EBEN — Superior Central High School showed that not having a varsity football team for one season doesn’t have to affect its ability to have one further down the line.

That’s good news for a school like Gwinn, which pulled back from having a varsity team this year in favor of only fielding a junior varsity team this season due to low numbers.

It’s exactly what the situation at SC was a year ago, when it had enough students go out for the eight-player version of the sport in 2024, but not enough in its older classes to feel comfortable playing varsity football.

Todd Spranger’s first year as head coach was of a JV team, but with every single player back — they didn’t have seniors last fall — he felt like the Cougars have built a solid nucleus for a competitive team starting this week.

SC was scheduled to play at Pickford on Thursday night, a tough battle for any team, let alone one that didn’t play varsity last year.

The Panthers reached the finals in eight-player last November in the Superior Dome, and that they did in Division 1, while SC plays in the smaller-schools half in Division 2.

“We have four or five seniors, a large junior class, and we’re big and mature enough now to play on the varsity level,” Spranger said earlier this week, adding that numbers have increased from 16 a year ago to 22 this fall.

Junior Will Spranger — Todd Spranger’s son — will head up the offense as he plays quarterback.

He’ll probably spend more time running the ball than throwing it, as the elder Spranger says, “We’ll lean on the run.”

Two more juniors are the coach’s top running backs, Aidan Korpi and Gavin Vining.

“They were our top guys last year,” Coach Spranger said.

At receiver are junior Eli Valimaa and senior Cole Ozoga, who will also be important blockers in the run game.

And leading the way on the line — on both sides of the ball — are juniors Connor Blomgrem and Simon Kempker and sophomore Gunnar Wey.

Spranger said he’d already received word that SC’s second game next week — and home opener — has been canceled due to low numbers for opponent Mid Peninsula.

Due to the ever-evolving nature of eight-player football, the Upper Peninsula’s single conference, the Great Lakes Eight, seems to change its lineup and even its divisional structure nearly every year.

For instance for this season, SC has come back into the fold after last year’s nonvarsity season, while Ishpeming has also joined the league after it had to play as an independent its first season in eight-player in 2024.

A look at the Michigan High School Football Data Warehouse & Analytics website, www.michigan-football.com, shows SC as part of the six-team GL8’s Central Division along with Brimley, Rapid River, Stephenson, Carney-Nadeau and North Dickinson.

That seems to make sense, since those are the final five opponents — in that order — on the Cougars’ schedule this season.

The Brimley game on Sept. 27 and North Dickinson encounter on Oct. 25 are at home, with the three in between from Oct. 3-18 all on the road.

With Mid Pen out, in the games before those is one home game scheduled against Ironwood at 4 p.m. on Saturday, Sept. 13.

Journal Sports Editor Steve Brownlee’s email address is sbrownlee@miningjournal.net.