Despite winning titles, Medina’s petite size leads to difficulty fielding a full football team.
Maintaining sports teams is not always an easy task for small schools, as low enrollment and the possibility of low interest in athletics can make it difficult to have enough players for games, which takes away opportunity from interested student-athletes.
Approaching this dilemma, Medina’s head football coach and athletic director Eric Valley decided it was time to make some changes to the gridiron.
Despite going to three Section VI title games in five years and winning their league for the last five years, the Mustangs will play in the Section V eight-man football league.
Valley said that Section VI gave the program a December deadline to decide whether Medina would be in an 11-man league or eight-man league, or if they would merge with another small school.
Ultimately, he felt the best decision for the players was to “stay in house” and try to compete rather than dealing with the ups and downs of combining programs. Medina’s departure from 11-man also marks the end of the decades-long Medina-Albion rivalry.
Over the last decade, Medina has gone from an enrollment of 504 in grades 9-12 to 412, according to New York State Education data. It has translated to the football field as the Mustangs had 27 players on its roster this season, with nine players who were freshmen or younger, while having 38 players on the roster and just three freshmen in their 2021 sectional championship season.
“We’ve been blessed with some high quality over quantity (players) and that’s made a difference for us in the last few years,” Valley said. “I’m real pleased with the success we’ve had and hopefully we continue to have success, we just didn’t think it was feasible at the 11-man level for this coming year.”
One of those players is senior running back Christian Moss, who set the school record for rushing yards in a single season last year. Valley expects Moss, alongside other returners such as Colton Fletcher and Frankie Stevens, to help lead the team and play at a high level despite the differences that’ll be present.
The team needs to continue to play like they did in Section VI — fast and physical — to see positive results while navigating through the unknown. Not only is it a learning experience for the players, dropping three athletes from the field, but it is a learning experience for the coaching staff that is accustomed to 11-man play.
Expectations remain high despite the disadvantage Medina has compared to the other teams that
“I just want them to compete, I want them to play well,” Valley said when asked about expectations for their first season. “Hopefully as coaches we can put them in good positions to excel and compete at a high level.”
Valley doesn’t want this to be the Mustang’s permanent spot, and hopes to be back in the 11-man league, competing in Section VI as soon as possible. Although the numbers aren’t there now, this year’s modified team provides the possibility of a semi-soon return.
Until then, Valley and the Mustangs must deal with the challenges as they rise while walking down this new path.
“Every season we take the mentality that it’s one game at a time,” Valley said. “We’ll continue to do that and we’ll learn and grow as the season goes on and hopefully continue to get better, I know if that happens, good things normally happen to us. So we want to continue down that road.”