11-Man Football Participation Numbers...from the NFHS

[JNreturns]

2016 1,059,399
2015 1,085,272
2014 1,085,182
2013 1,094,949
2012 1,088,158
2011 1,092,597
2010 1,109,836
2009 1,110,527
2008 1,113,062

 

[ChaoticFanatic]

I didn't realize that 8-man was getting so popular.

Joke. I make joke.

 

[JNreturns]

Missouri participation in 11 man football:

2016 21,210
2015 21,883
2014 22,091
2013 23,257
2012 23,066
2011 23,178
2010 24,490
2009 23,594
2008 24,433
2007 23,638

 

[FOURPLAY]

If this trend continues, football will be reduced to a secondary level sport, like baseball, or volleyball. It is hard to believe that Soccer could be considered a primary, or major sport. According to NFHSA, soccer is the fastest growing high school activity. Who would have ever thought that would happen? What do you think the solution is?

 

[JNreturns]

If this trend continues, football will be reduced to a secondary level sport, like baseball, or volleyball. It is hard to believe that Soccer could be considered a primary, or major sport. According to NFHSA, soccer is the fastest growing high school activity. Who would have ever thought that would happen? What do you think the solution is?

SOCCER National high school boys participation: 450,234. Girls: 388,339
Combined. 838,573. Still not quite halfway to football on the boys side.

 

[tiny1972]

The biggest reason I keep hearing from those in our community where numbers continue to drop is safety. Everyone is scared to death of concussions and the long term effects. They're steering their kids towards other activities.

 

[JNreturns]

The biggest reason I keep hearing from those in our community where numbers continue to drop is safety. Everyone is scared to death of concussions and the long term effects. Their steering their kids towards other activities.

You see the wave coming in from 8th grade down...youth football is in a shambles in terms of numbers relative to previous years. That doesn't necessarily translate to 8th grade and high school numbers being down the same amount, but it doesn't bode well in terms of interest level.

 

[FOURPLAY]

SOCCER National high school boys participation: 450,234. Girls: 388,339
Combined. 838,573. Still not quite halfway to football on the boys side.

Right now high school football is still relevant. Ten years from now, that may not be the case, if the numbers keep falling 2-3% per year. That will be a sad day. Even the NFL has reached a saturation point, and is concerned about the shield's popularity, and fan interest.

 

[JNreturns]

Right now high school football is still relevant. Ten years from now, that may not be the case, if the numbers keep falling 2-3% per year. That will be a sad day. Even the NFL has reached a saturation point, and is concerned about the shield's popularity, and fan interest.

See baseball numbers from 1985 to today. Viewership on TV for the World Series down from 34M average in most of the 1980s to 15M average in the 2010s.

 

[sw5890]

The risks are a real concern and I think it will have a very significant effect if not dealt with in some way. I heard a guy the other day commenting that he hopes his grand kids don't play football. This coming from a guy whose life revolved around football in high school and still attends high school games.

I think your football towns will fare OK because the community kind of revolves around it and participating in it. But your average towns that don't have rosters 170 kids deep will really suffer if numbers continue to decline. You will see less talent AND less skill that coaches can put on the field. The towns like Webb City will probably beat everyone else by even larger margins than they do now.

If football can't recover, I wonder if baseball would return as a major sport in the area. Youth participation and interest seems very high in both Webb City and Carthage. I would assume other towns as well. It would be awesome to see the historic stadium in Carthage packed to capacity for local rivalry games.

 

[JNreturns]

The risks are a real concern and I think it will have a very significant effect if not dealt with in some way. I heard a guy the other day commenting that he hopes his grand kids don't play football. This coming from a guy whose life revolved around football in high school and still attends high school games.

I think your football towns will fare OK because the community kind of revolves around it and participating in it. But your average towns that don't have rosters 170 kids deep will really suffer if numbers continue to decline. You will see less talent AND less skill that coaches can put on the field. The towns like Webb City will probably beat everyone else by even larger margins than they do now.

If football can't recover, I wonder if baseball would return as a major sport in the area. Youth participation and interest seems very high in both Webb City and Carthage. I would assume other towns as well. It would be awesome to see the historic stadium in Carthage packed to capacity for local rivalry games.

A @ 10% decrease in ten years in Missouri. The trend will get worse in the next eight years. The youth participation is down at least 30%+ in Kansas City.

 

[dschatz78]

While I agree that safety concerns are somewhat of a contributing factor to why football numbers are declining, I would be more in the school of thought that we are seeing a candy ass generation of millennial participation trophy kids being raised in today's society.

The biggest contributing factor to this is mainly (not in every case, but more than not) these helicopter parents that treat their kids like glass and are quick over diagnose, over medicate, and come up with every excuse in the world to not have their child be apart of such a barbaric sport such as football. There is also a great majority of parents in our area, that think their 5'8 150lb 13-15 year old is going to be the next basketball or baseball superstar and doesn't want them participating in football because they might ruin their full ride to every Division 1 program that might become interested in their kid when he hits puberty.

Only to find that their son by his junior year isn't as good as their expertise suspected and all the thousands of dollars that were spent playing AAU basketball or select baseball in the summer hasn't produced any fruit when it comes to high school varsity game time in either sport, realizing that it was nothing more than huge waste of time and money.

By the time that they figure out that their kid probably would have been better off playing football (and every other sport that they could have/should have participated in) because they would have been in the weight room more and would have become a more well rounded athlete, Little Johnny is now undersized, mediocre athlete and miles from where he should be in terms of football because all the other kids in his class and classes below him have been playing the entire time. Mommy and daddy don't want him to start playing his junior or senior year because he'd be inferior to the other kids that have been doing this longer than him and he wouldn't feel comfortable and his mental health would be in jeopardy due to the possibility of failing.

In my own experience we have 5-10 kids in every class, year in and year out that don't play for one of the reasons listed above and we just shake our heads every year at graduation knowing that they could have contributed to the team throughout their tenure in high school, yet they will always be in the "never was" category because they were just too precious or by their daddy's terms "too valuable" to the basketball or baseball team to come out and play a mans game.

Side Note: The parents of said children will always be those idiots sitting in the bar telling everyone that "had my kid played", we would have won more games, scored more touchdowns, been a better running back, quarter back, etc than any of the kids who actually sacked up and came out and played.....These morons have only themselves to blame and should be tarred and feathered and run out of town.

END RANT

Thanks