The second domino fell for the upcoming high school football season on Wednesday. Vienna-Goreville announced that they are canceling their 2023 varsity football season due to low numbers in the program.
In a press release put out by Vienna High School, the Eagles say they will play a modified schedule that will essentially make the team junior varsity only.
“We have been working to build a football program in a community that hasn’t had a long history of football. It continues to be our goal to build that program. We currently have approximately 40 plus 7th and 8th grade students that are actively participating and have been competitive in the youth league season. It takes building out the program at lower levels in order for it to maintain numbers into the high school program and we believe there is evidence of that,” said Vienna athletic director David Hill.
Vienna-Goreville is the second program to cancel their season this week, joining Sparta. The difference is that Vienna-Goreville is a part of the closed conference Black Diamond and it will affect all other nine schools in the conference.
The Eagles also have a new head coach in Tyler Rumsey, who will have to navigate a season without a varsity contest.
“My second love after my wife and kids is football. While this is my first year as head coach for Vienna-Goreville Football I am dedicated to building out a program that will compete at the varsity level as we move into the future,” Rumsey said in the press release. “A big part of that is setting a foundation and playing a junior varsity schedule this season and building.”
