Osawatomie High, a Kansas school located just south of metropolitan Kansas City, Missouri, has made the difficult decision to forfeit its entire 2024 varsity football season, the school announced via a message on Facebook late last week.

The school determined it did not have enough players to field both a varsity and junior varsity team and since it lacked upperclassmen, it decided it was best to forfeit the varsity season. After ongoing consultation with district officials, the school decided it would play only a JV/C schedule. The Trojans were scheduled to play their first varsity game this coming Friday a Prairie View.

“Our players’ and students’ safety is our priority over everything else. Due to our numbers, we had to forfeit a Varsity or JV schedule. We could not do both,” wrote Osawatomie Superintendent Greg Clark in the post.

Clark said the school will look at alternative ways to continue long-standing traditions, such as homecoming, without putting young players at risk by forcing them to play against athletes who are older, bigger and stronger.

“We received multiple emails and phone calls from parents sharing the same concern, which helped lead us to this decision,” added Clark. “We will take this opportunity to build these young players’ skills and focus on strength and physical safety.”

According to Clark, the Trojans currently have five JV games scheduled.

“We know that this is not a popular decision,” he concluded. “Please know that this decision was not made lightly and that hours of discussion went into it. If we had seen a greater turnout in upperclassmen, we likely would not be in this situation. However, we respect our students, and their decisions are their own.”

Osawatomie went 0-9 in each of the last two seasons and has not won a varsity football game since a 30-14 win over Baldwin on Oct. 22, 2021, a span of 19 straight games. The Trojans went 7-3 in 2015, but have gone just 8-65 since with three winless seasons.

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