Mike White: Participation numbers in high school football continue to drop

https://www.post-gazette.com/sports/high-school-football/...

Eight man football gaining popularity.

The numbers don't lie. It is a rather paradoxical situation. College and pro football TV ratings leave other sports in the ratings dust, and yet fewer kids are playing it or watching it. I see it with my own kids and those in the neighborhood, as well as those who are family friends. I have even had a few old coaching colleague friends (who coach middle school and freshman teams) tell me that they have to go over basic rules that should be known by kids playing 4th grade flag football. I wish there was a stat for the number of hours kids watch college or pro football compared to when I was 10, 12 or 16 years old. The kids tell me that they don't watch as much because they have other things they would like to do.

I'm fascinated that the TV Ratings continue to be what they are, because lots of people I know, myself included, watch LESS football in total than they ever have. I'm not surprised by the kids though. It's a different era. We watched the games with Dad, because he wanted to watch, its what was on, and we didn't have 8 screens in the household - we had one. Now, in my household alone, we have 3 TVs, one tablet, two laptops, and two phone screens. I think many households are similar in that people aren't watching one thing together as a family as much as we used to.

We played just enough to always want to play more and look forward to the next game or practice.

"More of a job?" I guess I'll say, "It depends." To some kids it doubtlessly seems like a job. Others? During the 1980s, I coached club soccer teams. Some of the kids played for me for 7 consecutive years as we progressed through age groups. We traveled. From our base in the eastern suburbs of Cleveland, we played in tournaments in Dayton, Toledo, Toronto, Charlotte. The kids spent three months playing for their respective schools and nine months with the club. At the end of one year, I looked back and saw that they'd played 96 games. In addition, sometimes they got on their phones and organized pick-up games. A job? Well, it seemed that it was one they liked; 11 of those boys went on to play college soccer - at Princeton, Cleveland State (2), Ohio State, Ashland, Marietta (2), Bowling Green, Evansville, Trinity (TX). My son Ben played club soccer at Ohio. Hmmm...I wonder how those kids - now in their mid-40s - in looking back feel about their youthful passion for the sport.

I assume you don't have school age kids or aren't involved in coaching. Well I do, and it is the talk of every youth football parent I know. There are a plethora of articles on the subject. We have heard college football coaches lament the fact and yet you continue to put up these posts. I will link to a couple of articles below concerning participation drops in growing areas, not rural areas. Incidentally, rural areas often see the highest participation rates. Marion Local out of rural Maria Stein in western Ohio and Wheelersburg out of southern Ohio are perennial powers because they have old school turnout numbers, and their towns rally around their teams. It is urban and suburban areas that have seen the biggest drop. I will leave you with this fact. Columbus had a population of 539,000 in 1970. Yet, it had more kids playing football in 1970, than it does now with an estimated population of almost 900,000, which it will be in the 2020 census. Football will always be with us and be popular, but fewer and fewer kids are not only playing it, but watching it.

https://www.latimes.com/sports/story/2019-08-01/high-scho...
https://sports.yahoo.com/varsity-blues-football-participa...
https://www.nbcwashington.com/news/local/Virginia-High-Sc...
https://apnews.com/66e699491a3b478293620c1e5069dc9e

Your experience notwithstanding, i believe you are mistaken if you continue positing that football will endure - as something more than glorified flag football. As much as I have loved football, my fondness is eroding. Reason? Rules changes intended to make the sport safer - thankfully - but simultaneously are making it less physical and interesting. I played guard and loved the position and what it entailed. Many of the blocks I executed - pretty well - are now 15 yard penalties. Guard play today? It looks much less interesting. Eventually virtually all blocking and tackling will be banned. Rugby, anyone? Flag?

Billy not sure why you are not seeing the obvious. So those schools you mentioned were powers back in the day and now they barely field a team and I am wrong? Look at Bishop Watterson another school in the city that won the state championship ten years ago. They draw kids not only from Columbus public schools, but also from Dublin, Worthington, Olentangy etc. Last year they couldn't field a JV team. They have nearly 1,000 students in the building. Put it this way, Olentangy had one high school in 2000. Now they have four Division I or II schools. Watterson draws from those areas and yet with a 1,000 kids in the building and a history of state championship teams, they couldn't field a JV team last year. Rural areas are holding their own, it is urban and suburban areas that are seeing big drops. Did you look at the links I supplied in the last post on growing areas that are seeing big declines in participation? Come on Billy try being a little reasonable here.

