Passion for the game

8-man teams see football as an opportunity

TSE YI GAI, N.M.

In the state of New Mexico there are 20 teams in 8-man football. The teams in this classification are so spread apart that a 12-hour plus trip is sometimes the norm for most schools.

“If we have to travel we have to leave the school pretty early,” Tsé Yi’ Gai head football coach John Craddock said.

The Diné Warriors opened their season at home last Friday against Alamo Navajo as the Cougars left their school campus at 9 a.m. to make the afternoon game, which was originally scheduled for 3 p.m.

But due to unforeseen circumstances, the game was played an hour early since Craddock could not get any referees to officiate the game at the scheduled time.

“We’re short on referees in our region,” he said.

Nonetheless, Craddock managed to find a crew that agreed to officiate the game as long as they played an hour early. He said he had to work with the regional director and the guys that came out worked another game later that night.

“Some of the referees in the other regions are willing to travel,” Craddock said. “We can pay them mileage but some of them require a hotel stay and we can’t afford that.”

And although things didn’t go as scheduled, Craddock was pretty thrilled to get the season going.

“This is the first time we’ve had this many kids come out,” he said of the 23 players that made the squad. “We only have uniforms and equipment for 15 players so all he players have to share that.”

He said they’re in the process of borrowing equipment from the other schools but this a problem he would rather have.

“I love the numbers and we couldn’t be any happier,” Craddock said. “I would rather have 23 kids out and have them to share the equipment, instead of having 10 and let five equipment sit there.”

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