Posen to showcase eight man game with a tripleheader

by Peter Jakey, Managing Editor

Ready for some high school football? Bring the sunscreen and money for concessions, as all roads lead to Posen this weekend for an eight-man football tripleheader. Teams will be coming from the northern part of the Upper Peninsula to as far south as Flint, to kickoff their seasons. Bellaire and Akron-Fairgrove start the day?s action at noon and will be followed by Superior Central and Owendale-Gagetown at 3:30 p.m. Posen is under the lights in the finale, taking on Michigan School for the Deaf (MSD) at 7 p.m.

The Viking players have been practicing more than three hours a day for nearly three weeks to prepare for the first game against

the Tartars. Head coach Wayne Karsten said his squad is definitely ahead of last year, ?because we?ve had three weeks to practice the eight-man game instead of one. As far as the team goes, we are definitely a better team than last year.?

Posen went 1-4 in 2009, with their one win against Saturday?s opponent. Many families from the Flint school plan to make a weekend out of it and stay in area hotels. EARLY IN the day, Karsten will have his eye on the happenings on the field, as three of the four opponents are on the Vikings? schedule, including week two?s game at Akron-Fairgrove, a Thursday contest.

Most of the teams are from the new Eight-Man Bridge Alliance. ?When we started to get together and developing the eight-man division, we started talking about how to showcase the eight-man game,? said Karsten. ?So, I started to talk to teams from up here, and they were in favor of doing something. Then I talked to some teams in the south. ?Originally there were two games, but there were five teams interested, so we went ahead and scheduled three games.? Posen has four homes games this season, including a week three rematch with Brimley on festival Friday. All the games this season are at 7 p.m.