Editor’s Note: This story originally appeared in the LaGrange Daily News’ football magazine, Pigskin, which is available now. It is the dawn of a new era for Lafayette Christian’s football team. The Cougars will be transitioning from 8-man to 9-man football this season which brings with it enormous challenges.
“We will have a whole new playbook, a whole new system. We’ve been working on it back in the spring and then we’ve met over the summer a couple of times as coaches to figure everything out,” Pike said. “The good news is we’re all on the same place and everyone in the league will have to make adjustments.
” The adjustments will have to be both big and small. The big change for LCS will not just be the number of players on the field, but also the width of the field itself. Under the new rules, the field will be the same width as an 11-man field (53.
3 yards) instead of the 40-yard wide field that they had grown accustomed to playing 8-man football. With just one extra player to cover 13.3 more yards of field before the boundaries may lead to some high-scoring games that more closely resemble basketball scores.
“I think what we might just see like ridiculous scores. Especially if it’s like two teams that are pretty quick,” Pike said. “There’s gonna be so much field to cover and only one extra guy to help cover it.
” Through this all, Pike hopes that low-scoring hard-nosed football games, like the Cougars’ 22-16 win over Praise Academy late la.