Staff report
news@wbcowqel.com

The Ridgedale Board of Education voted on Wednesday evening to field a football team for the 2017 season, just one that will not play a league schedule in the N10.

The Rockets will play an independent varsity football schedule, but compete in the N10 in all other sports for the 2017-2018 school year.

Athletics Director Greg Rossman indicated following the school board meeting he would be contacting all schools in the N10 Wednesday evening of the school board’s decision.

The school was faced with a Feb. 1 deadline of informing the league of its intentions regarding varsity football. Should the school have started but failed to complete a football season in league play, the district would have been faced with paying the home schools $2,500 for each road game not played.

Ridgedale was scheduled for five road games in the league this year which could have added up to $12,500 of potential payouts.

The Rockets are charter members of the Northern 10 Athletic Conference which began in 2014. That year Ridgedale went 2-8 on the football season and 1-7 in league play. In both 2015 and 2016, Ridgedale did not win a game. This past season Ridgedale finished the season with just 18 active players, half of whom were seniors.

The N10 is now faced with eight teams and a seven-game league schedule for 2017. The league has had an odd number of teams since it began play – in 2014 because Upper Sandusky had to fulfill an obligation to the Mid-Ohio Athletic Conference before coming to the N10 in football – and the last two years because Crestline left the league to join the Mid-Buckeye. That meant that each week of the N10 league schedule one team had to find a non-league opponent.

Now down to eight football teams, league members will have three non-league games. It remains to be seen if the N10 teams will be able to put together schedules that open the season with three non-league games followed by seven consecutive league contests, or if each school will be faced with two non-league games interspersed through its league schedule.