Even before their first snap, the Rock River Longhorns are done.
Budget concerns in Albany County mean the Longhorns’ debut season in six-man football won’t happen, according to today’s Casper Star-Tribune.
Honestly, this isn’t a huge surprise. As optimistic as the five new schools had been, I figured at least one school wouldn’t get its team off the ground in time. I was hoping to be wrong in this assumption. Unfortunately, Rock River couldn’t put together the scratch for football.
Starting a team from the ground up is an expensive proposition — estimated at about $60,000 for the start-up costs alone, not counting costs for coaches and travel — and the timing, at least economically, couldn’t have been much worse.
With any luck, this will be the last time we hear about a team failing like this. Hopefully, the other four new programs don’t run into the same snags as they build up toward this fall.
–patrick