WOODLAWN - Woodlawn will have a pretty good idea of where it stacks up among the 8-man teams by early October as the Bears will have played both teams that made it to the 2024 8-man state championship game: Midland and Strong.The Bears will enter the 2025 season under a new head coach, Doug Means, and will face a schedule that includes three playoff teams from last year: Midland, Strong and Brinkley.As of now, Means said there are only eight varsity games on the schedule since the varsity game scheduled for Sept. 26 at Augusta has been canceled due to the Red Devils not having enough players to field a varsity team this season. He said the junior high game at Augusta will remain on the schedule.Woodlawn will need to have the bus fueled up through the first half of the season as the Bears will have just one home game over the first six weeks. They will finish out the year with three consecutive games at the Carl Jones Sports Complex before the playoffs.One of those road trips will includes this week’s season opener at Rose Bud. The junior high teams are scheduled to play at 5 p.m. followed by the varsity teams at 7 p.m.Woodlawn and Rose Bud were among the early 8-man teams when the Arkansas Activities Association (AAA) revived 8-man football in the state. The two teams have regularly squared off against one another during the regular season as well as summer camps.The Class 3A Ramblers return four offensive and defensive starters off a team that finished to 2-7 season. Rose Bud won two of its final four games in 2024, and came up just short, 32-28, in notching another win at Marshall during that span. The Ramblers opened their season last week, losing at home to Cedar Ridge, 36-6.Means said Rose Bud, like Woodlawn, is working with a small roster, and about six of their starters never came off the field and the Ramblers began to wear down in the second half.Coach Garrett Haag will have a new quar...
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