I am friends with freshman coaches at Fort Dodge. They've had 2 freshman games cancelled (MC, Waterloo East) because of low numbers in the freshman class. Is that becoming common? And what happens to these programs in the future? They said so far all of their district opponents, who are much smaller than the 2 that cancelled, have said they'll play freshman games.
Freshman level
- Thread starter DodgerAlum
- Start date
I don't think sometimes it is that they don't have enough freshman in particular but overall they only have enough for a varsity and JV games. Which I guess is being more honest then the schools who would play their sophomores (not just like a few of the lesser ones) in a freshman game.
At many schools declining participation in FB is more the norm and as such we will probably begin seeing schools transitioning to varsity & JV teams vs varsity, sophs and freshman. In fact, up until five years ago our school fielded two freshmen teams, in addition to 40-50 sophomores and 70+ varsity…..those days are gone.
Concussion fears have certainly impacted football numbers overall in recent years. There's also increasing pressure to specialize and I think that pressure is higher at the bigger schools. Small school coaches know they need to support multi-sport athletes or they may not have enough for their programs. So, maybe these schools need to look at cutting back to JV/Varsity only.
The sad part, from the OP's post is that surely these schools knew their numbers were down last spring. It's either lazy or rude to let the games be scheduled and then cancel them, leaving schools with no ability to reschedule.
The sad part, from the OP's post is that surely these schools knew their numbers were down last spring. It's either lazy or rude to let the games be scheduled and then cancel them, leaving schools with no ability to reschedule.
I don't think the fear of concussions is as prevalent as people think. Yes it is an issue but I think a lot of people understand that the game of football is safer than ever before. I think the biggest issues impacting football numbers are:
1. Technology and Media, we live in an instant gratification world, with football that doesn't always happen, and this isn't just football, this is all activities, all sports, and fine arts activities have lower participation then 20 years ago.
2. Specialization, so many kids think they are D1 in a sport, when most aren't and so many D1 basketball or baseball players actually play football because they are great athletes.
3. Football is hard at any level. I am not saying other sports are easy all can be hard when played at a high level. But football is harder for middle school kids then a sport like basketball, anyone can get lucky and make a shot once and a while and feel good about themselves, football doesn't offer the same. Cross country is an everyone participates sport where most of the race you can hide because you aren't necessarily in front of a crowd. How often at a XC meet does the last place finisher get cheered to the finish line like the are good, when they really aren't.
1. Technology and Media, we live in an instant gratification world, with football that doesn't always happen, and this isn't just football, this is all activities, all sports, and fine arts activities have lower participation then 20 years ago.
2. Specialization, so many kids think they are D1 in a sport, when most aren't and so many D1 basketball or baseball players actually play football because they are great athletes.
3. Football is hard at any level. I am not saying other sports are easy all can be hard when played at a high level. But football is harder for middle school kids then a sport like basketball, anyone can get lucky and make a shot once and a while and feel good about themselves, football doesn't offer the same. Cross country is an everyone participates sport where most of the race you can hide because you aren't necessarily in front of a crowd. How often at a XC meet does the last place finisher get cheered to the finish line like the are good, when they really aren't.
I agree that all 3 of those are concerns. However, I do think that the concussion fear (not actual concussions) are keeping kids from going out. It starts well before high school though. Both parents, but mainly mothers do not want their boys getting a concussion, so they have them go out for a sport like soccer versus football.
Which is weird when you consider the concussion potential in soccer is also pretty high, although probably not as high as football (although I'm seeing a 1997 study of college players that found 46% of soccer players had concussion symptoms during their season, as compared to 34% of football players).
