Due to financial limitations, Southside High School has only played one home football game the entire season and is currently enduring a seven-week stretch of road contests.

The Panthers were originally scheduled to play at home Friday against UMS Wright and earlier this season against Thomasville, but played both games on the road because the school was offered financial compensation to travel for both contests.

Southside head coach Daniel Flowers said the Panthers’ football program needed the money because it doesn’t make enough from home games to annually profit after paying officials, police officers and paramedics.

“As a head coach you have to look at things beyond what’s in front of my face,” Flowers said. “I look at my account, I know I need money. The fact that we need new equipment, we need new stuff. That stuff costs money.”

Flowers said the Panthers make between $700-$1,000 from admission at their home football games, but that isn’t enough to cover all of the team’s needs.

That’s why when Thomasville and UMS Wright offered to pay for the Panthers to play road games the team decided to accept the offer. Flowers said Thomasville paid Southside $3,500 and UMS Wright gave the school $3,750. Both schools also provided a postgame meal for the Panthers.

“They offered quite a bit of money, a lot more money than Southside would make by hosting it,” said Dallas County Schools Superintendent Don Willingham. “Maybe if we were in a different financial situation, it might be a more difficult decision, but when money is tight it makes it a little bit easier to say ‘well, we’ll do that.’”

Southside is about 10 minutes from the Selma city limits and is beyond many businesses, meaning motorists traveling Highway 80 usually are headed to or from Montgomery, unless they have a direct reason to go to the school.

If any schools in the Selma area can understand, it’s fellow county schools Dallas County High and Keith High. Both are also in rural areas.

Dallas County has made an average of approximately $4,000-$4,500 off of home gates this season, according to principal Todd Reece.

The school has played two of its five home games at Memorial Stadium, including its annual game with rival Selma that brought in more than $7,000.

To be fair, Dallas County is having one of its best seasons in years. The Hornets are 5-2, while Southside is mired in what looks to be another losing season, barring a late turnaround.

However, Keith entered Friday night with just one win on the season and averages between $2,600 and $2,800 on gates alone, according to Keith High School athletic director Tommy Tisdale.

Like their counterparts, the Bears, who reside in class 1A, split their gate income with Selma High this season.

Flowers said Southside has been dealing with a tight budget since his arrival in 2012. This offseason the budget got tighter when the school bought new jerseys, which he said cost $3,900, and also paid $4,000 to have its helmets reconditioned.

Flowers said the Selma High game at Memorial Stadium helped Southside handle most of the cost for the jerseys and helmets.

Southside and Selma High split the game for that game and Flowers said the Panthers made $5,900.

“Pretty much the Thomasville game and the Selma High game took care of our bills. If we didn’t play the Thomasville game on the road, we would’ve been in trouble,” Flowers said.

Southside hasn’t played a home game since Aug. 29 against Keith and even that one wasn’t finished on Friday night.

Lightning delayed the game and the Panthers and Bears had to finish on Saturday.

Since then, the Panthers have traveled to Satsuma, Monroe County, Thomasville, Wilcox Central, UMS-Wright and will play at Clarke County next week.

That’s approximately 1,178 miles worth of traveling, with the longest trip being nearly 340 total miles to play at UMS Wright.

Southside was already set to travel more than any other school in Dallas County this year, even before the Panthers agreed to play games at Thomasville and UMS Wright. Part of that is because Southside plays in class 4A, region 1, where the teams are spread out as much as any other region in the state.

Willingham said he talked to Alabama High School Athletic Association executive director Steve Savarese when the new classifications came out for the 2014-16 school year about his concern over Southside’s travel schedule. Unfortunately, a team from central Alabama had to be stuck in a region with teams from Mobile due to the way the numbers came out.

“Somebody was going to be on the edge, and it turned out it was Southside,” Willingham said.

When new classifications are unveiled next year, the Panthers could be in an area with less required travel, but that’s impossible to know at this point.

After traveling so much this year, Willingham said he’s hopeful the Panthers will be in position where they can play all of their scheduled home games next season.

Southside still has three games remaining on its 2015 schedule, including two home games.

Homecoming is set for Oct. 23 against W.S. Neal and Southside’s season finale is against county rival Dallas County.

Flowers said if he needs to, he’d be willing to play the Dallas County game on the road too.

He said it all comes down to support.

He said he’s disappointed that more fans don’t attend Southside games to support the student athletes on the football team that work so hard throughout the summer and fall to put a good product on the field.

“It’s embarrassing,” Flowers said. “I can never answer that question.”