Waterloo East Forfeits To Cedar Falls

[KidSilverhair]

Waterloo East has canceled their game with Cedar Falls tonight. Apparently injuries at the end of the season, coupled with a lack of numbers from the start, left them without enough healthy players to field a team. When is the last time a 4A program had to cancel a varsity game due to a lack of players, I wonder?

We've been seeing football numbers drop at many schools the past couple of years. In 3A, where I see games each week, there have been multiple games where schools are dressing 35, 30, even 25 players for varsity games. And plenty of JV/sophomore/freshman games are being canceled as well. It's a disappointing trend, and absolutely something to be aware of in coming years.

http://www.kwwl.com/story/33432297/2016/10/Wednesday/east-forced-to-cancel-game-with-cedar-falls

 

[KidSilverhair]

Think of the potential impact on playoffs, as well. CF is now 5-1 in the district with the forfeit win. If CR Washington beats Waterloo West tomorrow, they both finish 5-1 as well for a three-way tie. The points tiebreaker comes into play. Now, CF had no shot with that tiebreaker even with a 17-point win over East, thanks to their 4-point win last week. But, if CF had beaten CR Jefferson by double digits last week, this forfeit (which I believe counts as a 1-0 win) would have killed the Tigers' chances in that tiebreaker.

These declining player numbers are really a shame. I was talking to a girls' basketball coach (assistant football coach as well) a couple of weeks ago, and he said he's seen far more concussion/head injuries in basketball than he's ever seen in football. While I do believe coaches, parents and doctors need to be aware of and careful with head trauma in football, I don't personally believe the vast, vast majority of high school players are going to see issues with this. Those players who are good enough to move on to major college (and then, perhaps, professional) football might see enough accumulated head trauma - but probably not in high school.

On the other hand - I am not a doctor and my opinion is just that, an opinion.

 

[PNation]

Forfeit counts as a 17-0 win

 

[KidSilverhair]

Ah, well ... guess I should have checked the IAHSAA manuals before I ran my mouth. Makes sense to give the max tiebreaker score for a forfeit, just to avoid that very situation.

 

[straw1397]

Sophomore football needs to turn into JV football.
There are not enough bodies to continue to have 4 levels of play.
Varsity would be 10-12 grade
JV would be made up of mainly 10 graders and non starting 11-12 graders
Freshmen would stay the same.
Most schools already have a soph. staff. They would become the JV staff.
Games could be played Thur just like many soph games now and the freshmen games could be the early Friday game.

Thoughts?

 

[matodd8032]

This trend concerns me a lot. The numbers at Washington and Jefferson are trending down towards what Waterloo East is experiencing. I believe the high school coaching staffs must be more involved with the elementary and middle school programs. They need to engage the parents, coaches and players and get them more invested in the program. Also, I believe Washington had approximately 18 sophomores not go out for their junior seasons. Their reasons for not going out varied but I think lack of potential playing time versus the amount of time invested was a big issue. It seems to me the JV games need to be promoted more so that kids can get time on the field and develop into varsity players.

 

[PNation]

It is a different culture compared to even 10 years ago, it used to be a kid just wanted to be part of a team, that isn't true anymore in a lot of schools.

 

[Dragon7678]

I think you're really starting to see a multitude of issues that are resulting in big drops in participation numbers and we're seeing it across the state. Factor in the whole concussion epidemic in the media there are many parents that just won't let their kids participate in a contact sport like football. It does take a tremendous time commitment and kids anymore just aren't willing to put in that amount of time... Sadly I believe this is something we'll begin to see more frequently especially in teams that have not had any success on the field, numbers are always poor when you aren't doing well but this just makes it worse.

At least in Central Iowa I don't think you're seeing many teams playing a JV and a soph schedule anymore, many teams are either playing true sophomore teams or playing a JV team in a "sophomore" schedule. Des Moines North cancelled their soph schedule and played their JV against a freshman schedule. Des Moines Hoover cancelled their freshman schedule and played a soph schedule.

 

[EastIowaHawk]

Concussions are part of it, but it is as much change in culture as anything. The concussions are real. Mike Reilly from Dubuque, who was a star at Iowa and played for the Bears and Vikings, and was a sports commentator on WMT with Ron Gonder, is now in a nursing home and doesn't even recognize his old friends. I remember a kid from Wahlert who went out with a concussion a few years ago and somebody decided to get a CT brain scan to be safe, and everyone was shocked when it showed that the boy was bleeding into his brain and they rushed him to Iowa City. But the culture is the biggest thing. In Dubuque in the fall there is youth hockey, cross country (which is big) and a hoard of kids playing early basketball. In fact, in almost every Dubuque school at every level, basketball outnumbers football by participation numbers, in some grades by 2 or 3 to 1. I truly believe that is why in certain Iowa communities/schools (public and private), where there are powerhouse football programs, it is because they have kept their numbers up, and of course have great coaching and support. It's sad, but when some schools consistently have losing records, it's hard to motivate some kids to participate, especially when because of dwindling numbers, the players are forced to play both ways (and some players aren't that good to start with) which increases injuries, which further depletes the teams and it becomes a vicious cycle. I do like the idea of JV teams.

 

[PNation]

I wish the media would also mention that the game is the safest that it has ever been, with so much more knowledge on the subject than we knew in the 60-90s where you see a lot of the trouble steaming from. But instead they make it sound like the game is more and more unsafe which is simply untrue.

