It’s becoming more and more evident in recent years, the landscape of high school football is gradually changing due to lower participation numbers and just lower student enrollments in general.

Programs that used to have upwards of 40 kids out for football each year have gradually seen those numbers dwindle into the 30s, and now have fallen into the 20s for some.

At River Ridge High School, which has a student enrollment of 148 this year, a look into their crystal ball has forced them to make some very tough decisions when it comes to the future of their football program.

Those tough decisions led to last Wednesday nights approval by the River Ridge school board to have coach Wade Winkers declare for 8-player eligibility in the 2028 and 2029 football seasons.

In order to be eligible for WIAA tournament play during those seasons, schools have until Oct. 1 to declare their intentions if they plan to make the switch from 11-player to 8-player, which is the purpose behind Wednesday’s school board decision.

“It’s not an easy decision for me, I want this to continue to be an 11-player football program as long as possible, but we feel this is what’s best for River Ridge students and for us to maintain our own program and not have to go co-op with someone,” Winkers explained.

“Knowing where we were sitting, and also knowing that there are teams in the conference that are entertaining it, we didn’t want to get behind the eight ball if a couple of teams jumped to eight-man, and now we’re stuck here knowing that there could be some bigger schools coming into our conference,” Winkers added. “Not that we can’t compete with those schools, but having a varsity and a J.V. program for a whole season would be tough.”

Make no mistake about it, this is not about being competitive. For coach Winkers, it’s about protecting the safety of his underclassmen, who under normal circumstances would most likely have to play against bigger and stronger upperclassmen at the varsity level.

As the fourth-smallest school in the state currently playing 11-player football, participation numbers at River Ridge aren’t getting any bigger anytime soon.

At the start of the current football season, River Ridge had 30 kids on the roster, 20 of which are seniors and juniors. As of Wednesday’s school board meeting, they have nine freshmen and sophomores combined.

It’s those nine freshmen and sophomores who will make up the majority of the varsity roster in 2028, while a portion of the 21 seventh and eighth graders currently playing at the middle school level would ideally make up the J.V. squad.

“I have done this long enough to know we won’t have 21 high school football players come out of the seventh and eighth-grade classes,” said Winkers. “We had 10 last year in eighth grade and only five came out in high school.”

“Let’s say we get 15 of those kids or 3/4s of them. We’re still at 24 kids in our whole program in two years. That means we’re not going to be able to have a J.V. and varsity level, and there’s freshmen that may be pressed to play varsity in a conference that is possibly much larger than what we’re dealing with currently,” Winkers explained.

Winkers, who has been coaching football at River Ridge for 18 seasons now, remembers a time in the early 2010s when he was forced to play underclassmen at the varsity level due to low participation numbers. Back then, 8-player football wasn’t an option.

“A lot of those years I didn’t have any other option, and I’ve probably ruined some kid’s careers because they had to play as freshmen, but that was the option I had, and I don’t want to go back down that path,” Winkers said.

In 2011, River Ridge had 26 total kids out for football, with the varsity squad made up mostly of five seniors, six juniors, one sophomore and a freshman. They went 0-9 that season.

So far this season, the River Ridge J.V. squad has played one 11-player game against Benton, where they sent 13 kids, five of which were juniors.

With just eight healthy freshmen and sophomores, the J.V. squad has also played one 8-player game against Potosi/Cassville, who has been playing 8-player football at the middle school level in recent years.

Similar to this year, next year’s team, which is projected to have 21 players without the freshmen class, will play 11-player football at the varsity level, but the forecast for the J.V. schedule remains uncertain.

Eight-player football is becoming more and more popular with area schools struggling with participation numbers. According to Winkers, Boscobel and Riverdale are also in the same boat and will be deciding by Oct. 1 one way or the other to go 8-player or not.

Winkers also stated the four co-op teams in the Six Rivers conference have already submitted their papers to remain playing 11-player football for the 2028 and 2029 seasons. Highland, who has been playing 8-player though, will be forming a co-op with Iowa-Grant to play 11-man.

Monticello, who currently plays 8-man football in the Ridge & Valley-8, but has been forfeiting games this year, will co-op with Albany in 2028.

As far as Winkers looking into a co-op for River Ridge, that avenue was never really explored with there closest options being Prairie du Chien, Fennimore or Lancaster.

There are currently 70 8-player teams in the state that make up nine conferences, including the Ridge & Valley-8 which consists of North Crawford, Belmont, Highland, Wonewoc-Center, Kickapoo/La Farge, De Soto, Monticello and Wisconsin Heights.

“We’ve got schools in our area that have done this and have had great success,” explained coach Winkers. “Highland was at the state-semifinals a couple of years ago, Belmont has had great success building their program, and De Soto and North Crawford have been very good.”

Winkers, who not only is the head football coach and activities director at River Ridge, also serves as the commissioner of the Six Rivers conference, isn’t exactly sure how their departure from the Six Rivers conference for football will ultimately affect the league.

If River Ridge’s decision has any affect on Boscobel and Riverdale’s possible departure, Winkers could see some of the smaller programs from the SWAL possibly being moved to the Six Rivers to fill the void.

Now that Winkers has the approval of the school board, his next task is to notify the WIAA and propose a conference realignment that would allow them to join the Ridge & Valley-8.

While the news of playing 8-man football in 2028 and 2029 may come as a surprise to some in the River Ridge school district, Winkers said an email was sent out to every parent in the school district months ago, asking for their input on the matter. Between himself and district administrator Clay Koenig, they received only two replies.

Nonetheless, at the forefront of their decision was ultimately the safety of the kids, and not being forced to play freshmen and sophomores at the varsity level.

“We’ve had this discussion with the coaching staff and went back and forth a lot,” said Winkers. “We’ve all agreed that we want to make sure River Ridge has a program and we want it to be our program. We also don’t want to have kids playing at levels that we don’t want them playing at.”

“One thing I wish, is that we didn’t have to do this two years in advance,” he added. “Maybe more kids come out from this freshman and sophomore class next year that didn’t come out this year, and we might know a little bit more about how many of those eighth graders are going to be out when they’re freshmen instead of me just making a prediction.”

“I always say if we can get 30 kids out for football we’ll be fine, but now when you get down to the mid 20s, that’s a different animal,” Winkers stated.