The past two football seasons have seen the Greene County Rams go 1-8 each year against one of Class 3A’s most difficult schedules. The Rams were one of that classes smaller enrollment programs and they faced seven playoff teams in those 18 games.

Second year head coach Mitch Moore, the players, and fans, officially found out the 2018 and ’19 schedules yesterday from the Iowa High School Athletic Association, and they appear to be more manageable, at least on paper. Greene County dropped a class size to 2A for the next two years and the Rams have known their district assignment for about two months. They are assigned to 2A District 8. They now know the non-district opponents and the sites of all nine games.

The season starts with the four non-district games. 2017 records are in parenthesis. The season opener is on Friday, Aug. 24 with the annual Battle for the Cowbell vs. Perry (4-5) at Dewey Field. Greene County lost in overtime at Perry in 2017. The Rams host Nevada (5-4) at Linduska Field on Aug. 31, followed by road trips to Des Moines on Sept. 7 vs. Saydel (4-5), and to Gilbert (2-7) on Sept. 14. Greene County did not play Nevada or Saydel, and the Rams lost in the closing minutes at Gilbert last season.

Shenandoah (2-7) visits Linduska Field to begin the district schedule on Sept. 21. A trip to Carroll to face Kuemper Catholic is on the schedule for Sept. 28. The Rams did not play Shenandoah last season and lost in 2017 to Kuemper Catholic (7-3) in Jefferson by seven points. The last three games on the schedule are against teams Greene County did not meet in ’17, starting with a home game Oct. 5 vs. Atlantic (6-3), a road game in Red Oak (1-8) on Oct. 12, and a home contest on Oct. 19 vs. OA-BCIG (Ida Grove) (6-3). Like the Rams, Atlantic is moving down from 3A, while OA-BCIG is going up from 1A. The other three teams in District 8 all have been 2A programs.