 

[woodsiding]

The number problems are brand new to football because we're seeing the first generation of club football kids in high school. Club sports dwindle the numbers. Every year another handful of kids stop playing, until by the time you get to high school you get what's left.

Football used to be the only sport staving off clubs and it should. There is no need to see who the hardest hitting 8,9, &10 year old is. the answer is the biggest kid. And that 'biggest kid' will beat the snot out of the smaller kids so they are done in football before their bodies even develop.

(Btw, this is a problem I see in CR, specifically Wash, Linn Mar, and Jefferson. Teams like Waterloo East have another slew of issues.)

 

[cm8124]

I've noticed the same, like others mentioned above it could be due to potential long term health concerns. Personally I know kids that just don't find it fun to work out and miss out on "experiences" in high school, really started once they started legalizing marijuana in some states... It's a bad trend I'm seeing personally, just last week while I attended the City v. Bett game the dancers or cheerleaders were fundraising a $5 olive garden buffet, which was amazing but I noticed these high school kids much larger than some of the kids on the football team enjoying the food. The group of alums I was with blamed coaching and how they aren't as involved... I personally don't buy that because I know Coach Sabers coaches track & field at the middle school.

just my thoughts

 

[Qued18]

So sorry to hear that about Mike Reilly..played with his son Jim at Wahlert back in the 80's.

 

[DavenportHawk8]

The number problems are brand new to football because we're seeing the first generation of club football kids in high school. Club sports dwindle the numbers. Every year another handful of kids stop playing, until by the time you get to high school you get what's left.

Football used to be the only sport staving off clubs and it should. There is no need to see who the hardest hitting 8,9, &10 year old is. the answer is the biggest kid. And that 'biggest kid' will beat the snot out of the smaller kids so they are done in football before their bodies even develop.

(Btw, this is a problem I see in CR, specifically Wash, Linn Mar, and Jefferson. Teams like Waterloo East have another slew of issues.)

Several schools in Illinois have dropped their "feeder" or youth football programs. One of the schools locally dropped it 5 years ago and this fall they had 60 freshman come out. They had been averaging 25-30 kids. This freshman group was the first group not to play any feeder football. These kids started in 7th grade and apparently coaches all agreed it was better for the program. Said in their junior high they have something like a 80% participation rate which is unreal.

4A schools should not be having a #'s problem. I think that Waterloo and other larger cities need to look at combing their programs. But I believe if they keep football in the Middle school level you will see numbers go back up. Too many kids are being subjective to contact at a young level and several kids are being told they are not good in 3-4-5th grades. One example is my co-workers son. Kid was chubby and slow in youth football. Coach wouldn't play him because he was too slow and coach was a prick. Now the kid is a sophomore in high school and stands 6-5 240lbs. He is a monster, but doesn't play football. He plays fall golf and basketball. Football coach has tried to get him to go out and he won't do it. pretty sad that the youth coach ruined his outlook on football.

 

[Hawksince73]

I don't know what other schools have for seniors but I saw last night that Kennedy had 36 for Senior Night.
I'm surprised to read that Linn-Mar is having participation problems, too. Demographic-wise, they're similar to Kennedy.

 

[KidSilverhair]

I don't know what other schools have for seniors but I saw last night that Kennedy had 36 for Senior Night.
I'm surprised to read that Linn-Mar is having participation problems, too. Demographic-wise, they're similar to Kennedy.

Frankly, Linn-Mar has had that issue for a while. Parents there seem to steer their kids towards basketball instead of football.

 

[Hawksince73]

Frankly, Linn-Mar has had that issue for a while. Parents there seem to steer their kids towards basketball instead of football.

Interesting that the biggest school in the area would have that issue. Had no idea. Thank you.

 

[woodsiding]

Frankly, Linn-Mar has had that issue for a while. Parents there seem to steer their kids towards basketball instead of football.

Linn Mar probably has more 4th graders than 12th graders playing football. Every year a big chunk of those kids quit. Their off season situation is a factor too. There's a number of kids and families that do not want to be around them. Families in Linn Mar don't steer kids to basketball, it's simply that basketball doesn't ruin themselves from with in.

In my opinion, when the right staff get's in there, Linn Mar will dominate the east.

 

[makelovenotwar]

I suspect we are looking at a medium term (say, 10 years) decline in football at the high school and soon, small college level. Participation rates are down in high school athletics but they are way down in football. The decline in football participation is more extreme in wealthier, whiter and more liberal areas of the country. The marijuana reference above is a bit of a red herring. While I have read no data either direction (neither noting the link nor rejecting it) I suspect the real issue is that progressive drug laws are closely linked to wealthier and more liberal areas of the country. (That is NOT a critique, just an observation.)

The decline in high school will continue for the foreseeable future. In a decade or so, either the cultural fixation with concussions will, via education campaigns mellow out as people begin to understand the risks (while very, very real) are minimal compared to adolescent drug use or, honestly, adolescent driving. Or, football will die out in parts of the country...a victim to an interesting hysteria.

Humans in general and Americans in particular are amazingly bad at understanding risk. So all kinds of people worry about being killed by terrorists, airplane wrecks and football injuries. All, while ignoring random violence in their own city, refusing to take their car in to replace the recalled airbag, and turn a blind eye to their son's drug use and totally lethargic adolescent existence.

Yes, bobby might get hurt playing football (or, wrestling, playing basketball, volleyball, baseball, lacrosse......) Bobby is also a 17 year old with no understanding of his obligation to the greater community, no guidance, no work ethic, a father who is not around and too much time on his hands. I will take the risk of injury. But I am increasingly the minority.