Colfax school board agrees to continue with 11-player football
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By LeAnn R. Ralph
COLFAX — The Colfax Board of Education has agreed that the school district should continue with an 11-player football program.
The number of students participating in football at Colfax High School is low, and there have been meetings about the football program every month since last October, said William C. Yingst Jr., district administrator, at the Colfax Board of Education’s September 16 meeting.
Several of those conversations have focused on whether to stay with an 11-player program or switch to eight-player football, he said, noting that football is a high-injury sport.
The football program has been going week to week with the players we have, said Michael Hodel, athletic director and a physical education teacher at Colfax High School.
Colfax did not have enough players one week and had to cancel the game with Spring Valley, he said.
The Wisconsin Interscholastic Athletic Association (WIAA) has a two-hear cycle, and next year is the second year, so now would be the time to decide on whether to remain with 11 players or switch to eight players, Hodel said.
Colfax would have to make a decision now so the WIAA can organize conferences for the 2026-2027 school year, he said.
Options
The first option is to stay with the 11-player program in the middle school and high school, Hodel said.
The advantages of staying with an 11-player program are that Colfax would be eligible to play in the Dunn-St. Croix Conference playoffs, players could be eligible for the all-conference awards and championships, and Colfax would have a conference to play in, he said.
The disadvantages would be not having enough players each week and being in a position of having to put younger players on the varsity team, Hodel said.
The second option would be to run a junior-varsity program only, which would keep the younger players off the varsity field and would allow the junior varsity team to be developed, he said.
There would be no conference for Colfax to participate in, no varsity team, no season for the senior players, and Colfax would not be eligible for the playoffs or the all-conference awards, he said.
The third option would be to switch to an eight-player team, Hodel said.
The advantages of an eight-player football program is that fewer players are needed, and those who do go out for football would have more ability to play, he said.
Colfax would not be eligible for the conference awards and would not be eligible for the playoffs with an eight-player program, Hodel said.
Scheduling
Would Colfax be able to fill up the schedule with games if there was an eight-player program? asked Ken Bork, school board member.
There are other schools in the same situation of having an eight-player team. There are a fair number of schools, but it is difficult to fill a full schedule, and Colfax would end up playing three to five games for the season, Hodel said.
So far this year, Colfax has played three games, and the fourth game will be played this week, he said.
The decision must be made by October 1 about switching to an eight-player football game for the 2026-2027 school year, Hodel said.
More disadvantages
Additional disadvantages of an eight-player football program is that Colfax would not be eligible for an eight-player conference until the high school enrollment is 200 or less, so Colfax would be seven to 10 years away before a conference would be available, Hodel said.
The middle school football players are talented, and they might go to another school district if Colfax is not eligible for the playoffs, he said.
Colfax has the ability to apply for an eight-player program every two years,Hodel noted.
The largest groups of football players now are in middle school and the high school freshmen and sophomores, Hodel said, adding that the middle school teams have had good success at playing football.
If Colfax goes to an eight-player program, Colfax most likely will be ineligible for playoffs for seven to 10 years, he reiterated.
If students leave Colfax to open enroll in other school districts to play football, it will hurt other sports at Colfax, too, Hodel said.
The projected number of football players at Colfax is 33 in 2025-2026, and 43 football players in 2026-2027, he said.
Intramural?
Would eight-player football be an intramural program? asked Jodi Kiekhafer, school board member.
Eight-player football is a WIAA sport that does have a state championship for schools under 200 in enrollment, Hodel said.
Thorp, Turtle Lake and Clear Lake are talking about going to an eight-player team. Regardless of what the WIAA wants, there are many schools in this position. It is not only a Colfax issue — but it also is a problem elsewhere, he said.
Yingst said he has been watching television sports coverage, and there are “lots of blow outs” with scores of 60 to 0 or 40 to 0.
That has been happening for years and indicates the lopsided issue of schools with larger and smaller football programs, he said.
There are very few “middle of the road” programs. Football is a “numbers driven” sport, Yingst said.
Yingst said he has put more time into considering the football program than any other sport. Safety is “number one,” and there must be parent and player commitment, he said, adding that football also is the most expensive sport.
