Missouri
11-Man Football
2006-2007 329 schools 23,011 participants
2016-2017 333 schools 21,210 participants (-8%)
11-Man Football
2006-2007 329 schools 23,011 participants
2016-2017 333 schools 21,210 participants (-8%)
Participation Drop. Any Thoughts?
- Thread starter JNreturns
- Start date
That is part of it, another reason is other things for kids to do that doesn't take work, like gaming.
Princeton had 50 last year (44 from Princeton, 6 from Mercer). Looks to be in the low 40s this year, mainly because an unusually big senior class (13 or 14) graduated and the incoming 8th graders are a bit fewer. Hope the end of that sentence didn't confuse anyone; it did me!
Carthage posted record numbers with 98 kids out last fall. They also had 60-65 tryout for soccer before they made cuts to 40-45 players.
You know 98 kids does not sound bad, but Carthage has what 1200 kids out so probable 600 boys walking the halls that would be 150 boys per class.....
I remember back in the 80's it was nothing for Monett to have close to 80 kids out for football and that included freshman, and our enrollment was only 400 kids.
General decline of work ethic; in football you have to lift weights, sweat, generally be uncomfortable. What fun is that for a youngster who doesn’t want to put down the iPhone or venture out of the air conditioning.
Year round “select” travel baseball.
Fear of head injuries making parents not allow their kid to play.
Year round “select” travel baseball.
Fear of head injuries making parents not allow their kid to play.
Bad parenting.
I remember one time I had a parent accost me about their eighth-grade son who was a kicker who swore up and down he was being recruited by Notre Dame. Said he was the No. 1 kicker in the nation and was upset with me because I apparently was missing out on something really Special. I went and watched a junior high game and he couldn't kick it to the 20 on kickoffs. The kid ended up transferring, most likely because he was told he wasn't going to start the following year as a freshman.
Way too many parents in today's society thinks Johnny is incredibly talented and special, and thinks he should start as a freshman, should be all-state as a sophomore, be offered by Alabama as a junior.
Football is not a sport that often lends itself to varsity success as a freshman or even sophomore and nobody thinks their kid should be playing on the freshman team as a freshman or on the JV as a sophomore, let alone on the JV as a junior.
It's much easier to play at the varsity level at a younger age in other sports, so that's where superstar Johnny lands.
20-30 years ago, freshmen rarely played at the varsity level in any sport and kids and parents were much more willing to wait their turn. Not today.
Beyond that, this is the same society that the Pentagon says 71% percent of draft age youths are ineligible for military service because they are too Fing Fat. This is the same society where parents sit at the end of the driveway to pick their child up when they get off the school bus. It's too much for special Johnny to walk the length of the driveway to the house.
But those kids are going to play football? Doubtful.
We are a narcissistic, self absorbed society that mostly plays athletics for attention, not the love of the game, and I blame parents for the declining numbers in football, and pretty much every other problem in amateur athletics.
Rant over.
I remember one time I had a parent accost me about their eighth-grade son who was a kicker who swore up and down he was being recruited by Notre Dame. Said he was the No. 1 kicker in the nation and was upset with me because I apparently was missing out on something really Special. I went and watched a junior high game and he couldn't kick it to the 20 on kickoffs. The kid ended up transferring, most likely because he was told he wasn't going to start the following year as a freshman.
Way too many parents in today's society thinks Johnny is incredibly talented and special, and thinks he should start as a freshman, should be all-state as a sophomore, be offered by Alabama as a junior.
Football is not a sport that often lends itself to varsity success as a freshman or even sophomore and nobody thinks their kid should be playing on the freshman team as a freshman or on the JV as a sophomore, let alone on the JV as a junior.
It's much easier to play at the varsity level at a younger age in other sports, so that's where superstar Johnny lands.
20-30 years ago, freshmen rarely played at the varsity level in any sport and kids and parents were much more willing to wait their turn. Not today.
Beyond that, this is the same society that the Pentagon says 71% percent of draft age youths are ineligible for military service because they are too Fing Fat. This is the same society where parents sit at the end of the driveway to pick their child up when they get off the school bus. It's too much for special Johnny to walk the length of the driveway to the house.
But those kids are going to play football? Doubtful.
We are a narcissistic, self absorbed society that mostly plays athletics for attention, not the love of the game, and I blame parents for the declining numbers in football, and pretty much every other problem in amateur athletics.
Rant over.
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For maybe a dozen years or so, I've interviewed a Senior football player as part of our Thursday afternoon coach's show. Most years, I'd have to double up on seniors for a few weeks to get them all in during a 10 week season.
For the first time since I've done the interviews, it looks like I'll have more weeks than seniors. Lower numbers come around once in a while.
Point for discussion: is the outpouring of concern over concussions a worry and one of the causes for reduced numbers? Ironically here, we've had more concussions in soccer of the last few years than we've had in football
For the first time since I've done the interviews, it looks like I'll have more weeks than seniors. Lower numbers come around once in a while.
