x
Breaking News
More () »

Football participation on the decline

With each passing year, some area football coaches are continuing to see a decline in participation.

It's that time of year again, football season kicks off this week for high schools nationwide.

But with each passing year, some area coaches are continuing to see a decline in participation.

"We have 36 now in our top three grades," said Bill Inselmann, Patrick Henry head coach. "We used to be always mid to upper 40s, and then a separate freshman team."

Bill Inselmann is in his 26th year at the helm of Patrick Henry. He's seen football numbers dwindle the past two seasons.

This year is no exception.

With lower enrollment, the Patriots d ropped down a division. Inselmann said one factor is demographics.

"We are getting to be a smaller school district," he said. "We're not close to a big city, we're losing a lot of manufacturing jobs, a lot of the young kids are moving out of the district, so a lot of ours is demographics."

Coach Inslemann isn't the only one seeing a decline in roster numbers.

Over the past 10 years, the Ohio High School Athletic Association has reported a decline of 2,000 football players across the state. According to the JAMA Pediatrics, football participation peaked in 2008 at 1.11 million athletes, but has since declined by almost 5 percent in 2017.

"I think the questions that we see, 'Is it safe for my kid to play?' 'Do they have too many concussions?' 'Is this too severe of a concussion?' As a physician that's a hard question to answer," said Dr. Ryan Szepiela.

Ever since 2009 when the NFL acknowledged for the first time a link between concussions and long-term problems and then in 2015 when the movie "Concussion" came out, Dr. Ryan Szepiela has seen a growing amount of concern in parents.

"That's a concern for parents and the developing brain in the younger kids, is the other question, when's the right age to hit? And what should we be doing?'," he said.

Research shows the number of football players six years and older in tackle football has d ropped nearly 28 percent from 2010, following the NFL's admittance, to 2017.

With more research, education and awareness, Dr. Szepiela said more safety measures have been taken in recent years.

"We have computer testing now that can get a little more out of it to see if they're back to a baseline or see if they're still having some cognitive functional issues," Dr. Szepiela said. "We have a return to play protocol that actually stresses the brain and just doesn't say, 'hey your symptoms are gone, go ahead and return back to full contact or return back to full sports activity,' at that time."

He added that parents need to grow their awareness and really consider if their child ready.

"I think there needs to be further research," he said. "And I think as a parent I have young children as well and you have to look at it on a case-by-case level. 'Is my child developed?' 'Should they be going out there?' 'Can they control their own body to even be taught to tackle correctly?'."

And these risks are something Coach Inselmann takes into account during practice more so now than before, especially with less numbers and more knowledge on the issues.

"We are doing less contact, we're doing less hitting, because we cannot afford those injuries," Inselmann said. "We're adjusting our practice schedules a little bit. We're trying to focus more on conditioning and less on hitting."

As concussions grow concerns around football, some athletes are turning to other sports to fill their time. But that poses another factor to declining gridiron numbers: specialization.

"I think it's a factor without a doubt at some schools," Inselmann said. "Here we are really embracing the idea that we want kids to play multiple sports, and we're trying to share our athletes. So I think that's less of a factor here, but I have heard that being a factor at other schools where coaches are tugging at athletes and don't want them playing multiple sports."

But according to Dr. Szepiela, specialization poses risks of its own.

"When you used to have multiple sports you'd be using different body parts," Dr. Szepiela said. "Now we see repetitive injuries, and we see a higher degree of burnout, and we see maybe a month off sometimes, maybe two weeks for some of these athletes that play in these leagues all year-round."

They also say video games and a wider variety of sports and other activities to choose from play a role.

But despite all these factors, with football being so widespread and the NFL being the highest revenue sport, neither see a major decline happening, however it wouldn't be surprising if more and more smaller schools and youth programs start feeling the effects of dwindling numbers.

Before You Leave, Check This Out