Article about Football participation declining

[uvacavs1]

I read this article that was reprinted in the Richmond paper today. The title was "The fadeaway of football"

The great news is that the Virginia rate of lower football participation is not as bad as the national rate.

Over in 1A, in my area, it looks like King and Queen has sadly cancelled their football season. They are a small school but had some past success. Also, Charles City may be having some participation issues. There are some others on the borderline...

Any issues like this in 4A?

1) What will happen to all the non-revenue sports if the most popular sport, Football, has more schools not having enough kids to participate?

2) I was wondering if any folks have thoughts on this - I have been concerned the last few years that football may go the route of boxing - where the sport has to rely on more and more participants mainly from lower socioeconomic classes. It appears to be slowly moving in this direction in some places....

We all love and enjoy football - the media is really hyping up alot of this fear but there are some legitimate concerns-

anyway, here is the piece if interested..

https://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2017/10/06/us/ap-fbo-high-school-football-decline.html

 

[BleedingNavy]

Uvacavs1, your concerns are genuine. In the next five years I think you will see very low numbers in many areas. The reason I project this is due to the decrease in rec league teams. Many areas/counties went from four teams to just one per age group and have merged with other leagues.

The popularity of soccer, lacrosse, and concussion concerns are slowly taking its toll on our beloved game.

The VHSL should offer 6 man football for the schools with less than 250 students. It will keep the game alive. Texas has done it and its extremely popular. ESPN did a 30 for 30 on the texas league.

 

[Lafayette]

Down here Grafton for first time ever no JV team, too few players. But in going to Lafayette games I pass going to the stadium several fields used for the rec teams and each time there were 3 or 4 games going on for the 8-12 year old set with plenty of spectators in their chairs. It gave me the impression here in James City Co participation is still pretty high.

 

[ForksUp]

Great Bridge dressed 22 kids Friday. According to some of the GB fans, that number was an increase from the previous weeks 17.

The issue facing Great Bridge though, and Hickory shares this issue, is that once Grassfield was built it cut down their enrollment significantly.

 

[757FridayNiteZ]

Look for big redistricting changes in Chesapeake, VA. With some schools underutilized, another having bizarre, barbell shaped school zone and a school being added onto, the boundaries can't remain the way they are now.