Section VI held an emergency Executive Committee meeting Monday morning to allow the neighboring districts and longtime rivals to come together for the upcoming season after less than 20 student-athletes showed up for the Bears’ first several days of practice last week.

“We had been on top of it from the first day of practice. We knew that our numbers were going to be close to that minimum,” said Bill Caldwell, Frewsburg high school principal. ” … I wanted to make sure we gave it a fair amount of days, fair enough that no more were coming and for anybody that might leave after a couple of days.”

The two districts first discussed a merger last spring when several sign-up periods resulted in between 20 and 22 players saying they intended to suit up for Frewsburg this fall. Last week, 18 players showed up for the first day of practice, including a freshman transfer student and a pair of student-athletes who had never played football before. State guidelines require at least 16 eligible student-athletes in order to play a game.

“Kids play high school athletics for many reasons. Some of them play to compete and win, some of them to just be part of a program,” Frewsburg coach Terry Gray said Tuesday night. “It became a difficult choice when we had to decide if a kid was ready physically and mentally to go on a game field as a varsity player. That was decision that I thought about daily.”

After competing on the gridiron for decades, Randolph and Frewsburg will play together as a merged football team this coming season. P-J file photo

Randolph was able to field its own team this fall with close to 25 players, but its numbers have been declining in recent years as well.

“I didn’t think this was going to happen. If this happens in May, we could’ve sat down and figured things out. It would’ve been a dream,” Randolph coach Brent Brown said Tuesday evening. “At this point there are a lot of things that I don’t think anybody thought about that we have to do.”

Class D, the classification both schools were scheduled to play in, already has two teams that are the result of three districts merging — Franklinville/Ellicottville/West Valley and Clymer/Sherman/Panama. Chautauqua Lake and Maple Grove played as a merged program for three consecutive seasons (2013-15) but split up prior to last season.

“For the time being, it’s difficult because I have my stuff in and he has his stuff in,” Brown said of his and Gray’s schemes. “There is stuff that he does that we want to add. … None of us have been through this before.”

With a combined BEDS number of 366 for the upcoming school year, a combined Frewsburg and Randolph district would slot in just below Barker/Royalton-Hartland as the smallest Class B school in the section. Akron is the largest Class C team in Section VI with a BEDS number of 353. When districts combine sports teams, a different formula is used to determine the combined BEDS number, meaning Randolph/Frewsburg will remain a Class D program with just 20 percent of Frewsburg’s BEDS number added to Randolph’s full BEDS number. A BEDS number of 231 will make Randolph/Frewsburg the largest Class D team in the section, but still nine students below the Class C threshold.

“We’ve had emergency meetings, particularly in the fall, in the past,” Section VI Executive Director Timm Slade said Tuesday evening. “With a combined team, it’s up to the schools to determine who will be the host school. We use the larger BEDS number, but they determine the name and practice schedule, etc.”

For comparison’s sake, Franklinville/Ellicottville/West Valley would have a total BEDS number of 337 and Clymer/Sherman/Panama would have a BEDS number of 323 if the 20-percent formula was not used.

Section VI now faces the problem of Frewsburg’s opponents having a bye week when they were supposed to play the Bears. The section is actively looking for teams to fill those empty slots, but opponents will likely have to come from outside of Section VI with the rest of the schedule pretty much finalized.

“This puts (football Chairman) Ken Stoldt in a precarious situation because the schedule has been done since May,” Slade said. “He’s been working since about 9:30 a.m. (Tuesday) morning. We have some other schools in other sections throughout New York, including in the Binghamton and Syracuse areas. We are taking a look because teams have folded, combined and moved to eight-man football.”

The combined Randolph/Frewsburg team will now play the Cardinals’ schedule, which opens Friday, Sept. 1 against Franklinville/Ellicottville in Franklinville. The first home game for the combined team will be in Week 2 on Friday, Sept. 8 in Randolph against Chautauqua Lake.

According to Brown, Randolph Superintendent Kaine Kelly has offered Frewsburg the opportunity to host one of the Cardinals’ three home games, but those all come in the first five weeks of the season.

“Because of the schedule it might not be as possible as we want it to be,” Caldwell said of hosting a game. “At this point we were going to wear Randolph colors. If we have a home game we might try to fit everybody into a Frewsburg uniform. … If it goes well and both schools are happy, with numbers staying low next year and possibly beyond, we would discuss mascots, color schemes, etc. to come up with their own identity as a football team.”

Randolph/Frewsburg will now have three days of practice before scrimmaging at Southwestern at 9 Saturday morning. With the total of Section VI Class D teams now down to eight, everybody will make the postseason, which begins Oct. 20.

“It’s going to take us time to figure out who the best 11 are on both sides,” Brown said.

“I started my coaching career in Randolph so I know Brent well,” Gray added. ” … I feel like it’s going to go well.”