Could 8-Man football have 50+ teams by 2030

[BIG_DAWG_96]

Having plenty of kids walking the hallways doesn’t mean you can get them all to come out for football. Participation numbers are down nationally for many reasons: Early specialization, the concussion scare, etc. Kids tend to like to watch football but playing is a different animal.
Basketball doesn’t seem to have an issue with participation for a few reasons but a big one (that doesn’t get mentioned often) is because the game to practice ratio is much higher. Meaning kids get to do more of what they enjoy (play games) and less of what they don’t enjoy (practice). Basketball plays 20+ games during the regular season. Many times kids are playing 2-3 games a week meaning there isn’t a lot of time for practice. Basketball participation numbers tend to stay pretty level whether a team is winning or losing, so we need to look into more reasons why participation in football is dropping other than wins and losses.
Even if a coach is well liked and respected, it doesn’t mean that he can still get numbers out. Winning doesn’t ensure that you’ll get numbers out. I was an assistant on a team that went to back-to-back state title games (the farthest this team has ever been) after coming off multiple losing seasons. After the first season playing for a state title we had The same number of kids out. The year after we won it all we had fewer. As a head coach I inherited a team that had one winning season in 5 years and coming off of a 1-9 and 2-8 record. My first season we had more kids out then they had in at least 10 years. The second season we had a winning season and lost to the eventual state champs in the district title game. Despite our school enrollment going up, the following season we had 10 fewer kids out for football. I was very active in recruiting the hallways and made it a point to talk to every male in the high school and invite them to come out. I had a great relationship with most of the students and was very well liked (didn’t matter). I live in a town where the high school enrollment is around 540 every year but they only average about 40-45 kids out for football every year and this is over a span of 4 different coaches. That is 8.33% of the student population. My current school has a grand total of 75 kids in the high school and we get around 20 out for football. That is 26.67% of the student population. Some towns are just “football” towns and always have large numbers and some are not. It makes a BIG difference when you have 40-45 kids out and play against teams that have 70 kids out. In many cases those 70 man teams can play a full Freshman and Junior Varsity schedule while the teams that have 40-45 out struggle to have 3 levels.

 

[DirtyDan17]

Would love to see some schools in southeast Missouri start 8 man teams. There's a ton who could and expansion of the sport is a good thing in my opinion.

 

[BearsCountry]

Would love to see some schools in southeast Missouri start 8 man teams. There's a ton who could and expansion of the sport is a good thing in my opinion.

I would like the enrollment level raised up. More schools could benefit from having 8 man football. Beats fall baseball any day of the week.

 

[HoopsTournament]

I would like the enrollment level raised up. More schools could benefit from having 8 man football. Beats fall baseball any day of the week.

Especially on Friday.

 

[Mike*Honcho]

Valle should go 8-man.

 

[KCHI]

Having plenty of kids walking the hallways doesn’t mean you can get them all to come out for football. Participation numbers are down nationally for many reasons: Early specialization, the concussion scare, etc. Kids tend to like to watch football but playing is a different animal.
Basketball doesn’t seem to have an issue with participation for a few reasons but a big one (that doesn’t get mentioned often) is because the game to practice ratio is much higher. Meaning kids get to do more of what they enjoy (play games) and less of what they don’t enjoy (practice). Basketball plays 20+ games during the regular season. Many times kids are playing 2-3 games a week meaning there isn’t a lot of time for practice. Basketball participation numbers tend to stay pretty level whether a team is winning or losing, so we need to look into more reasons why participation in football is dropping other than wins and losses.
Even if a coach is well liked and respected, it doesn’t mean that he can still get numbers out. Winning doesn’t ensure that you’ll get numbers out. I was an assistant on a team that went to back-to-back state title games (the farthest this team has ever been) after coming off multiple losing seasons. After the first season playing for a state title we had The same number of kids out. The year after we won it all we had fewer. As a head coach I inherited a team that had one winning season in 5 years and coming off of a 1-9 and 2-8 record. My first season we had more kids out then they had in at least 10 years. The second season we had a winning season and lost to the eventual state champs in the district title game. Despite our school enrollment going up, the following season we had 10 fewer kids out for football. I was very active in recruiting the hallways and made it a point to talk to every male in the high school and invite them to come out. I had a great relationship with most of the students and was very well liked (didn’t matter). I live in a town where the high school enrollment is around 540 every year but they only average about 40-45 kids out for football every year and this is over a span of 4 different coaches. That is 8.33% of the student population. My current school has a grand total of 75 kids in the high school and we get around 20 out for football. That is 26.67% of the student population. Some towns are just “football” towns and always have large numbers and some are not. It makes a BIG difference when you have 40-45 kids out and play against teams that have 70 kids out. In many cases those 70 man teams can play a full Freshman and Junior Varsity schedule while the teams that have 40-45 out struggle to have 3 levels.

