Waldron 8-man football has opted to forfeit its Saturday night postseason game against Ft. Wayne King’s Crusaders.

After finishing second in the league standings and qualifying for the postseason, Waldron was informed by the Indiana Football Coaches Association, which is overseeing the development of 8-man football in the state of Indiana, it would play the Crusaders, a homeschool program that is currently ranked No. 7 in the national homeschool rankings, according to its Facebook page.

Ft. Wayne King’s Crusaders is 5-1 this season and has wins over current 8-man league participants Purdue Polytechnic, Faith Christian and Dugger Union but has not faced Indiana Deaf or Waldron – the top two teams in the regular-season standings.

Waldron as well as the other six stated participants in the league disagreed with the Crusaders inclusion in the postseason which bumped Rock Creek Academy, a two-year member of the 8-man league, out of the playoffs.

“(Fort Wayne King’s Crusaders) came to us last winter after not being allowed to play in an out-of-state league anymore,” said Kurt Tippmann, a member of the Indiana Football Coaches Association’s Executive Board. “We are trying to attract as many teams to add variety and an added variability to it. They deserve to continue to play. It’s the same kind of kids trying to play football.”

Waldron’s contention, and shared by the other programs at Indiana Deaf, Dugger Union, Rock Creek Academy, Purdue Polytechnic, Faith Christian and Traders Point, is a playoff format was created for and agreed upon before the season and now the inclusion of another school is unwarranted.

While there are two semifinal games and a final game scheduled to be played Oct. 21 at Westfield High School, Tippmann says the IFCA is not crowning a “state champion.”

“It’s the second year of this situation,” said Tippmann. “As the coaches association, our goal is to give guys the opportunity to play at a developmental level. The goal is not to crown a state champion. We’ll get to that … that’s certainly the goal.”

At the urging of its membership, the IFCA instituted a grass-roots 8-man football program in 2022 that Waldron was prepared for after a near decade-long initiative of youth football in the small southeastern town in Shelby County.

Year two saw two schools, Fort Wayne Blackhawk Christian and Irvington Prep, elevate their programs to 11-man football under the IHSAA’s jurisdiction.

The IFCA, according to Tippmann, is encouraging schools to consider dropping down to 8-man football as an alternative to playing 11-man football.

“A lot of schools struggle to get enough kids to play 11-man football,” said Tippmann, who is the head football coach at Fort Wayne Snider. “This offers another avenue to keep playing football. It’s a viable option for those schools. It’s also a viable option to schools starting a football program.”

And the IFCA understands 8-man football programs could then jump to 11-man football as Fort Wayne Blackhawk Christian and Irvington Prep did this season.

At the conclusion of the regular season Saturday night, a coaches meeting was held Monday to discuss the postseason games which is when Waldron learned it would be playing the Crusaders instead of Dugger Union, who finished third in the standings.

Later discussion came between the Waldron coaching staff, members of the Shelby Eastern Schools board and Shelby Eastern Superintendent Dr. Todd Hitchcock.

The coaching staff agreed to follow the recommendation of the school board not to participate against a homeschool program not associated with the IHSAA.

Indiana Deaf will host Dugger Union Saturday to determine who will play the Ft. Wayne King’s Crusaders at Westfield High School the following Saturday.

The IFCA will continue to support the growth of 8-man football in the state with the potential to become an IHSAA sanctioned sport sometime in the future. That will take more than eight teams to be considered.

“It’s not big enough to be sanctioned by the IHSAA, but that’s the goal,” said Tippmann. “That is years down the road. We have to get more than eight teams to get the IHSAA behind that.”

Eight-man football would need to be declared an emerging sport then get defined as a second division of football or declared a new sport, separate from the traditional 11-man football.

Waldron’s season thus ends with a 6-2 record and no playoff appearance.

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