Numbers don’t always fall in football’s favor
Trending
The Leetonia school district's July 1 meeting to reassure the public that a football season would go forward is something that would be unheard of 20 years ago. It was taken for granted that at least 20-something kids would come out for the football team. Coaches might say we're a little thin or inexperienced back then but there was rarely an instance where a school would not at least start the season fully intending to play a full slate of games.
But a new era is upon us. The shrinking of the footprint of high school football is getting more apparent by the year and more programs will struggle with finding enough numbers to fill teams in the future. It just won't be Leetonia.
I think we've heard all the reasons before about why this is happening. Some say the kids aren't tough enough anymore. Some say developmental programs aren't like they used to be. Some say communities aren't as attached to the romance of 'Friday Night Lights' anymore as the social aspect has been replaced by that phone you carry in your hand.
I think though it might be a death by a thousand cuts for small districts fielding football teams. There is no centralized reason why some football traditions are just hanging on by a thread.
On paper, it's the numbers game. Smaller enrollments mean there are smaller pools of potential players. There's only a certain percentage of the student body who can perform as athletes just like there's only a certain portion that can be musicians. And when those margins shrink the challenge to round up everyone who can possibly play just to field a team -- let alone field a winning team -- is daunting.
If you look back on the era in which the current high school athletes were born, the country was in the midst of a significant economic downturn from 2007-2010. It was challenging to begin raising a family then when nationwide unemployment soared to 10 percent.
Then there's what is motivating children to play football. We are now several years removed from cable television's heyday. If you were from a previous generation the fantasy that you wanted to be your college or NFL hero started by watching them on TV. Children of today's era might not have access to expensive streaming plans or know how to work an antenna. Netflix has some sports content, but you are looking at a generation raised on YouTube. Sports highlights are something that are seen on TikTok or Instagram. Live event observation is something older generations revel in.
And when you have access to literally any interest in the world, it's easy to see how attentions become divided. Kids get attracted to playing different sports. Some get interested in cars, construction or cooking. Some get plugged into video games which are more complex and all consuming than they have ever been.
Educational patterns have also shifted. I remember covering Crestview's run to the 2021 state championship game in boys soccer. There were a lot of kids on that team who were not on a traditional education path. They would take on educational programs attached to the trades and a lot of those had significant work requirements. Sports were not a top priority, rather an escape. And the program had to make room for those kids to miss practice or training every once in a while.
As football is more regimented and asks of more time, does that become a reason why students decide to skip and instead focus more on a career path that will set them up for future success?
The safety concerns over head trauma and concussions may have quieted but they have not gone away. Some parents don't want to deal with the risk and some kids are happy to go play another sport that offers the same life lessons without the baggage of possible serious head injuries.
I think too that specialization in sports plays a role. Football needs athletes who play in multiple disciplines to be successful. Take West Branch's program for example. A lot of the players on the 2024 state championship baseball team were also key members of the football team. That's not always the case anymore in many communities. If a kid is specializing in a sport like baseball or basketball wherein the parents are paying thousands of dollars to attend travel events and get private instruction, the focus gets a lot more narrow of the athlete. They have specific investments behind them and the goals tend to be squarely placed on making it to the next level in that sport.
Make no mistake about it, if programs do begin to fold there are ripple effects. It might start with league membership. It would certainly wipe out marching band or cheerleading programs in some places. Community identity might begin to wither away. And what do you do with stadiums, some of which have been recently upgraded?
There are solutions that are being bantered about of course. Eight-man football is one that has popped up as a possibility. Sebring took that route. But area coaches who have worked their whole lives in 11-man environments would much rather transition to other 11-man programs than to have to deal with learning how that works. Plus the eight-man experiment in Ohio is far from being widely adopted. For it to become viable, it would need dozens of struggling schools to all meet and agree to go in that direction at once. And that is not happening.
The most obvious solution that is already is there is if a school does not offer football, any student is welcome to join a neighboring school district's team. Heck, last year Columbiana's leading rusher was a student at Heartland Christian. Of course, there are transportation and social challenges that come with being plopped into a new environment for any kid but at least it the dream of playing 11-man football alive for any student in Ohio.
Perhaps the Ohio High School Athletic Association can take some of its war chest in funds and study why kids are shying away from football. Maybe even allow struggling programs to break off and run a rehabilitation division where programs don't have to worry about computer points and playoffs. Perhaps those games could be more run like scrimmages to allow for more teaching moments.
There is precedent for getting teams back on square footing even in this area. I remember when the Inter-Tri County League came into existence. A lot of the teams that went into the lower tier of that league had been through a lot of hard times. But teams like Western Reserve or Southern started to flourish when they were given a chance to breathe.
I don't believe anyone quite has the answers that would fix this but it would be best to start looking beyond the stereotypical excuses given.