(Theresa Proudfit photo) Norway assistant coach Chuck Pellegrini gives instruction during a recent practice. The Knights, in their first season of eight-player football, are scheduled to host defending Division 2 state champion North Central on Friday, Sept. 3. Norway is a Division 1 team in eight-player football.

IRON MOUNTAIN — North Dickinson isn’t the only school in Dickinson County playing 8-player football this fall. Norway, dropping to an MHSAA Class D enrollment classification, has also made the move to 8-player.

Ironwood and the Gogebic Miners (Bessemer and Wakefield-Marinesco co-op) represent 8-player football in Gogebic County. Here are some things to know about the brand of football that’s been catching on fast since it started in Michigan in 2009.

It’s usually faster and almost always involves more offense. Schools with an enrollment of 215 or under are eligible to try to earn a spot in the MHSAA postseason, which is split into two divisions.

The playoffs have four rounds, one fewer than the 11-player tournament and the state championships have been at the Superior Dome in Marquette at times over the years.

There are 97 teams in Michigan playing 8-player football with 19 of them coming from the U.P. Seven of the U.P. teams are co-ops.

The MHSAA started holding a 8-player postseason tournament in 2011 when 20 teams were playing. It was 62 teams when the second division was added in 2017 and there were 77 in 2019.

It was obviously a lasting trend in the U.P. when traditional 11-player power Forest Park made the switch in 2016 as its enrollment kept falling.

The emphasis for the move for the Miners was safety, Gogebic coach Nick Heikkila said. Having young freshmen going up against the bigger schools in the West-PAC like Negaunee wasn’t good, he stated.

There are also 19 11-player teams in the Upper Peninsula.

The move to 8-player has made scheduling harder for teams still playing 11-player football with nearby opponents harder to find. For instance, Menominee and Kingsford unofficially became part-time members of the Northeastern Conference in Wisconsin this season to help find games.

Kingsford will meet Shawano, Luxemburg-Casco and Wrightstown and Menominee will play Marinette, Freedom, Denmark and Little Chute. They’ll both still be in the Great Northern Conference with Escanaba, Gladstone and Marquette.

U.P. 8-player teams

Division 1 (enrollment 163 to 215)

Gogebic Miners (Bessemer/Wakefield-Marenisco co-op)

Brimley (co-op with Paradise-Whitefish)

Ironwood

Munising

Newberry

Norway

Ontonagon (co-op with E-TC)

Pickford (co-op with Maplewood Academy)

Rudyard

Stephenson

Division 2 (162 and under)

Carney-Nadeau (co-op with Wilson Nah-Tah-Wahsh)

Cedarville (co-op with De Tour)

Crystal Falls Forest Park

Superior Central (co-op with Mid-Pen)

Engadine

North Dickinson

Lake Linden-Hubbell

North Central

Rapid River

11–player teams

Marquette

Menominee

Escanaba

Gladstone

Kingsford

Iron Mountain

Gwinn

Negaunee

Westwood (Co-Op with Republic-Michigamme)

Ishpeming

Houghton

Hancock (Co-op with Dollar Bay, Chassell, Jeffers)

Calumet

Manistique (Co-op with Big Bay de Noc)

Sault Ste. Marie

St. Ignace

West Iron

Bark River-Harris

L’Anse (Co-op with Baraga)

Daily News Sports Writer Matt “Sweets” McCarthy contributed to this story