Sumiton Christian football changes classification to compete

SUMITON, Ala. —

Sumiton Christian struggled to get enough football players for a varsity team, but they're finding other ways to compete.

With only 44 boys attending the school, building a varsity team became a tough task. Instead, they're focusing on developing a junior varsity program to ensure student safety and engagement.

"So with that being the case, we are going to be operating a junior high program and then also building and creating from the ground up a junior varsity, junior high program so that we have a feeder," said Athletic Director Ricky Bowen.

Bowen emphasized the importance of providing opportunities for all students involved in the sport. "We're thinking of the band, the cheerleaders, we want to make sure that there's a field to play on, a field to march on, a sideli