Fayette Co. Six-Man Team Will Not Play Football This Season

After a five year run, the Fayette County Panthers sixman football team will not play this season.

Team founder C.H. Harvey of Fayetteville said there were not enough players to field a team this season, but the Panthers plan to play again next season.

“We’ve invested a lot of money in equipment,” Harvey said, “And we have great support from the school.”

The numbers issue is widespread among independent sixman football teams.

Harvey said the Panthers had an eight game schedule set earlier this summer and four of those eight teams called to cancel their games even before the Panthers realized they wouldn’t be able to play.

More than 20 six-man independent teams played last year, but this season Harvey said he knows of only 11 that have confirmed full schedules.

Despite no football for the Panthers, the six-man independent bowl series, which Harvey founded, will continue this season to crown public and private state champions with a day full of bowl games.

The series has been held the past several years in Gohlson, near Waco, and last year drew thousands of fans. Gohlson is unable to host the event this year, but Harvey said eight different sites have expressed interest in being the new home of the series.

“Something that started in Fayetteville has benefited thousands of kids through the bowl series,” Harvey said.