CC Fan,

You ask me to be reasonable however in your original response you cite the growth of Columbus yet you ignore the fact that the Columbus schools have seen a decline of 50% while the city has grown 300+% during the same time. Yet you want me to be reasonable? You also ignore other issues that cities face that they did not face in 1970 (which is the year you used), from 2 parent families, incarceration rates. You look at simple raw numbers as a truth. And now you hate being owned with facts so you will just be an idiot and dig in.

Not once have I said that other concerns are not an issue. I simply pointed out that people are ignoring the #1 factor. Fewer kids! You want to use a Scioto Coubty School. Fine, look at Notre Dame. Proud football tradition, many great players and hall of fame coaches. Yet today has about 14 kids on the football team. They are also today graduating 16-18 kids. So is that a product of the dangers of football or the fact that from 1980 their enrollment is down 70%????

And you can post all these articles that speak to the suburban mother who’s not letting their kid play football. However those articles also ignore the fact that participation is effected by enrollment, especially at public schools.

Billy the Cat, you referred to me as McFly which is what Biff Tannen called Marty McFly in Back to the Future. Well Ok Biff, I see you are still suffering the ill effects of that manure truck so perhaps there is a reason your posts are lacking in facts. First of all, the Columbus stats are absolutely correct. Not every kid in the city goes to Columbus public high schools. Many go to other schools like Bishop Hartley, Bishop Watterson, St Francis DeSales, St Charles, Bishop Ready, Columbus Academy, Wellington etc.

Now there are far too many corrections to make in your post, otherwise mine would take forever. So to start here's the Reader's Digest version; DeSales takes voucher kids and their football numbers (with all of their tradition and state titles) still aren't what they once were. You are going to get a lot of angry Watterson fans come at you if you say they don't have a proud football history. Watterson has won 3 or 4 state titles and numerous runner up and semi-finalist appearances. They actually have a pretty good team this year, there will probably be a few Division I college scholarship come out of that group, not the least of which will be QB Jacob Hoying. Yet, they still only suit up about 40 kids, in the past their numbers were almost double. Their situation is not unique as many urban-suburban schools have far fewer kids playing than they once did.

As I indicated in a previous post, I can't begin to tell you how many of my old coaching friends tell me that in middle school and at the freshman level players have to be told the most basic of rules. One coach told me the type of rules you would have to explain to a fourth grade flag team, he has to explain to his freshman team. There just aren't as many kids playing or watching the game and while rural numbers aren't too bad, urban and suburban numbers are really taking a hit. Please read the links I supplied at the bottom of a post I made earlier in this thread. It is pretty eye opening stuff and it is coming from growing areas, not rural areas where the game's numbers haven't dropped that drastically.

Yeah and injury data tells us that the post and turn, which was a key block in the old student body right or the Packer sweep was a key mode of injury, serious injury. And has been outlawed for 2 decades, it went out with suspension helmets. Funny in one thread on this board we talk about how statistics are good for the game and then another we’ll talk about statistics couple of injury frequency is a bad thing. We can’t have it both ways either technology is good and we use it data is good and we use it or we don’t use any of it

Truth, and many become better people from it if led right. There are many who Should never put on a college helmet and they still do. And they become a better person by the experience of being a part of a team and work and sacrifice it represents

Honestly Billy is this some sort of joke you are pulling? I mean people can argue about theories, politics, religion, the what could have been in life but numbers don't lie. I along with others have put forth articles with numbers exhibiting facts about the decline in football participation. Somehow you make bizarre references to me as Marty McFly of Back to the Future fame holding up Biff Tannen as a some sort of paragon of knowledge and virtue (if that isn't a sign of some synapses not firing.) Just look at your pooh poohing of Bishop Watterson's sports success. You say their success in the history of Ohio High School sports is statistically irrelevant. A school who has won multiple state championship football titles (as well as other sports) and finished runner up or in the semi-finals of many others. There are whole conferences in Ohio High school football that have never won a state title and Watterson is irrelevant? Please tell me that you are making it up that you have some role in the Ohio High School Athletic Association. The stuff you are putting out here is just crazy talk.