If you have followed sports long enough you have seen 11-man football, likely have at least heard of the 9-man version and possibly have seen a score or two from the 6-man subset.
In principle, it's an oddity
and with scores regularly reaching the 60-point plateau, it is as distant from the most common version of the game as the communities are that engage in it from the most well-known towns in North Dakota.
But after years of seeing the eye-popping point totals and a Bison-less Saturday, the opportunity presented itself to take in a game.
The closest participant to Fargo is Drayton, nearly two hours North on I-29.
The F-M-WF area has grown immensely in the last 20 years but it's still far from a sprawling metropolis. Even so, going from Fargo to Drayton was similar to going from the Twin Cities to Fargo.
If you ever find your way there, it's a one-main-drag sort of town. No stop lights, a few stop signs and an equal number of churches & bars along the strip.
It was a welcome dose of small town life!
I can't help but think that any of the seven other communities that have teams in the little league would give a similar experience.
At a time when more opportunities for state championship are being created & co-ops continue to dot the landscape like so many clusters of trees, the 6-man game could provide opportunities for any who are brave enough to break from the pack and make it more than an oddity.
With an 80-yard field & the great distance that the teams can travel to face one another, it will always be distinct as a formalized sort of backyard/playground football but to this writer, that just made it more special to observe. The four aspects that stood-out the most during the game were that one down line-man was in for passing plays, three for hand-off runs & the quarterbacks wasn't allowed to run the ball during any of the four, 10-minute quarters.
The distinction extended beyond the sidelines. As with the game in certain other places & on other levels, it looked like a majority of the town came out - ringing the field with cars, trucks, golf carts & ATVs. You won't get that for even North/South or West Fargo/Sheyenne.
So that's a snippet of the frosting on the cake, but what about the actual competition?
When the offensive & defensive highlights had been sealed, the home team had Bombed their way to another 60-point performance and comfortable win over their guests. Despite being on the losing end, New Town's quarterback Clarence Freeman may have been the most electric player on either roster and the sophomore could draw even more attention to the level as he learns & matures.
You can see photos of the game as well
No, this isn't a signal that off-the-beaten-path sports are going to become a regular part of what this entity does. But after years of hearing about it, my interest was too piqued to keep putting it off. Perhaps you can relate to that?
We only get one life and God only knows how long it will be, so make the most of it!
Who knows, maybe you will have as fine of an experience as I did in Drayton!
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