PLYMOUTH — There will be Friday Night Lights in the tiny village of Plymouth this high school football season.
But it will look a little differently.
Plymouth High School Athletic Director Josh Calame confirmed the Big Red will forego a traditional 11-man football season and play an 8-man schedule in its place.
“We have been officially approved by the Northern 8 Conference as a member for the 2026 season,” Calame said.
The Plymouth football program has battled low participation numbers for several seasons in recent years. In 2025, they started the season with 23 rostered players before ending the year around 15 and needing a Week 9 game against Western Reserve to be played under running clock rules from the opening kickoff.
This season, the Big Red were struggling to field more than 15 players for a practice and were unable to run a full intra-squad scrimmage.
The Northern 8 Conference consists of Chalker High School in Southington, Danbury High School in Lakeside, Holgate High School, Kennedy Catholic High School, Sebring High School, Fremont St. Joseph Central Catholic, Sandusky St. Mary Central Catholic, Stryker High school and Windham High School.
Eight-man football is not a sanctioned Ohio High School Athletic Association sport meaning it does not sponsor a state championship tournament.
Plymouth has struggled on the football field in recent years going 1-9 in 2025, 2-8 in 2024, 2-8 in 2023 and 3-7 in 2022 after a .500 season in 2021. Their 20-12 win over New London in Week 7 of the 2025 season was their first Firelands Conference victory since Week 4 of the 2022 season.
The hope for Plymouth High School is a move to 8-man football for this season will bring some success on the field and help grow interest in the program.
This article originally appeared on Mansfield News Journal: Plymouth Big Red to play 8-man football in 2026 due to low numbers
