North Pulaski High School, home to one of the state's least successful football programs for more than a decade, will not field a team for the 2015 season because of low numbers.
Danny Ebbs, the Pulaski County Special School District's athletic director, said North Pulaski had 17 players in its offseason program and no coach, after Teodis Ingram resigned earlier this year after two seasons on the job.
"There wasn't enough participation," Ebbs said. "Absolutely not enough kids to have a football team. You can't absolutely commit to a season and make those kinds of decisions when it involves other people."
Ebbs said students at North Pulaski will be allowed to play football at Jacksonville High School in 2015. Students who attend schools in the process of consolidating can participate in extracurricular activities at the other school, if the one they attend doesn't offer that activity, per Arkansas Activities Assocation rules.
Jacksonville and North Pulaski, both members of the PCSSD, will form the new Jacksonville-North Pulaski School District for the 2016-2017 school year.
The decision to drop football at North Pulaski puts a period on a story line of futility that has existed in football since the school's inception in 1977 and has been increasingly evident in the past decade.
North Pulaski, which went 1-8-1 last season, is 6-91-1 overall since 2004.
North Pulaski, which draws students from Little Rock Air Force Base families, will be the largest school in the state (enrollment 609) to not field a football team in 2015.
It competes athletically in Class 5A, the state's third-largest of seven classifications designated by the AAA.
All of the state's 32 Class 5A schools fielded football teams last year.
Little Rock charter school E-stem, which participates in Class 4A, is the only one of 49 schools in that classificiation that does not play football.
North Pulaski's departure leaves the seven other football-playing schools in the 5A Central -- Beebe, Jacksonville, Little Rock Fair, Little Rock McClellan, Mills, Pulaski Academy and Sylvan Hills -- with an open date on their schedules unless they can find an opponent to fill North Pulaski's spot.
North Pulaski's only victory last season came on Oct. 13 against Little Rock Fair.
North Pulaski Principal Jeff Senn sent a letter to players' parents last week to inform them of the school's decision to not play football, a situation that developed over the past couple of weeks after Ingram's resignation.
Jacksonville Athletic Director Jerry Wilson said Monday he and Coach Barry Hickingbotham will meet with North Pulaski players who want to play football for the Red Devils next season. Wilson said Jacksonville has 70 players in its offseason program.
"We're going to welcome them with open arms," Wilson said. "We're looking forward to it."
North Pulaski students who want to play football at Jacksonville will be transported daily (a 4-mile trip) to practice and offseason workouts, Ebbs said.
Ebbs said parents and players were understandably upset by the news.
"They want to have a football program," Ebbs said. "Some of them don't want to play for Jacksonville. It's their choice."
Sports on 03/10/2015