Conway Christian is a school that is used to performing at a high level when the lights are the absolute brightest on the first week in September.
Yet, last season’s output certainly wasn’t among those highlight reel seasons that the Eagles have enjoyed in the past because even though their effort and work ethic were evident, the lack of depth prevented them from fully realizing their potential.
Fourth-year head coach Justin Kramer certainly didn’t mince words when he summed up the outlook of this season’s Conway Christian squad.
“We’ve got low numbers and that’s our biggest struggle right now,” he said. “We’ve not lost kids. We’ve just never had them. In junior high, we had to play a junior high (junior varsity) schedule because we didn’t have enough.
After a down year that produced only a handful of wins in an otherwise forgettable season played during the backdrop of exhausting Covid-19 protocols, Kramer is facing the realization that the pickings are slim and another rebuilding year may be in store.
“Unfortunately, we just have two or three grades back-to-back, there’s just not a large number of boys. We’ve got 18 kids but 15 that are actually healthy. Ten of those are seniors. The juniors and seniors are just small groups. We’re a little limited as far as that goes. They’re hard workers and they’re all in. It’s going to be tough with 15 people.” Kramer continued.
If the Eagles are to have any success with fielding a competitive team on both sides of the ball, they will have to rely on a myriad of underclassmen staying healthy during the course of a scheduled 10-game varsity season.
Kramer admits that he strongly considered a transition into eight-man football but ultimately, it didn’t make much sense for the school.
“We have around 24 ninth-graders,” he said. “So, in junior high, we’re at 30 kids in eighth and ninth grade alone. This is a one-year problem for us. Doing eight-man didn’t really make a whole lot of sense. Plus, you’re talking about three people. If we have four or five go down, it’s not going to matter if it’s eight-man or 11-man.”
With the Arkansas Activities Association modifying rules impacting COVID-19, the Eagles must stay healthy and avoid having to quarantine at any point in the season.
Last season, if a particular team had too many players out due to COVID issues, games would be canceled and did not impact records. But now, those games will be recorded as forfeits in the record books and not rescheduled.
With depth and health a couple of the major issues that the Eagles may have to address, Kramer remains optimistic that the earlier start date for his school – August 4 – will probably give his team time to battle those challenges early on.
“If any of those things become issues, luckily for us, we started school earlier, so we’ll have a little bit of a head start where everyone is getting around each other. Hopefully if it happens, we will have them earlier than everybody. Then, it’s just a matter of staying healthy.”
With just 15 healthy players, depth will obviously be a problem for the Eagles, especially since the team is already down two linemen.
“Offensive line is a concern,” Kramer said. “Two of the three guys that got hurt potentially season-ending were starting linemen, so that’s not ideal. So depth and kind of making sure we’re taking care of everyone as best we can, adjusting practices a little bit to try to maximize and extend our life as best as we can.”
Despite the low numbers for this season, Kramer has been pleased with the morale of his team thus far.
“Their attitudes have been a strength so far,” he said. “They know where we’re at and have known this has been coming for three or four years now because this has always been a problem with these grades not having a lot of numbers. They’ve shown up every time we’ve asked them to in the summer. They work hard. They play together well and team unity is really strong.”
Conway Christian opens its 2021 campaign by hosting Baptist Prep on Sept. 5.
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