Lee Legends head football coach Mark Smoes watching his team at practice prior to a Sept. 1, 2021 game. (WKTV) 
Lee Legends head football coach Mark Smoes working with his team at practice prior to a Sept. 1, 2021 game. (WKTV) 
Lee Legends head football coach Mark Smoes, right, with members of his coaching staff at a practice prior to a Sept. 1, 2021 game. (WKTV) 
A Lee Legends football coach working with the team at practice prior to a Sept. 1, 2021 game. (WKTV) 
Lee Legends football coaches working with the team at practice prior to a Sept. 1, 2021 game. (WKTV) 
The Lee Legends team at practice prior to a Sept. 1, 2021 game. (WKTV)
By K.D. Norris
The Wyoming Lee High School football team will be embarking a new era with its Wednesday, Sept. 1, season-opening game hosting NorthPointe Christian — the era of playing 8-man football.
The late change to 8-man, made just before the season started, has head coach Mark Smoes, and his staff and team, doing a bit of audible game planning and play calling however.
“We’ve had to adjust quite a bit,” coach Smoes said to WKTV this week. “It is the same game but we are adjusting our time because, as coaches, we are learning to adjust to this game.
“It is a faster pasted game. It allows you the opportunity to get skilled players on the field. That kinds of plays to our strength. We are adjusting a little every day, for the players and for ourselves.”
The Lee vs. NorthPointe game, which will be a junior varsity game for the visitors, will be this week’s WKTV Featured Game with coverage on cable television replay and on-demand. The game kick off will be at 5:30 p.m.
The change to 8-man was one of the first decisions made by new Lee Legends athletic director Tray Crusciel, after he took a look at a football program which has struggled in recent years, including going 0-4 and being outscored 193-41 in games played in its 2020 independent schedule season.
“After seeing the numbers we had out for the program, seeing the low numbers currently at 7/8th grade level, and the strength of the program over the last 10 years, we felt this was best for our kids right now,” Crusciel said to WKTV. “Our move to the Alliance (8-man) conference will definitely help across the board, give us more level competition and, I think, with the conference move and the move to 8-man, this community and school will benefit from it greatly.”
The program which Crusciel looked at, and which Smoes coaches, has its fair share of senior leadership, but with less than 20 players total in the high school program and on the school’s only team, almost half are sophomores and freshman.
But, Smoes said, the change to 8-man not only works with the numbers on his team but also on the talent on his team.
The 8-man game “is a little more offensive (and) we like to run the ball, we like to throw the ball. And we just have more area to work in,” he said. “We enjoy that and our players enjoy that. And we have players who are multi-talented on the field play, players who can catch, players who can run, players who can block. It just makes for a faster game. … It plays to our strengths.”
Among the Legends strengths, Smoes said, is a group to seniors and juniors who will likely play both ways in the 8-man system.
Smoes said senior quarterback Kemijion Reed, who did not play last season due to his family’s pandemic concerns, will be back and is expected to trigger the offense. Fellow seniors Rogelio Martinez, Shamaari Hill and Juan De La O are also expected to be key players.
Junior running back Elijah Beckwith, who rushed for 1,000 yards as a freshman two years ago, and slot back Ke’Ontae will also be key offensive players.
“Those players are going to handle a lot of the work for us this season offensively,” Smoes said. “We (also) have a very strong freshman class, and sophomores as well. And the nice thing about 8-man is that before, when your playing 11-man and you are short on players, you played players in positions which were tough for them to play in.”
But this season, with the 8-man format, many of those young players will be eased into the high school game.
This week’s game is one of four currently scheduled for Lee, with two being varsity 8-man and another JV game. (The Legends will be at Martin Sept. 20, hosting Gobles on Oct. 1, and at Dansville Oct. 21. But Crusciel said more games are likely to be added.)
WKTV featured games will on cable television in Wyoming and Kentwood on Comcast Channel 25 and AT&T Channel 99 Community Channel, rebroadcast on the night of the game and various days and times the week after. See the programming schedule at wktv.org. For more information on WKTV coverage of football and other fall prep sports, follow us at wktvjournal.org/sports.
All Featured Games, as well as other high school sports and community events covered by WKTV’s video coverage team, are available on-demand within a week of play at wktvlive.com.
