Tupper Lake football players line up ahead of game against Ticonderoga on Sept. 8, 2023. (Enterprise photo — Parker O’Brien)

TUPPER LAKE — The Tupper Lake Central School District appears likely to move back to 11-man football next season for the first time since 2017, with the exception of spring 2021, when the Lumberjacks played an abbreviated two-game season because of the coronavirus pandemic.

The TLCSD Board of Education discussed the move again at its Dec. 1 meeting, with Superintendent Jaycee Welsh sharing that she had met, emailed or spoken with 19 stakeholders, mostly parents of current and future student athletes, throughout the past few weeks.

Of those, she said 17 supported moving back to 11-man football, with the most common reason being the commute times for away-games at other eight-man teams were prohibitively long for family members and other supporters to come and watch the games.

The school district first floated the idea at its Nov. 3 board meeting, with district officials giving the pros and cons of each, and adding that they wanted the decision-making process to be transparent, with input from all stakeholders.

At that meeting, the Lumberjacks’ varsity football head coach Dennis Klossner advised against moving up to 11-man, citing insufficient student-athlete numbers in the long run. A report on that meeting is available at tinyurl.com/yc4ez6s7.

Welsh again reminded the board on Dec. 1 that the move didn’t demand any action that evening from the board, but given how impactful a decision it would be for the district, she wanted to give board members and district officials more time to air out the discussion.

“This is a big change for the traditional program,” she said. “So we just want to make sure (they) have the opportunity to hear both sides.”

School board Vice President Jason Rolley, recalling Klossner’s remarks from the November meeting, asked if the move was sustainable in the long run.

“They said three, four years we’re good (but) in six years, are we down to no participants again?” he asked.

Welsh responded by stating that it didn’t matter, as her and TLCSD Athletic Director Hayden LaMere’s research indicated it was fairly easy for school districts to move back and forth between the eight- and 11-man football statuses on a year-to-year basis.

“That’s the beauty of being in high school athletics,” Welsh said. “We could go out next year, do 11-man, and say, ‘This is a disaster, we don’t want to do this again!’ And the very next year, go back to eight-man.”

Indeed, Welsh said this was among the most compelling reasons to move back up to 11-man next year. Doing so would not put the district in a long-term bind.

This was a cause for concern at the November board meeting, as district officials were unsure whether it was logistically easy, or not, for a school to move back and forth between the two team sizes. Klossner noted then that the move would require the league’s acceptance, allowing it to rejoin. At the December board meeting, Welsh said after looking into it further, it didn’t seem to be a significant obstacle.

“You do not have to make a multi-year commitment,” she said. “There is no application, there is nothing. As a school district, Hayden reports what we’re going to be doing and that’s it. So, if in three years we realize we don’t have the number of student athletes anymore, it’s no big deal to go back down to eight-man.”

LaMere added that 25 students signing up, or thereabouts, was the magic number when it came to determining what type of football program the school should have for that year. More than 25 would mean 11-man, and less than that would mean eight-man.

Teams need at least 16 players to be eligible for an 11-man football game, and 12 players are required for an eight-man team. Even though 25 students are more than what’s needed for a team, this is to account for drop-outs, injuries and academic suspensions, all of which tend to drag roster numbers down throughout the season.

Rolley also brought up the financial implications, stating that moving to 11-man was more affordable, as it would save money on transportation costs since away games would generally be closer to Tupper Lake. That’s because most Section VII and X programs are 11-man teams.

While that is the case, Welsh said transport costs didn’t really make a difference either way to the school district, as the Tupper Lake Football Boosters club covers away-game charter bus costs. Welsh thanked the boosters club for its generosity over the years, adding that it’s an instrumental partner for the Lumberjacks’ football program.

Welsh, however, noted that shorter travel times could be beneficial beyond just the costs.

“When it comes to travel, I think people believe that we will get more spectators and more parents and more buy-in for our athletes, because people are willing to go,” she said. “So it’s not going to fiscally make a difference in that route, but I think the number of people that will support our athletes, I think you’ll see an increase in that, because it’s no longer three-and-a-half hours to get to — not every contest — but a lot of contests.”

Board member Mary Ellen Chamberlain added that she thought it’d be nice with 11-man for the Lumberjacks to play some of their old rivals again, such as Saranac Lake. The two teams last played for the Mayor’s Cup in Spring 2021, when Tupper Lake moved up to 11-man for the brief season. The Red Storm won that competition 38-22. The last full-length season game these two schools played was in 2014, which Saranac Lake also won 44-14.

Board President Jane Whitmore then asked LaMere if he felt the move to 11-man would enjoy support from the student athletes themselves.

“I think we’re really confident that we have the numbers for next year, and then at least the next three or four years,” LaMere responded. “(School Counselor) Brian Bennett and I talked a lot to the kids, and we were projecting 25 to 30 to sign up for next year, and that’s without trying to advertise it. That’s just (asking the student athletes), ‘If we move to 11-man, are you more willing to play?'”

LaMere added that, while perhaps ambitious, it wasn’t out of the realm of possibilities to have more than 30 students sign up for the team. He said less time getting to away games was a reason some students cited.

The Adirondack Football League Commissioner for Tupper Lake, Maegan Kavanagh, attended the Dec. 1 school board meeting. She said that youth football had strong numbers this year with around 50 participants, which pointed to a promising future for the varsity team.

“Just the increased numbers in (Tupper Lake youth football) and how much the kids love it, I think you’re not going to have a problem,” Kavanagh said. “And these parents pay out of pocket for (youth football). They do everything on their own. We don’t have boosters. So, if they’re doing that (now), they’re going to do it when they’re being supported.”

Welsh added that the feeder programs for the varsity team play 11-man football, so having varsity be that would be “nice for consistency.”

Nobody in attendance at December’s meeting spoke against moving to 11-man football.

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Sports Editor Parker O’Brien in Saranac Lake contributed to this report.