Groton, Trumansburg get set for return to 11-man football

Football is in the air throughout Tompkins County. With practices officially getting underway on August 18, all six high schools teams in the county gear up for another exciting year of action on the gridiron. This year brings a lot of changes to the Section IV landscape, including two local teams returning to 11-man football.

Groton and Trumansburg will be competing in Class D this season after spending the past few years in the 8-man division. For the Red Hawks, it’s their first venture back in 11-man football since the COVID-altered spring 2021 season. Head coach Nick Dyson can sense an elevated level of excitement throughout his team for a highly-anticipated campaign.

“Groton and football, they go together,” Dyson said. “It’s peanut butter and jelly. They go hand in hand. I’ve always known Groton as a football school, and these guys are doing it for their community and themselves. It’s a true team atmosphere out here. There’s no individuals. We’ve had a really good camp so far, and even before camp and our summer workouts, it’s all about unification and one team, one voice.”

Trumansburg’s road back to 11-man football had more twists and turns. Their last 11-man season was 2013, followed by a five-year stretch where they did not field a team. They were resurrected as an 8-man program in 2019 and now have enough players to rejoin the 11-man scene.

“It’s something we’ve worked hard at for a long time, from our youth program all the way up,” said head coach Chad Doolittle. “We didn’t have football in Trumansburg for a couple of years, and we kind of took that very seriously here and have built things from the ground up. For all of that hard work to translate into being able to have the numbers to support 11-man football is very exciting indeed.”

The differences between 8-man to 11-man football are significant. There’s the obvious change of three additional players on each side of the ball, but the field widens 20 yards back to its normal dimensions. The Red Hawks and Blue Raiders are hard at work to re-adjust to 11-on-11 action.

“The transition is going to be eight men in the box,” Dyson said. “The first time that they see eight men in the box, they’re gonna wonder what’s going on, because we just came from three man-fronts. So when we see a six-man front, we’ll be prepared. We’ll prepare them. But that’ll be a difference for them. It’ll bring them back to their youth days.”

“[It’s] just feeling the space, being able to not be so confined by the narrower sidelines, and taking advantage of that,” Doolittle said. “We’ve got a lot of speed on the team, so some of the kids are very excited about that. [We] obviously have more linemen on the field, so getting some of those bigger bodies to work, and we’re excited for that. We have had a three-line system for a number of years, so getting our O-line back up to speed and ready to handle that task has been a challenge, but it’s something that we think we’re ready for.”

Groton and Trumansburg both had successful endeavors in the 8-man scene. The Red Hawks’ stint was highlighted by a Section IV title and a regional championship appearance in 2022, while the Blue Raiders’ best year was last year when they won their first-ever sectional championship.

Another parallel for the two programs is that they each return one All-State player. For Groton, that’s Lane Darling. The junior was a real workhouse for the Red Hawks last season, accruing over 1,000 all-purpose yards—most of which were on the ground—as he earned an All-State Honorable Mention nod. While Dyson is hoping to lighten his workload this year, he knows how valuable he is to the team on and off the field.

“He’s our main leader,” Dyson said. “He’s the one that sets the tone for our team, really. I’m excited for Lane going into his junior year. It’s hard to believe he’s still just a junior. He walks around here, he’s the man out here amongst all these guys.”

As for Trumansburg, Aidan Clarke-Cabezas was an All-State First Team selection last year as the Blue Raiders’ jack of all trades. From running and catching to kicking and punting, he did just about everything, and he’s expected to be the Blue Raiders’ Swiss Army knife once again for his senior season.

“There’s a Steelers player back in the day—Kordell Stewart—named ‘Slash,’ and I kind of look at Aidan as the same type of guy,” Doolittle said. “There seems to be nothing he can’t do in any of the three sports that he plays. But he loves football, football loves him, and we’re so happy to have him here for another year.”

Trumansburg will begin the season on September 5 on the road against Bainbridge-Guilford, while Groton gets its campaign underway on September 12 when it hosts Walton. The Blue Raiders and Red Hawks will battle each other on September 26 in Trumansburg.