On Wednesday, Bellevue High School announced that the rest of its football season is canceled.
The Bellevue High School football team’s roster was already small, coming into the season with just nineteen players from across all four grades. Now, as the regular season is winding down, the Tigers have just 15 players available, with some out due to concussions.
“The safety of our student-athletes is, and will always be, our number one priority,” Bellevue Director of Athletics Jim Hicks said in a statement. “We understand that not only are our players affected, but also our scheduled opponents, cheerleaders, band members and the families who support them. We apologize for any inconvenience and hardship this causes. But the safety of our players must be our top priority. Bellevue has a rich and proud tradition of football success, and we look forward to continuing that next season and beyond.”
Dave Brausch took over as head coach of the program in the spring, aware of the challenges the Tigers have seen in recent years. They finished the season 0-7 with opponents outscoring them, 346-26. Five opponents shut out the Tigers including a 46-0 home loss to arch-rival Dayton on Friday.
“It went against every competitive fiber in my body to do this,” Brausch told LINK nky. “But I couldn’t look the parents, my superintendent, my athletic director and principal in the eye and say if I go out there Friday night with 15 kids, they would not be in any greater risk for injury than if I went out there with 19 kids.”
Brausch said the biggest accomplishment this year is getting kids to practice on time each day. Brausch commended the players for doing that, adding a team can’t do anything unless that happens first.
“We ended up getting kids that are committed,” Brausch said. “I can’t run a program where a kid is not going to come to practice every day. It’s not fair to the other kids. It’s not fair to the kid who’s maybe running the ball and some lineman does not show up for practice because this is a game where you have to count on others to stay healthy. It wasn’t easy.”
The last three games on the schedule were the final two Class 1A, District 4 games at home against Ludlow (2-5) on Friday then at Newport Central Catholic (6-1) on Oct. 20. The Tigers had a road game at Holmes scheduled to finish the regular season Oct. 28.
Holmes found an away game Oct. 27 at Lloyd Memorial (5-2) at 7 p.m., giving both teams 10 full games for the season. Lloyd came into the season with only nine games on the schedule.
NewCath Head Coach Stephen Lickert said he’d like to find a quality game if possible.
“We’re going to be selective about who and where,” Lickert said. “But if we can find a good quality opponent to play that may help us in the RPI (Rating Percentage Index) as well, we’ll take a look at that. But this late in the season, pretty much everyone has a full schedule so it’ll probably end up being a bye week.”
This year’s senior class at Bellevue will finish its four years with just three victories, including two in their freshman year in 2019. The Tigers have lost 13 in a row dating back to a 36-6 win over Gallatin County at home on Sept. 17, 2021.
“We just tried to keep on pushing even though we had small numbers,” said James Long, Bellevue senior center/defensive end. “We had small numbers the year before so we knew what to do. It’s kind of disappointing that it ended. But we just tried to do our best and that’s pretty much all we could do.”
Brausch said he hopes to see the roster increase to the mid- to upper-20s, if not the 30s next season to avoid this scenario. Dayton found itself in a similar situation years ago. The Greendevils list 33 kids on the roster this year.
Brausch said he’s been hearing people say Dayton and Bellevue should consolidate since he was a teenager at Campbell County in the 1970s. But in the last ten years, he’s heard people say Dayton, Bellevue and Newport should consolidate. Brausch said he does not see either scenario happening.
The Tigers have two 1A state championships in 1979 and 1977 with state runner-up finishes in 1976, 1980, 1981 and 1990. The Tigers have not had a winning season since posting 7-5 records four straight years between 2011 and 2014. The 2014 season is also the last time the Tigers won a playoff game.
