PLYMOUTH – Twenty players came to the Big Red’s mandatory summer practices. Even fewer made it to the start of the season.
That mandated a significant course correction.
Plymouth Athletic Director Josh Calame realized quickly after practice started that 11-player football wouldn’t be possible. Luckily, there was an opening. The Northern 8 Football Conference is an eight-player football league that had just lost a team. Calame got to work.
It wasn’t simply desperation. It was necessity. Even with a shrunken roster, Calame knows football butters the bread for Plymouth High School sports. Calame emphasized the audible to eight-man football was all about numbers, nothing on the financial side of the athletic department.
“We had full intentions of going into August and moving forward with a normal football season,” Calame said. “We made every attempt to do so. It became evident within the first few weeks of practice that doing so was not going to be sustainable or safe for our kids.
“We had to shift our focus to how we could still provide football for our kids here.”
The Northern 8 was happy to provide. With Cardinal Stritch High School leaving, fielding a full 11-player team, there was an opening Plymouth presented a natural fit for.
“When (Calame) contacted us, the process of inviting and accepting them into the Northern 8 was quick,” Northern 8 Football Conference commissioner Lynn Groll said. “We know making the jump from 11-player football to eight-player football was not an easy decision for Plymouth.”
One pressing issue is travel. The Northern 8 spans three states: Ohio, Pennsylvania and Michigan. Some commutes are over two hours, with the closest being 55 minutes.
Plymouth was able to keep every away game in-state, but the trade-off is four of its games are on Saturday.
In-season appraisal
So far the results are solid. Coach John Gillum touts a 16-player roster and a 1-1 record two games into the 2026 season.
Gillum is taking it in stride.
“It’s a great learning experience for not only the kids, but sometimes as adults, you need to have your life shaken up a little bit, so it’s exciting,” Gillum said. “I’m not the worst guy when it comes to long bus rides.
“Every once in a while, there’s some mystery of playing at new schools we’ve never (played at) before. There’s a level of excitement that comes with that.”
It’s just football for the players, too. Between the lines, playing their position, it’s hard to tell the difference between eight and 11 players.
“There are a couple of different things: three fewer people, the field’s a little bit shorter. But, I mean, it’s football,” said Plymouth sophomore quarterback and safety Weston Kamann. “It’s the same thing. Physical, fast and everything that goes with it.”
There are more changes from a play-caller’s perspective, but Gillum maintains the same message. It’s just football.
“You just look at, ‘What can we run that we’ve coached before in 11-player football that’s functional?'” Gillum said. “(For the players), between whistles, it feels like football. You tackle the football, you got to set blocks. We set the edge; vice versa. All those things come into play as a play caller.”
The Big Red took its first win in its eight-player debut, 29-20 over Windham on the road.
Their first home game was a loss to Litchfield (Michigan), 38-24. At 1-1, the season’s direction remains undetermined, but Plymouth is just happy to be playing.
Who knows? A taste of success may pump up the numbers and get the Big Red Vikings back into the Firelands Conference with an 11-man schedule — hopefully sooner than later.
Plymouth’s 2026 schedule is listed below.
2026 Schedule 🗓️
- Aug. 21 at Windham – 29-20 W
- Aug. 28 vs. Litchfield (Michigan) – 22-38 L
- Sep. 5 at Sandusky St. Mary’s Central Catholic
- Sep. 12 at Fremont St. Joseph’s Central Catholic
- Sep. 18 at Sebring McKinley
- Sep. 25 vs. Chalker
- Oct. 2 vs. Holgate
- Oct. 9 vs. Danbury
- Oct. 17 at Stryker
- Oct. 23 vs. Kennedy Catholic (Pennsylvania)
