Injuries and low numbers have forced Cherry football coach Justin Bakkethun to forfeit the rest of the season.
According to WDIO in Duluth, Bakkethun said the Tigers had just 11 players for their game last week at Northeast Range. Cherry, a high school with 106 students in grades 9-12 in Iron, plays in Minnesota's 9-Man Class.
The Tigers (0-6) were scheduled to play at South Ridge on Friday and then at home against Bigfork for their Homecoming on October 15th. Bakkethun told WDIO there will still be a Homecoming game that day, with Cherry's varsity team playing a flag football game with a team made up of Cherry alumni.
Bakkethun told the Mesabi Daily News: "We ran into an unlimited amount of injuries this year. We have two players out for the whole season and we had sporadic injuries, a couple of concussions and a broken collar bone. It pretty much took away the rest of our season. With low numbers, we had to forfeit the remainder of our schedule."
Cherry is planning to field a varsity team again next season.
"It was heart-breaking for the seniors, obviously, to not be able to finish out their season," Bakkethun told the Daily News. "But they stepped up every day in practice and they never once hung their heads. That is something next year's seniors can hopefully take with them, as well."
You can read the full Mesabi Daily News article here.
