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BY Jim Baxter
High school football, as we have known it for so long, is under attack. A study following the 2018 football season by the National Federation of High School Sports showed a significant decrease in participation. The number of 11-player football participants was down 6.5 percent from its peak in 2009.
I’ve mentioned this before and I always get the statements from people around the state that “we’ve got as much participation as we ever have had,” repeatedly. But the truth is, this participation decrease is just a trickle on a national level, like that very small bit of condensation on a pipe under the sink that you keep telling yourself isn’t a real leak. But if it goes left unattended, you can bet it will be a full leak or pipe burst eventually. We may not see it on our own local levels state-wide, but it is there, and ignoring it is not going to make it vanish.
The question is, why? Why is the most popular sport in the country seeing a dip in the participation? I’ve looked at the numbers and talked to a lot of parents, of kids playing football and of kids not playing, and this is what I’ve identified as some factors.
Obviously, the fear of catastrophic injury is real. Since the rise of the CTE scare, we’ve seen that impact participation. Whether you believe the CTE data or not, serious injuries in general, are a concern. As the parent of former high school and college football players, I can tell that concern over your child’s well being is a real concern. My sons suffered ankle injuries, two of them went through serious concussion injuries, and one suffered an ACL injury during his final collegiate season. So, yes, the risk of injuries to the kids is a concern.
But that is not the only culprit, in my opinion, that is causing the dip in numbers. A decline in enrollment numbers in rural schools as a lot of these kids shift to private or charter schools has caused some of the dip. While it is not a huge problem here locally, as most of our private schools and charter schools have football available, in many larger states, they do not. That is why we see 8-man football in states like Texas flourishing.
The decline in the participation in youth football is certainly carrying up to the middle school and high school level. Parents are deciding that they want their kids to “wait” until they are older to play football, but as you know, when that time comes the kid has lost interest or moved on to something else, losing a small segment of population from the sport.
The push for starting football at an older age, leads to the kids getting involved in another sport. Baseball, soccer and Lacrosse, which is rising rapidly, are the winners here. And as these kids become involved in those other sports, the monster of “sports specialization” gobbles them up into the world of travel teams in each of those sports and they become full-time (all year) participants of those sports, with only a few of those kids returning to football and very few giving up the other sport.
One of the saddest changes that I’ve seen affecting it is that the popularity of the football player at the school level is not what it once was. When I was in high school, the football players were the big thing on campus. A letter on your jacket had to be earned, not just given to you because you were on the team. In fact, it was so coveted that we had a “letterman’s club” that was exclusive to the athletes that went out and earned that letter and it made the other athletes strive hard to try to get it. Now? The letter means very little, other than you were a part of the team. And the popularity of the football player has gone by the wayside. Factored into this reason is the electronic gaming industry. A kid knows he can achieve equal popularity and legend status by his prowess on a game like Fortnite as he can working hard through all his free time and sweating his guts off on the field for football. According to an article on Forbes in 2018, the kids run their own “cost-benefit analysis” and in many cases, football loses in their assessment.
I am not going to tell you that football is dying. I think the game is so great and becomes such an integral part of the lives of those who play that it will always be strong. But there is little doubt that it is taking a hit and while the CTE scare is leading the charge against it, there are numerous other enemies that are taking shots at it, as well.