Point for discussion: is the outpouring of concern over concussions a worry and one of the causes for reduced numbers? Ironically here, we've had more concussions in soccer of the last few years than we've had in football
How anyone can coach at the same school for 25-30 years and have consistent success is still a remarkable achievement.
Two years ago I worked concessions at a soccer game, two soccer players collide and hit head to head. One of them took some time to get up and when he did you could see he was having issues. Well with no trainer on the sideline after he sat for a few minutes he went back in. After the game he was puking in the parking lot. I am sure that kid had a concussion but I rarely see a trainer at soccer games locally and nobody preformed a concussion test on either player. What studies have been done prove that headers are dangerous, but you don't hear about that yet.
When football dies, I hope the Soccer board is as tolerant of off-sport discussion as this board has become.
Need to just start every school year with kids and parents and explain that there are inherent risks of injury in ANY sport, hell, just existing carries significant risk.
Basketball is a contact sport. Football is a COLLISION sport. I’d love to have more kids participate, but kids that aren’t into football are just injuries waiting to happen. Idk how many injuries I’ve seen over the years that involved a kid giving half effort and they ended up getting smashed.
I think that's more of an excuse... I think it's more a case of TDL... too damn lazy ;-)
Some of it has to do with the community support and emphasis on sports in general. When you get a culture where the athletes are playing for the town in general just as much for themselves then you won't see a drop. This year in fact , Webb City has an all time high for players 10-12 I think about 110. Lamar has enjoyed huge numbers for a small school in a town that has lost all it's major industrial jobs which is astonishing but probably not sustainable.
Several years ago my cousin played for St. Mary's Colgan in Pittsburg , ks. He said they had 68 boys in their hs and 64 played football and 2 were equipment managers
Several years ago my cousin played for St. Mary's Colgan in Pittsburg , ks. He said they had 68 boys in their hs and 64 played football and 2 were equipment managers
The increasing amount of year-around opportunities to play their favorite sport has some athletes cutting down on the number of sports they play. Baseball players can play in summer and fall leagues, soccer can play summer leagues, and indoor winter leagues, etc. The times, they are a changing.
Which is the reason overuse injuries are on the rise.
Any parent who cites CTE as a reason not to let their kid play football should be equally worried about their kid having to have Tommyjohn surgery at age 15 because they've been playing 10 months of baseball a year, every year since they were 6 years old.
This thread of a pretty good indicator of what's wrong with football. Instead of acknowledging the potential CTE issue and trying to do something about it, you just badmouth everything else. Yes other sports do have potential injury problems. And yes people do different things today than in years past. But ranting about those things does nothing to help football's cause. Try making the sport safer and promoting the positives that come from participation instead of just putting down those that don't fall in step with you and you might see positive results.
Football IS inherently dangerous, I dont think anyone has said otherwise. The thing is, driving is dangerous, soccer and cheerleading are dangerous, EVERYTHING carries some risk.
Take away football and all that will happen is the liberal media will start a witch hunt on some other sport.
I can't wait for "Cheerleading is too dangerous for our children", and statistically it is. The highest rate of injuries occur in cheerleaders.
I attend and cover all high school sports in my town, and I've seen injuries occur in all sports, well with the exception of golf. I don't remember anyone on our golf teams being injured while playing.
I really hope so too. Not sure if I can see Bosko relating to soccer very well. Perhaps we will see some soccer documentary stars show up though!
The sports landscape is pretty different now than when many kids, even those who weren't particularly athletic would participate just because it was one of few opportunities to interact and socialize. Today a kid can just go home and get sucked into technology whether its social media, netflix, tv, gaming, porn, and be just as entertained at home alone in the a/c. It's hard for a physically demanding sport to compete in the bizarre world in which teens live these days unless the kid has specific athletic ambitions.
It also seems like specializing in one sport (specifically baseball) is more of a thing now. Almost every family I know has kids in baseball and many are doing travel teams especially those in Webb City. I know very few families with kids in football. Many parents of elementary age kids that I know won't let their kids play. And I think a lot of kids just aren't interested because it's not as much of a "thing" as it once was. Baseball seems to be what kids are doing more of. At least around here. But I still think activities as a whole are declining because of reasons already listed. Football just more than others.
It also seems like specializing in one sport (specifically baseball) is more of a thing now. Almost every family I know has kids in baseball and many are doing travel teams especially those in Webb City. I know very few families with kids in football. Many parents of elementary age kids that I know won't let their kids play. And I think a lot of kids just aren't interested because it's not as much of a "thing" as it once was. Baseball seems to be what kids are doing more of. At least around here. But I still think activities as a whole are declining because of reasons already listed. Football just more than others.
Good discussion in this thread...and while potential injuries are a problem in football as well as many other sports (several studies say soccer is more dangerous)...I don't think football and other sports are anymore dangerous now than they were when participation numbers were at at an all-time high.