One situation that Yingst said he could envision happening is that if Colfax commits to an 11-player team, if there are not enough players for a game, and the other school is holding homecoming, then the other school would not be able to have a homecoming game.
Since having enough students out for football is a wide-spread problem, several school board members noted that Colfax could be in the same position of an opposing team not having enough players for the Colfax homecoming game.
Building a program
Colfax has been trying to build the program to increase the number of football players, Yingst said.
What needs to happen to change the culture so that Colfax football can be competitive? asked Jaci Ackerlund, school board member.
Seventh grade through sophomores in high school have many students out for the football, and the key is to keep them going out for football, Hodel said.
The kids that are in football now “love it,” he said.
Football results in bumps and bruises and is a hard game to play. It involves getting out on the football field in spite of bumps and bruises, and many of the students are playing more than one sport, Hodel said.
Cooperative
Bjork asked about cooperative programs for football in the same way Colfax has a wrestling cooperative with Bloomer and a golf cooperative with Elk Mound.
When there are cooperatives, the enrollment of both schools are added together, so the cooperative is placed in a division with larger schools, Yingst said.
The number of students playing football in Bloomer is decreasing, Bjork noted.
Elk Mound’s football program also is decreasing. Elk Mound used to have 70 students going out for football, and now it is around 50, Hodel said.
The football program is expected to have 17 upperclassmen in 2026-2027, said Todd Kragness, president of the Board of Education.
Success breeds success, and middle school football is experiencing success, Hodel said.
Colfax had 64 seniors graduating in 2023-2024, and there will be 69 this year, Yingst noted, adding that the following classes will be smaller.
Football players “get more tired” when they are behind by 28 points than when they are ahead by 28 points, Bjork said.
11-player program
Kragness said in his opinion, Colfax should stay with an 11-player program.
The school district will still need to decide if there is a varsity season next year, Yingst said.
There were nine forfeits out of 180 games last week, Kragness said.
Colfax could focus the energy on junior varsity next year and no varsity program, Ackerlund said.
Coaches are trying to keep the freshmen at the junior varsity level. The plan would be to always have a junior varsity game, and the varsity game could be cancelled if necessary, Hodel said.
Bjork said in his opinion, Colfax should stay with an 11-player program.
If there are issues with having enough players for a varsity game and couple of games have to be cancelled, “then do so,” he said.
Perhaps Colfax could alert the other schools in the conference to not schedule Colfax for a homecoming game just in case Colfax does not have enough players for the game, Kragness said.
In the past 14 years, Colfax has been competitive in football for one or two years, Yingst said.
“We are trying to do what we can do,” he said.
The Colfax Board of Education agreed to take no action on the issue, so Colfax will remain with an 11-player football program.
Athletic trainers
Previously there has been no requirement to have an athletic trainer at every high school sports event, Yingst said.
The clinics in the area provided an athletic trainer for sporting events at a cost to the school districts of $500 per year, he said.
This year, the clinics that provided athletic trainers announced that they were going to stop providing athletic trainers for every sporting event, and that if a school district wanted an athletic trainer at every sporting event, it would cost the school district $25,000 for the year, Yingst said.
At the mention of a cost of $25,000 for the year, there was a collective gasp from members of the Board of Education.
An additional $25,000 for athletic trainers was not included in the 2024-2025 budget, and this has hit all schools, Yingst said.
There is no requirement to have an athletic trainer at every game, but if there is no athletic trainer after years of having athletic trainers, there is a possibility of it being a liability, he said.
The cost would be $25,000 to $30,000 for several seasons of sports, Yingst said.
The clinics pulled back the athletic trainers with no plan on how to proceed, he said, adding that the closures of two hospitals in Eau Claire and Chippewa Falls and the closures of the associated clinics did not help the situation.
Football is the obvious sport where there should be an athletic trainer, Yingst said.
If Colfax school district residents notice there are no athletic trainers at the games, that is because they are not free, and the clinics are not providing them anymore, he said.
Other business
In other business, the Colfax Board of Education:
• Approved setting up a student activity account for the Colfax Athletic Booster Club.
• Accepted a donation of $1,500 from Colfax Chevrolet for the student assistance account. Colfax Chevrolet has been making a donation every year for the student assistance account for the past several years, Yingst said.
