When the Greene County Rams football team begins its regular season tomorrow, they will do so as one of the largest teams in their classification.

Last year, the Iowa High School Athletic Association announced that it would institute a new socio-economic factor when determining what class a high school would be competing for in football with free and reduced lunch counts. Greene County Activities Director Dave Wright says the addition of using free and reduced lunch kept the football team in Class 2A and is the second largest high school in Iowa in Class 2A. He shares his thoughts on the Rams staying in Class 2A.

“Yeah I think that was beneficial for our kids that are competing. Obviously we’ve had a lot of success in football in recent years. I know we can compete, for the most part, in Class 3A but the big difference is more your depth. Football is a numbers game and the reason (IHSAA) did this, the studies have shown, the lower you are on the socio-economic scale, the fewer number of those students participate.”   

Last year, the Greene County School District had 43-percent of its high school student population on free or reduced lunch. Greene County travels to Carroll High School tomorrow night. Kickoff is slated for 7pm and the game can be heard live on KGRA 98.9FM or streamed live on raccoonvalleyradio.com with coverage beginning at 6:30pm.