CUBA — The Cuba High Football team was practicing on Thursday ahead of Friday’s scheduled homecoming football game against St. Vincent when they got the news — the game would be canceled.

Cuba senior lineman Wyatt McMillian took a knee and broke down in tears.

Shortly after, the R-2 District posted on its Facebook page, “In order to protect the safety and well-being of our student-athletes, Cuba High School has made the difficult decision to cancel tomorrow’s scheduled homecoming football game due to the low number of participants.”

Parents, players and coaches were upset that they had not been consulted about the decision and that it came one day before the game. On Friday morning, disappointed parents and players met with Cuba High School principal Michael Clutts, and athletic director Ryan Okenfuss. That led to a meeting on Friday afternoon with R-2 District Superintendent Scott Davidson. 

Davidson told the 25-plus parents and 15 players that it was his decision to cancel the game and that he did so with the safety of the students in mind.

“It’s my job to evaluate if it’s safe,” he said. “I have had concerns over the past couple of games, just with the physicality of it. Looking at our players, we have low numbers. We have been before, but we’re probably the lowest this year. Looking at the competitions, I have to evaluate if those competitions are safe.”

The Wildcats had 19 healthy players heading into Friday, head coach Kaleb Cason said, and played with 20 last week against St. Pius X. Cuba has been playing the majority of the regular season with 19 or 20 healthy players.

But Davidson argued the number of varsity-level players was actually just 12 or 13 for Friday’s game. Because Cuba’s JV team’s season was canceled, all football players play at the varsity level. 

The Missouri State High School Athletic Association doesn’t have a minimum requirement of players on a team; they just require 11 players on the field at a time.

Cason said that the team would’ve had “19 guys dress for the homecoming game.” He added that two players on offense and one player on defense, “would put other people or themselves in danger.” He added, “I do believe that it would’ve been a safe game.”

Cason said he told Davidson that he was comfortable with his team playing.

Parents and community members were upset that Davidson didn’t listen to Cason and his players or include them in any of the discussions.

“If a parent doesn’t want their kid to play, that’s their decision and right to do so,” one parent said. “But why does their opinion matter more than the rest of ours?”

Multiple players spoke up at the meeting and battled through tears when reflecting on what the homecoming game meant to them.

“It’s my last season and now I don’t get to experience the homecoming game,” McMillian said.

Other players said that they were upset that they weren’t a part of the discussion.

“We were never even consulted about this as a team,” Noah Halbert said.

One player said that if the superintendent was concerned about safety, the team should have an athletic trainer and better-quality fields.

“You said you’re worried about our well-being,” freshman Lucas Peak said. “Out there during the summer, there’ve been people who got injured because of potholes. Some people fell because of potholes. Some people fell because there are holes everywhere. There are rocks there, there’s stuff sticking out of the ground there, like that.”

The football team practices primarily on the school’s baseball field because of those issues.

Some players said that they felt like their efforts all season didn’t mean anything to the superintendent. 

“Making that sole decision by yourself,” Halbert said, “was telling us that all this work that we put in last week, the week before that, the summer, that it did not matter.”

Davidson said that he was not planning to cancel the rest of the season and would decide whether the football team would play on a week-by-week basis.

Cason said that the team and the community should move past this week’s game and focus on the Oct. 17 game against Bayless with Hancock.

“As a coach and for the kids, let’s go ahead and just move on to Bayless. And we have two games to get ready for districts. So let’s just do that,” he said, “We can sit here and talk in circles all day. At the end of the day, we are going to try to make these decisions happen in a better way.”

Elizabeth Shireman, mother of quarterback Jesse Shireman, apologized to the team for how the adults had handled the situation.

“Look, guys, as adults, as leaders, we have violated your trust in the way this went down,” Shireman said. “We did not do a good job handling this. Your trust has been violated, and we need you to trust us. So we want to teach that trust, and we want you to be able to trust those in leadership.”

Shireman continued, “Cason and Davidson should have talked. The parents should have been contacted. We should have had this meeting last night before it was announced. This shouldn’t have gone down this way.”

Davidson admitted that the timing of the decision could’ve been better.

“I do apologize for the abruptness,” Davidson said. “I do wish there was more time, and it was vetted out differently. There are things I’ve learned from this, and I will not have this happen again, I can assure you that.”

Davidson said he was looking at the perspective of a father.

“I have to look out for you as students, as I would my own children. And that’s not saying your parents don’t have input, or I’m disregarding that, but I have to look at it from a district perspective, to say, hey, at this time, I’m going to take his input, but I’m going to say it’s not a safe game.”

Cuba’s homecoming coronation and band- and drill-team performances still took place on Oct. 10 on Wildcat Pride Field.

As of Oct. 13, Cuba’s football team’s senior night against Bayless with Hancock is still scheduled to take place.