs. Teams that do not want to participate in nine-man leagues would have the option to compete in the Class 3A.

During that Dec. 20 meeting, representatives from 2A schools said they would support the move to nine-man football. Nestucca head coach Jeff Schiewe said it would be better than an eight-man game.

But one thing the 1A representatives agreed on Jan. 5 was there was not enough representation from 1A schools when making this decision.

“After visiting with a lot of the 1A schools, we feel like eight-man football should be a 1A decision,” Powder Valley High athletic director Brad Dunten said. “But the last proposal that came from the ad hoc football committee, it was like we were getting pushed out of what our tradition and what we want as a classification.”

Dunten surveyed athletic directors at other 1A schools. Of the 80 responses he received, 95% said they would prefer to play eight-man football rather than nine-man football. And the number of responses showed how passionate 1A schools are on the matter, Powder Valley Superintendent Lance Dixon said.

“1A schools have not been the most unified and come together in a large format matter to represent 1A until this nine-man proposal came out,” Dixon said.

Another frustration raised surrounded finances. Billy Wortman, the football coach and principal at Adrian High School, noted many small rural schools save money by having volleyball and football teams travel together to play at league opponents. A complete redistricting would increase the number of buses needed, thus increasing travel costs.

Also, any changes to nine-man football would limit playing options because it would eliminate out-of-state competition, since Washington and Idaho do not have nine-man football.

Wortman also voiced concerns over the OSAA officially sponsoring the six-man league, saying many eight-man teams would drop to six-man. He said there needs to be a roster cap in place in six-man to make sure teams aren’t dropping down in hopes of competing for a state championship when they could otherwise play eight-man games.

Oregon has been running a pilot six-man league for four years. The teams compete for an unofficial state championship, which is organized by the teams involved. The state originally canceled its six-man league in 1960, creating eight-man football to create more opportunities to play for student-athletes.