LINK: http://thelariatonline.com/soccer-is-more-dangerous-than-football/
http://www.foxnews.com/opinion/2017...yeah-lets-go-after-all-american-football.html
I think the dwindling numbers are due to several factors, many which are listed in the thread...but the #1 reason to me is the TIME we are demanding to participate...and the OVER-SATURATION of youth sports and the time commitment they demand as well.
Kids feel like they have to choose a sport rather than playing them all and they get burned -out. Lots of kids feel like HS sports aren't fun anymore...the sports they play feel more like a job.
When I played HS football...it started August 15th and you put it away when your season ended in late October and moved on to basketball or wrestling. Ditto when the winter sports were over and you moved on to a Spring sport, usually track or baseball.
In my day...It was refreshing and fun to change sports with the seasons...and kids pretty much had their Summers to themselves for work, vacations, R&R and time to "just be a kid."
In short...I think we have reached a point of "diminishing returns" on the time commitment we are demanding of our high school athletes...in ALL sports...not just football.
Sadly...some kids drop out of sports before they even get to high school because youth coaches and over zealous parents who have unrealistic visions of scholarships and pro contracts burn them out when they are just kids.
LINK: http://thelariatonline.com/soccer-is-more-dangerous-than-football/
http://www.foxnews.com/opinion/2017...yeah-lets-go-after-all-american-football.html
I think the dwindling numbers are due to several factors, many which are listed in the thread...but the #1 reason to me is the TIME we are demanding to participate...and the OVER-SATURATION of youth sports and the time commitment they demand as well.
Kids feel like they have to choose a sport rather than playing them all and they get burned -out. Lots of kids feel like HS sports aren't fun anymore...the sports they play feel more like a job.
When I played HS football...it started August 15th and you put it away when your season ended in late October and moved on to basketball or wrestling. Ditto when the winter sports were over and you moved on to a Spring sport, usually track or baseball.
In my day...It was refreshing and fun to change sports with the seasons...and kids pretty much had their Summers to themselves for work, vacations, R&R and time to "just be a kid."
In short...I think we have reached a point of "diminishing returns" on the time commitment we are demanding of our high school athletes...in ALL sports...not just football.
Sadly...some kids drop out of sports before they even get to high school because youth coaches and over zealous parents who have unrealistic visions of scholarships and pro contracts burn them out when they are just kids.
I think I just found an answer to a lot of today’s problems....just read a Facebook post for 9u girls softball tryouts for next spring season. States that girls who make the squad will play 8-10 tournaments next summer.
9 years old and going to travel to 8-10 tournaments! Freaking crazy. When are people going to learn that even with all this year round ball, traveling to tournaments, spending thousands of dollars, that there are still the same number of scholarships, college, and professional teams out there.
9 years old and going to travel to 8-10 tournaments! Freaking crazy. When are people going to learn that even with all this year round ball, traveling to tournaments, spending thousands of dollars, that there are still the same number of scholarships, college, and professional teams out there.
Edge Guy you just nailed it. I give you a 10 for that analysis and summary!
If we returned to that system we would have more participating and they would have more fun just as you said.
We arent really doing much more than we did in the 1990s. We lifted twice a week, played 7 on 7 and had 2 weeks of summer camp in 1994. The difference is not football demands. Its summer basketball and travel baseball. We also start the school year and our season earlier.
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All in the name of chasing a $3K discount on a $30K/year tuition at a school you’ve never heard of … many of those schools would give a homeless person cleaning out trash cans a bat, glove and $3K discount on tuition just to fill seats.
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Well said. Funny how all these kids play travelling baseball but ==
You can save more money by just going to a junior college and using the A+ program. I bet at our school, only 25% of graduates who go on to play at the next level actually stick with the sport.
Travel baseball....We had a pretty good kid play for us one year in youth, next year he was not there for signups. So I called his dad to see what was going on, Dad said the kid told him he was tired and didn't want to play football, he had played over 80 games of travel baseball. I said well let him rest up and we look forward to seeing him next year. Next thing I know 4 kids in that grade drop out and a few more ask for their money back, I ask them why and what is going on, and they say that the same dad is starting a traveling Baseball team for the fall and told them if they don't play this fall he cannot guarantee them a spot on the team in the spring. I think youth sports should be season only...
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You know all my daughter wanted to do was play softball, so I let her for the most part, but I told her you will play other sports in high school no matter what, So she played basketball and ran track. Told her, you can take lessons year round if you want as long as they don't interfere with school work and the other sports.
She got her scholarship and came to me before basketball season and said dad I don't want to play because I am afraid I will get hurt and lose my scholarship plus I don't like basketball. I told her you don't play you get a job, but to remember this could be the last year she every would get to play on a basketball team, these times are rare and she will regret it. Well she didn't play, but she came home here freshmen year in college and we went to watch a high school basketball game, the first words out of her mouth was she regretted not playing that last year. If only they would listen....
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