Sedona Red Rock High School will not have a football team in the fall of 2020.

At an online board meeting held on Tuesday, May 5, the Sedona-Oak Creek School District Governing Board voted unanimously 5-0 to not have a football team at SRRHS for the upcoming school year.

Low Recruitment

The program’s overall decline in numbers was chief among the reasons that district athletic director Don Burton listed in his presentation. Over the last four seasons, the SRRHS teams have had an average of 25 players on the roster to start the season. Between injuries, players becoming ineligible due to grades or players leaving the team for other reasons, that average decreased to 15.5 by the end of the season.

With the declining number of participants, players were forced to play on both offense and defense, often with very little chance to rest for even a play. With that, the chances of injury only increases, Burton noted.

Another point in the presentation was that in 2019, Sedona Red Rock Junior High School created a football team of its own with hopes that it would play a similar role to the SRRHS program that freshmen and junior varsity teams do at bigger schools.

The junior high Scorpions took the field twice, with later games on the schedule canceled due to more than half of the roster becoming academically
ineligible. In the two games, Sedona lost 55-0 and 60-6.

One point that was not made was that the junior high team was put together after the 2019-20 school year had already begun. That gave the players only a few weeks of practice before they opposed teams with far more experience. So, while two losses by a combined score of 115-6 is less than desirable, those results were also not entirely unexpected.

A number of players from those teams would have logged significant playing time as freshmen for the high school team in 2020, often going against juniors and seniors who are much bigger, stronger and faster — thereby increasing the chance of injury.

Burton also mentioned that in addition to the junior high team, a number of interventions were implemented or attempted by both the school and the Arizona Interscholastic Association with hopes of making the SRRHS program — and others like it — more competitive.

In spring 2019, the school district hired Bob Young to lead the high school football program and also tie in a weight class he taught with physical education credit. The hope was that an on-campus coach with Young’s resume would be able to better recruit football
players.

That didn’t end up happening. Young resigned as coach last month, telling the Sedona Red Rock News that he felt it was the only way to save the program, hoping a different coach would better be able to bring athletes to the gridiron.

Since the conclusion of the 2019 season, SRRHS made a pair of appeals to the AIA to move to Division 1A, which would mean 8-on-8 football. The first appeal came in January while the second came after Young’s resignation. Both appeals were rejected by the athletic directors of the Division 1A schools.

Under Performing

Additionally, the state divided football to where the weaker programs [based on record and numbers] would oppose each other. Even with that, Sedona still hasn’t had a winning season since going 7-3 in 2015. The Scorpions record that year was bolstered by going 5-1 against reservation schools which are traditionally weaker in football than other sports — such as basketball.

In the four subsequent seasons, the SRRHS team has gone 8-32, with one of the wins coming via forfeit. In the 39 games contested on the field in that span, the Scorpion teams were outscored 1,433-709 — putting them on the wrong end of a 36.7-18.2 average score per game. The recent results weren’t any better. Sedona went 2-8 in 2019 and was outscored 370-187. Many of the top players from that team were seniors.

Financial Strains

A final issue that was raised was the cost.

Burton’s presentation noted that in 2019, the Scorpions football program lost a net total of roughly $9,000. Not included in that figure were the costs of transportation [roughly $3.95 per mile for road games], the custodian, stadium lighting, the cheerleading coach and AIA’s $427.10 cost per sport.

Burton added that, unlike on the junior high level, if the high school season went on as planned and the school was forced to forfeit a road game due to a lack of available players, the AIA could charge the school $1,500.

One confusing part of Burton’s presentation regarded the costs. Part of the $13,511 of expenses that Burton pointed out was the $8,400 marked for equipment expenses. As part of the same line on the Powerpoint, he added that the Scorpions uniforms were purchased by a private donor, but it appeared as though uniform costs were included in the factor.

Burton later claimed that the $8,400 did not include uniform costs but was used for other equipment needs. It was not stated whether SRRHS could get back any of the money used on that equipment now that football is no longer being played at the school.

As far as what the future holds, the no football decision is only for the 2020-21 school year. Burton stated that for Sedona to reapply to play football in future seasons, he’d need a roster of no less than 25 to 30 committed players.

Burton added that he was presented a list of 20 interested players. Of those, four were incoming freshmen and two had said that they would only play for a junior varsity team. Another interested player was one who had been academically ineligible to participate in sports throughout the 2019-20 school year.

“It’s one thing to say on social media in April that you’ll play,” Burton said. “But we need to know that you’re really planning on playing.”