Small Kansas high schools are switching to six-man football to keep their teams alive, while their towns’ populations shrink. And state high school sports officials think it’s a trend that will likely grow.

INGALLS, Kansas — On the edge of town next to the railroad tracks, the sound of pads crunch and whistles echo. A train chugs by toward the grain elevator that backdrops the football field that features only a handful of players. And a bulldog painted on the town’s water tower watches over them.

High school football season is approaching, and this is what many rural Kansas towns feel like this time of year. Even if they are like Ingalls, a community with a population of less than 300.

“When I first drove into town, you see Ingalls Bulldogs everywhere,” Ingalls Head Coach Logan Hernan

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