Heat move back to 6-Man game

Consider Hot Springs’ 8-Man football experiment a failure.

After one year as an 8-Man football entity, when they could not field enough players to compete at that level and were forced into a junior varsity only schedule, Hot Springs was returned to the 6-Man ranks last week by a vote of the Montana High School Association Board of Directors.

Hot Springs officials might hate to tell the MHSA we told you so, but they had petitioned the organization prior to being moved into the 8-Man game that that form of football would not work in Hot Springs.

The 2017 season of only a partial JV schedule (the remainder was scrapped when one of the Savage Heat’s only players went down with an injury) made Hot Springs’ 6-Man point evident, there simply are not enough football players in the Spa City high school to support playing at the 8-Man level.

Under the guidance of coach Jim Lawson, the Savage Heat have a rich history in the 6-Man game, winning State C titles in 2012 and 2016.

Gardiner, Broadview-Lavina and Denton-Geyser-Stanford also were approved by the MHSA to participate in 6-Man football beginning next school year.

In other business addressed at the MHSA’s November meeting, Twin Bridges was moved into the Southern C division for 8-Man football, and the board approved the consolidation of Montana’s four Class B-C divisions into only two, also beginning with the 2018-2019 school year.