By Rob Krone | March 28, 2021 at 10:55 PM EDT - Updated March 28 at 10:55 PM
WATERTOWN, N.Y. (WWNY) - After a 2020 that saw the Empire Football League cancel their season due to COVID-19, it’s back to the gridiron for the league’s 6 teams with a few changes.
Empire Football league members met last weekend and formulated a plan for the upcoming 2021 season.
With Utica, Hudson Valley and Sussex joining other leagues, the 6 teams left decided to split the league into 2 divisions with the Red and Black playing in the West Division with the Northern New York Grizzlies and the Syracuse Smash. And Tri-City, Glens Falls and Plattsburgh making up the Eastern Division.
”What we did is we, you know, as the 6 teams, we knew we couldn’t play a 10 game schedule, so everybody agreed to play East and West. That way it would cut down on travel anyway for at least those first four games and the crossover games. I was lucky enough to where we only have to travel to Plattsburgh and the other 2 teams come to us, so we don’t have to take the trip to Glens Falls or Schenectady,” said Red and Black Head Coach George Ashcraft.
March is usually a time the Red and Black are on the field at the Alex. T Duffy Fairgrounds getting some early practices in before the start of the season in July, but another change the EFL made was pushing the start of the regular season back to August 7th.