Shady Side Academy to forfeit game

[Coach]

Windber went to flag...check out how many kids they have playing in grade 7-8.  Bedford has started making the change as well.  I wonder what kind of numbers they have.

In my time there was no youth football and numbers were much higher.  The weeding out process is starting before puberty and that is not what you want in a contact/physical sport.  People's minds are slowly starting to change but there is still a ways to go.  The argument against flag is something I saw a week ago in a 1st and 2nd grade flag game.  A player from the opposing team took a 10 yard running start at a player and absolutely drilled him.  The player that hit the other one was on defense and he wasn't going after the ball carrier in any way.  Was he coached to do this or just not mature enough to know what he should be doing since he is likely 6-8 years old? 

What I'd love to see...

Grade 1 and 2 - Learn basic football drills on Saturday mornings from adults and varsity players (Get them excited about football).
Grade 3 and 4 - Flag football (6v6 without lines)
Grade 5 and 6 - Begin tackle or continue to play flag based on what you see in grade 3/4.

We play a 4-4 defense at my school.  That means 7 kids don't have their hands in the dirt.  I want to see kids work on athleticism- run, pass, catch, defend, understand concepts of zone and man, etc...  That can happen with flag football vs focusing on the physical part of the game.

[konjo78]

1. I think flag football is a must at young ages. Agree hardcore with that!

2. People want to blame video games and social media culture but until you show me stastics showing a large increase of kids are failing out of school then I Dont buy it. Sports, like football, are an option students can play if they want. It isnt a measure of how successful a person will be in life or vise versa. Heck a lot of these video games teach commincation and team building like an average sport does.

3. Its time to seriously look at 7/8 man football and give it a shot. Not all A schools need to go into that type of division but giving schools the choice will help long term.

4. Football is just not healthy long term. Its amazing how far we have came with head injuries in the past 10+ years. When i played a concussion was a day or 2 max diagnosis from coaches, and those were the bad ones. now we know a whole lot more about how concussions work. I wouldnt want my kid playing football unless i could trust the schools training staff. 

[OutOfTheLoop]

So are United and CV confirmed to play their games this weekend?

[Steve92]

Addressing #2 from above: It has become extremely difficult for kids to fail out of school. Graduation rates count so heavily in academic rankings and PR that the pressure to pass kids is intense. Administrators make life difficult for teachers who fail kids and teachers are fast learners.
I'll buy the argument that addiction to digital entertainment isn't a factor if numbers are down only for football and not all sports. I'm not sure how to get the answer to that.
Another factor in low football numbers could be the availability of other sports, especially in A and AA schools. Back in the day, at my AA school, there was no soccer or X-country. Now, those two sports take 15-20 or more athletic boys every fall.

[PAMDGrappler]

It’s next to impossible to fail in school, and when they do, there are a million “credit recovery” programs to bail them out!

[AirRaid]

Who wants to play football when you have to lift and put in work outside the season? “Specializing” in other sports is simply laziness for not wanting to put in the work demanded to be successful in football. CTE from playing high school football? Give me a break.

[billmurray]

I don’t know if we have to blame video games and cell phones again for all of the world’s problems. I think a lot of it comes down to CTE and the physicality of football. Parents just aren’t letting their kids that play football. 

People I know that were star football players in high school basically aren’t letting their children play football anymore. They play baseball and basketball etc. they just aren’t playing football.

It's a multitude of everything discussed here. Parents don't force children outside to play anymore. more and more as a youth pastor I have to drill to parents that kids need to be outside playing but parents today feel safe knowing little johnny is holed up in his bedroom where they know his location.  Kids like that no longer take interest in sports, they're happy with mommy bringing them drinks and brownies while the shoot fake soldiers. 
It's the CTE scare even though the game is safer than ever.  
It's the travel and cost at some schools. 
It's because parents today are too busy to encourage kids to get involved in sports. 
It's keep my baby 16 yr old safe so he'll play soccer instead, even though soccer is a huge contributor to concussions.
There's a long list of reasons .

[Crimson's Ghost]

I'm still going to go with shrinking population, tiny schools trying to field teams, and the risk of injury over cell phones and video games.  

[knowitall]

Of the twenty kids that played for the 2014 Peewee champion Conemaugh Valley team (today's 10th and 11th graders), just seven remain on the varsity team.  When CV's freshman class was in Kindergarten there was about 38 girls and 17 boys.  CV has two freshmen on its team this year.  The sophomore class is even smaller.  CV has more boys on its junior high team than it has on its varsity.

[EnzoLigoniere]

Lol, Grades 1 and 2 playing football of any type.
This is all about dads reliving their glory days , uncle rico idiots pretending to be Nick Saban on the sideline.
So why does a school like Portage have no problems getting a ton of kids out?  It isn't because Gouse plays everyone, but man look at their sideline, packed every year.  They are doing something right.  
Let's break down United, why would a stud like Kyle Silk want to leave a team that just played for a D6 title last year?   Once he was out how many other kids didnt come out this year?