WüRZBURG, Germany — The Würzburg High School football program has changed since Eric Mead last coached the squad three years ago.

Gone is the junior varsity team, and the school won’t be playing behemoth schools out of Lakenheath or Ramstein. The kids will compete at the smaller Division II level, instead of the Division I level that the upperclassmen remember, Mead said. In fact, the team came just a few students away from dropping to Division III competition.

Army transformation has shrunk the Würzburg Wolves.

“On an emotional level, a lot of kids were disappointed,” said Mead, who teaches physical education at the high school. “After being Division I, being king of the hill, they look at it as being the stepchild.”

But Army transformation in the Franconia area isn’t just being felt on the football field. The elementary, middle and high schools here are starting a new school year with just a fraction of the pupils and staff they had last year.

According to Department of Defense Dependents Schools enrollment estimates, Würzburg Elementary will start this year with 225 pupils, down from 733 last year. The middle school will go from 468 students to 103 this year. The high school, which will bus about half its student body this year from Schweinfurt, will go from 515 students to 191.

Those numbers could change during the first weeks of school, as some pupils may have moved on with their parents, said Ed Atterberry, executive officer for DODDS-Bavaria.

The high school numbers are generally more reliable, because students need records before they go to another school, said Walter Seely, principal of Würzburg High.

While school officials said the smaller student body will offer more intimate class sizes and a tighter educational community, it’s anybody’s guess how long that will last. Leighton was listed by the Army last summer as a base that will close in the coming years. Army and garrison officials are remaining mum on when that closure might occur.

The schools on Leighton will stay open until the base closes and there are no more pupils to serve, Atterberry said.

“Where would you bus them to?” he asked. “It’s not even a discussion.”

There is some discussion about where Schweinfurt high schoolers will go if Würzburg High is shuttered in the next few years. Atterberry said options include busing kids to Bamberg or building temporary classrooms in Schweinfurt.

Staff levels have also dropped at the schools, and DODDS was able to relocate much of the faculty, Atterberry said. The three Würzburg schools have about 100 fewer employees this year. Some teachers, such as physical education teacher Trudy Mertens, will now split their time teaching different things. In addition to teaching physical education, Mertens will be a first-grade teacher.

She said she welcomes the challenge.

“It’s a huge jump, and I’m really looking forward to it,” she said.

Programs also had to be cut as funding left with the kids, Seely said.

“We had a pretty good culinary arts program; we had to disband that, and cosmetology,” he said. “[Advanced placement] classes are still available online.”

As the pupils and staff get ready for another year of school, things are definitely different.

And smaller.

But there’s at least one more year ahead for the Leighton schools ... and their football team.

“I was extremely worried that I’d show up for football practice and not have any volunteers out there, because a lot from last year called to say they couldn’t do it,” said Mead, the football coach. But within the first few days of practice, guys were approaching the field and seeing if Mead needed help, he said.

“Now, I’ve got five or six coaches who heard that they had football over here,” he said. “We have more support this year than last year.”

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