Are your numbers down for football?

[richaboli]

If you talk to big-high-school athletes they say they want to participate in other sports but are discouraged by coaches to do that. That is too much like what communist nations do..... tell kids they have to specialize in something when they're not anywhere close to being an adult yet.
Smaller high schools need as many athletic participants as they can get to field competitive teams. Hooray for them! Let kids be kids and participate in as many sports as they want. You're only a kid once. It's your time to experience and enjoy as many things as you can in life! You'll later have the rest of your life to specialize in something. And being most interested in high school football, I have to add, other sports during the year helps keep athletes in shape for football!

[Manfred]

A great example of the multi-sport "athlete" in these parts is Luke Gallaher. Tremendous local talent in basketball, very good in baseball, and decides to try out for the high jump at his little sisters' urging. All he did, is now local legend. jumps in the final 2 meets of his junior season, wins the district and state titles, then repeats his senior season, and is now having a very good season jumping for Pitt. At times, it seemed he was stressing by competing in 3 sports at the same time, but it resolved itself.

[psycho]

Here are some facts:

1. We have lost our manufacturing base, as has the entire rust belt (including all of western PA)
2. The number of school age kids has dropped almost 60% in the Greater Johnstown metro area siince the early 70's. I think the same has occurred all over western PA.
3. There are 15 public school districts within 25 miles of Central Park in Johnstown -- the same number that existed in 1970.
4. The average high school in the greater johnstown area graduates 90 kids. The same has happened all across western PA. Penn Hills had 6000 students in the 70's. Today there may be 2000.
5. Numbers are down across the board in football and with the decline in numbers the competition has become pathetic in many areas.
6. Last year saw the fewest number of Divsion 1 football signees EVER from western PA.
7. There are now fewer western PA kids playing D1 football than ever -- and it continues to get worse. Big 10 rosters include a TOTAL of ONLY 18 scholarshipped players from western PA -- Illinios - 1; Indiana - 0; Iowa - 0; Michigan - 2; Mich State - 4; Minnesota - 0; Nebraska 0; Northwestern - 1; Ohio State - 2; Penn State - 0 in freshman class, 5 scholarshipped overall; Purdue - 0; Wisconsin - 3. Of these scholarshipped players on BIG 10 rosters only 4 are freshman. The state of Connecticuit now produces more D1 football players than western PA.
8. Western PA was consistently the # 1, 2, or 3 recruiting destination for Division 1 college football. It is now not even be in the top 20.

[d6footballfan]

Psycho hits all the nails on the head. the numbers are not the same in west PA as the 70's. I can see why conversations about co-ops and private club programs are on their way up and in Western PA due to these declining numbers, bad economic conditions for public schools and specialization of athletes. The tides of change are here.

[Guru]

I think that contact football for anyone under 7th grade is pure stupidity. Speaking from 46 years in football, all but 6 of them as a player or a on the sidelines, there is little or no benefit from playing at that age. All of the men in my family played or are playing College football and none of us played before 7th grade. So, burnout is an issue just like it is in my favorite sport, wrestling.... Or is it? Maybe only the strong survive and that is why the numbers are down?

As for only 4 bowl games... You are incorrect unless you meant to say, on New Years Day... That used to be my favorite day of the year! However, there were many bowl games when we were kids, just not 500 channels and ESPN to cover them! As for 70 teams worthy of a bowl game... They all don't belong but many more teams are able to compete because of Title IX, which has brought parity to the D1 teams, who don't cheat, and it has also made D2 more competitive. Back when JoePa and Bear were young men they had rosters of 130 STUDS. Now, they only have 85 on scholarship so those surplus studs went to other D1 programs, and the kids they displaced trickled down to D2.

As for FH going to single A.... I could be wrong, even though I rarely am, that FH is only one male student in grades 9-11, from being a AAA school. With their new school, turf field, field house and tradition of kicking everyone's azz, they will never be A.

Finally, any red blooded American male on BleacherCoaches should be banned for life to even suggest that there is too much football on TV!

But hey, we are all entitled to our opinions, until China overthrows us anyway.

Have a great night guys... and ladies.

[richaboli]

The highest eligible male enrollment for class A is currently 185.
Forest Hills High School reported a male enrollment of 251.
Forest Hills Middle School reported a male enrollment of 236.
In enrollment terms, that's a long way from 185.
Forest Hills will stay AA for a long time unless Obama does something drastic to scare people out of there. Things in this country are seriously falling apart. Destroying coal mining is just the beginning.

[WPIAL~Titan]

Agreed that there should be no contact football for kids prior to 7th grade. The vast majority of contact football programs below junior high are a joke. Uninformed coaches running 2-a-days, giving elementary kids salt pills while also withholding water breaks to "toughen them up", and lining up 6/7/8 year old kids for Oklahoma drills isn't my idea of teaching football to young kids...and unfortunately I have had the horror of witnessing all 3 things. There will be plenty of time for hitting/contact later. Buffoons like those guys should be banned from coaching youth sports for life.

Just allow the younger kids play flag and teach them the basics of throwing, catching, pass patterns, basic rules, and footwork for linemen.

One successful AAAA school in District 1 runs a flag football league with two divisions (grades 3/4 and 5/6.) they teach the basics I mention above, but almost as importantly, it helps to build TRADITION and memories for the kids. Imagine having a star player run your station or coaching your team! The junior high coaches coordinated the program, and the varsity juniors and seniors ran the clinics and games on Sundays from 12-1PM. It really built a lot of community and worked well.

Furthermore, there was no way I was letting my kids be subjected to the lunacy (some mentioned above) known as youth football coaches and parents.

My son never played before 7th grade either and he's doing just fine as an OL at a AAAA school.

[Eaglealum]

Wow, 2/3 last post agreed with something I thought that I was the only one that thought that way. Thanks for that anyway.

[Coach]

This has turned into a dream thread for me. I share MANY of the same thoughts that Guru brought up and Titan reinforced.

[El-Moldo]

Couple of comments about Guru's last posts. Maybe there WERE more than 4 bowls back in the day. Until the mid-60's there were 8 or so. But how many were on TV??? The football bowl exposure was negligible in those days. The point is, we are now saturated with the sport. Even the most die-hard football fan can sense it. As far as contact football for kids under 7th grade, what we did at that age in someone's backyard was far more dangerous that organized pee wee football which goes on today. Let's face it, there are so few kids around nowadays, that if a kid wants to play some football, he HAS to join a league. Not so much to learn the sport, but just to get him out of the house. It's NOT a bad thing for boys to play boy games, even if they don't learn anything at that age. And just for the heck of it, was it Title IX that set the parameters for Division I college football scholarships at 85?