In the town I live and work, we have had good number of athletes out for football in middle school, but those numbers don't always translate to freshmen football the following year. This season Chillicothe, and some other schools in the MEC went the "C" team route instead of the traditional 9th grade route due to numbers.
As for incoming freshmen, there are other opportunities for their time such as soccer, and other choices. I have no problem with kids doing what THEY want to do, not what others want them to do. There is also the time factor. Every sport head coach wants their athlete year around. If they are a two or three sport athlete with off season summer teams, the weight room, they probably want a job for some spending money, have a girl friend and so forth. There is only so many hours in a day and in the off season. Burn out at an early age?

 

[HoopsTournament]

“Every sport head coach wants their athlete year around.“

This is a problem. Coaches should encourage multiple sports, not discourage it.

 

[Curl/Flat Combo]

I am the Head Coach of a sport and "I do not want my kids all year around." So there goes that superlative! They need to play other sports. In a perfect world they would ALL wrestle or play basketball in the winter and play baseball, run track, or golf in the spring. What should ANY/ALL individuals (male or female) that call themselves an athlete do YEAR AROUND? Develop their bodies in strength training. Flexibility first, body balance second, and total body strength next. Unfortunately, there are several sport coaches that don't agree with that philosophy. Yes, I think they are morons. Have a great day.

 

[HoopsTournament]

I am the Head Coach of a sport and "I do not want my kids all year around." So there goes that superlative! They need to play other sports. In a perfect world they would ALL wrestle or play basketball in the winter and play baseball, run track, or golf in the spring. What should ANY/ALL individuals (male or female) that call themselves an athlete do YEAR AROUND? Develop their bodies in strength training. Flexibility first, body balance second, and total body strength next. Unfortunately, there are several sport coaches that don't agree with that philosophy. Yes, I think they are morons. Have a great day.

I wish all coaches had this mentality. I don't know if I would call them morons, but the better athletes are the ones that play multiple sports.

 

[Mike*Honcho]

I am the Head Coach of a sport and "I do not want my kids all year around." So there goes that superlative!

That's not how statistics works. What you provided is an anecdote which may or may not agree with the overall trend. If only 99% of head coaches want their athletes year around*, does that really change anything about this argument? No.

You should also look up the definition of superlative ("an exaggerated or hyperbolical expression of praise"; I don't see anyone being praised). Overgeneralization would have been a better word choice.

 

[CaptainBackslap]

If you want kids to not be burnt out by sports then there needs to be a limit on summer activities. If your football coach, basketball coach, and baseball coach takes 20 days of contact then not a lot of room for anything else. Mshsaa should only allow contact by coaches in season or heading into a particular sport in the summer. Summer could then be restricted to upcoming sports like football or soccer.

 

[bullitpdq68]

Specializing in one sport, I wonder now if the difference is also you are seeing coaches specialize in one sport? When I was in high school once you got done with Football if you played basketball our DC was also the head basketball coach, our head football coach was the wrestling coach, We had 6 guys coaching football who all coached other sports year round. Now your Basketball coach is only your basketball coach, he does that year round, your baseball coach is only your baseball coach and so on. Our staff today I don't see our coaches cross coaching many sports like in the past. So now instead of all these coaches working together and figuring out when they can work on their sport and their kids in between all the other sports they help coach, they are now free to work only on one sport for all year with their kids ....just a thought?

And you talk about a bound with your coaching and staff, I remember for three sports I basically had some coach from football coaching me.

 

[freezeoption]

I have been coaching for 28 years. When they allowed sports to take summer time I think that is when you started to see the decline of participation and specialize sports. Heck, Legion ball gets 60 some games. Then you have AAU basketball, then contact time for hs sports and camps and shoot outs and 7 on 7, etc. Then we add the increase in non school sports or activities and electronics. I think eventually, school sports is going to have to change, with funds declining in schools can you justify all the money spent for sports. Yes team work, sportsmanship all those things that come with playing sports is important, but when your school cant buy up to date textbooks, pay teachers a decent wage, cant get desks etc, is that more important than a third set of uniforms in 10 years. I would say the books and desks would be more important so the new unis are not. Either schools with low funds will have to cut back, drop or have club sports like in Europe.