Are your numbers down for football?

[Manfred]

The points a couple of you brought up about the numbers at Forest Hills are currently valid, but somewhat skewed. My statement was for the future when, as enrollments of the past couple of years' kindergarten classes, show slightly over ONE HUNDRED kids. By my meager math skills, somewhere down the road that translates into an "A" classification. Read it and weep.

[Footballfan51]

I remember playing youth football at Northern Bedford and having 25 or more kids on one team each year and the youth teams at Northern barely have enough kids to even play anymore.From what i see kids either stop playing football mostly at a younger age because of video games, they can't handle or don't like practice, or they play another sport (soccer, hockey, etc.) or they stop playing from a little bit of an older age (8th or 9th grade) because they thinks it's not fun anymore, or because of soccer.

[El-Moldo]

There is no doubt burnout is a factor in sports. For example, where are all the men's softball leagues that used to be around???? No interest???? And why? When you start playing T-ball at age 4-5, you've about had enough baseball by your mid to late teens. It wasn't until age 10-11 that I got involved in "organized" baseball. After high school, the desire to keep playing was still there. Nowadays, by 17 years old, kids have had been "saturated" with the sport. I still think pee wee football is a good thing for kids under 12 years old, for the sake of the young kids. But it does, though, have a "boredom" effect on a lot of kids as they get older.

[psycho]

I drove out to see a friend at Indian Lake the other day and while driving through Central City the memory of a fall evening maybe 45 years ago came back to me. My dad and I were scouting for turkey up on the state game lands the day before the fall turkey season opener. As we drove through Cairnbrook on the way home we saw a big crowd at the stadium and my dad stopped. Shade was playing Berlin or someone and the stadium was absolutely packed. The teams had tons of kids and i remember standing along the field and watching these two teams really go after each other. It was good, hardnosed football. The kids were fundamentally sound and tough. The coaches were scary, I mean they got after their kids and the refs but in a good way. You knew this was serious stuff - a varsity sport. This game stayed with me for a long time as I was a kid and it was one of the first real football games I ever went to. And man was I impressed. It really got me interested in playing football.

Yes the game is in trouble in small schools. Bad trouble for lack of numbers. Filling rosters with freshman is a dangerous precedent. Creating an artificial illusion of competition is an insult to the kids and the game. Getting numbers up by consolidating or coopting is the only way the game will be saved at the small school level.

May I also say that this is the best thread I have ever seen on this board. Everyone has raised valid points. I only hope that the game survives at the small school level. You guys should have seen that game in Cairnbrook 45 years ago.

[richaboli]

I am surprised that video games is not considered a problem by some of the posters. Other high school sport websites consider it the number one problem for high school kids today because it consumes high school kids into an addiction. Too many kids just don't want to play outside anymore. They come home from school, put their books down if they bring any home, and head straight for the video games. Some times the neighbor kids come knocking on the door to get some video competition. A sweating sport doesn't stand a chance. Yes, parents should stop this from going on, but they don't.

[El-Moldo]

I'll go back 45 years with psycho. What's different from then to today??. No cable. One or two channels on TV. Color TV was just coming into vogue. No VCRs or DVDs. Only one boy's sport in the fall. No soccer, golf, cross-country. Kids of all ages went to the games on Friday nights. No one worried about being abducted or molested. You tried to get out of the house anytime you could. No one had a job on weekend's or after school (like some do today). You rode the school bus from home and back every day. You didn't know anyone from other school districts. You didn't WANT to know anyone from other school districts. Most families had one car, and your dad had it. He would give you a ride to school activities though. No malls. Stores in Johnstown were only open till 9PM on Thursdays for your shopping pleasure. Otherwise they closed at 5PM and were never open on Sundays. Sitting at home was a form of punishment. Rainy days were horrible, as you were stuck inside. TV went off the air at 1AM. Did not resume till around 6AM. Everyone listened to AM radio stations on their "transistor" radio. If you had a record player, you could play your few records time after time after time. You were home by 10PM, unless it was summer and you were "sleeping out" on someone's porch. On Saturday nights, your local town could have had a movie theatre where you could watch a double feature. Sooooo.....in the fall, you tried out for football, band, or cheerleading not only because you liked these activities, but because you were looking for something to do. I feel sorry for kids today. They are missing life.

[Manfred]

Moldo, bravo sir. That wasn't a "peek" into the past, that was blowing a giant hole in the time continuum into the past! That's the way it was for our generation, and I loved the statement, "staying at home was like a punishment". We were there to eat and sleep, that's it. I guess like the gladiators and the Coliseums, though, all things shall pass.

[say_oww]

Even the athletes play video games nowadays. Every kid has an Xbox and an iphone and a laptop. Blame the declining numbers on declining enrollment and a sharp decline in jobs and population. Hit some of the urban areas and the big suburbs and you don't see the small numbers on any sports roster. Altoona, Hollidaysburg, Somerset, Hempfield, Latrobe, Indiana don't have any shortage of kids on their sports team rosters. The small towns of PA are turning into ghost towns. The only ones left are the folks who used to sleep on porches listening to transistor radios. Good times, but different times, too.

[animus]

I honestly don't know where to pinpoint this one. It's something that baffled me for a few years now. I don't know if it's video games per say, because when you look across the nation there are schools the size of Forest Hills still having 45-50 kids come out to play every season. If it was video games then small schools across the nation would struggle to fill rosters. Clairton (enrollment of around 100) fields about 30-35 kids a year. Your top WPIAL football schools like Aliquppa, Beaver Falls, Jeannette, Washington and others are still having very good roster sizes for small schools and some are larger than 3A rosters. These kids play the same video games kids from areas like South Park and Steel Valley do. Maybe it has to do w/ an oversaturation of football to an extent and kids are simply tired of football, esp around these parts. I wonder how much of an effect the concussion and health issues are playing into it as well. I wonder how much of an effect sports like soccer and hockey are playing into it.

[kmr]

I think it has to do with the parents more then anything. Parents aren't pushing their kids towards football anymore. Whether it be because of the injury/concussion problem or just parents being lazy and not caring. Western pa and football use to go hand and hand and some towns still have that attitude (portage bellwood and tyrone). Football is year round and how many parents want to take their kids to offseason workouts and things like that. Parent are also pushing their kids into other sports, its not just about enjoying the sport its about what sport will get my kid to the next level And just playing that one sport. I always believed its starts and ends with the parents.

This will be the first year in the lhac that there is no 9th grade football and I see that being a major problem. Why will kids play and be blocking dummies for one year and never see playing time. These younger kids start seeing that they will start getting involved in other sports or just never come back. How does johnstown do it with all of those kids on two teams. I can see this being a real problem.