ALBIA — The early-season obstacles on the field were already going to be tough enough for the Albia Blue Demon football team to deal with. The last thing Jerry Staton's squad needed was an obstacle to deal with off the field.

That, however, is exactly what the National Federation of High Schools handed Albia in the lead-up to its season-opener on Friday with Washington. The rule, which was issued last January, requires the Blue Demon football uniforms to remove the letters EMAB from the back of each players' jersey.

It has become a mantra that has been tied in with the fabric of the Albia football program under Staton as tightly as the name plates are tied into each jersey in place of where an players' last name would go. While the ruling itself was past down this winter, both Staton and the Albia athletic administration were unaware of it until the team began its preseason practices earlier this month.

"I guess somewhere in America, somebody has written something pretty bad on their jerseys and that's why they made this ruling," Staton said. "We've always believed in EMAB (Every Man a Brother). We explain that everybody on our team is a brother. We don't want to single out any individuals."

The rule says schools may no longer put letters on the backs of their uniforms that don’t spell out the name of the player, the name of the school or the name of the official

mascot. It will affect three other schools in the state as Sioux City Bishop Heelan's "P-R-

I-D-E," Red Oak's "Line 6" and West Fork, Sheffield's "Relentless" have to be removed heading into the football season.

"From what I understand, you would get a 15-yard penalty for having something illegal

on the back of their uniforms," Staton said. "However, if that happens and later on one of

our coaches does something silly, it's another 15-yard penalty and I would be kicked out of the game. If you want to see an angry coach, you'd see one if that ever happened to me."

Staton and the rest of the Albia community is planning on abiding by the letter of the law, so to speak.

"We found some patches and our community's busy-bee quilting club is going to sew some patches so we can have legal uniforms," Staton said. "It's kind of a cool thing for our community to do. They've done things like that for the military. It is a pretty big cost, however, because it's going to cost $1,400 a patch."

The spirit of EMAB, however, will not be lost for good. The Blue Demons are planning on having the letter placed on their helmets this season.

If any governing body has a problem with that, Staton has already worked out a game plan just in case.

"We'll abide by the current rule, but if they make a rule against having something on the helmets, we'll put EMAB on our shoes," Staton said. "If they rule against that, we'll put them on our pants. We'll go to removable tattoos if we have to."