Football in decline at schools across U.S.
Novato High’s struggle may hint at sport’s future
When high school football practice officially begins Monday afternoon all across California, Novato High administrators are optimistic they will have enough participants to save their varsity team.
Last week, the school had petitioned Marin County authorities to discontinue playing varsity football due to lack of player interest. Ironically, that got everyone’s attention.
“We’ve gotten tremendous support from the community,” said Assistant Principal Greg Fister. “We’ll assess the situation on Monday.”
Regardless of what happens in Novato, the situation raises interesting questions. The same scenario — a high school canceling a storied football program because of too few athletes — will certainly happen again in communities across the country. In that way, Novato may be a harbinger of the future of high school football, at least in affluent areas that aren’t wedded to the sport.
“Our situation is not going to be an anomaly,” said Jason Searle, who stepped away as Novato’s varsity coach this summer after five years at the helm and 12 years in the program. “There’s going to be a struggle for numbers over the next 10 years.”
Indeed, a survey released last week by the California Interscholastic Federation discovered that while overall
high school sports participation continues to increase, football participation actually decreased by 3.12 percent over the past year and about 10 percent over the past decade.
That is the second consecutive year that football participation decreased by more than 3 percent, although it still remains the high school sport with the most participants in the state. Also nationally, participation has declined slightly, about 1 percent in the past five years. The National Federation of State High School Associations will release its latest participation report this week.
The decreases in participation coincide with elevated concerns about concussions and brain injuries associated with football. Last month, the Journal of the American Medical Association published the results of the largest study to date of the brains of deceased NFL players. The study found that 99 percent of the brains studied suffered from CTE — chronic traumatic encephalopathy — a neurodegenerative brain disease linked to trauma to the head.
“Over the last six years or so, there has been more concern on the part of students, due to the concussion concerns,” said Gil Lemmon, commissioner of the North Coast Section, which governs the athletic programs in the Bay Area. Lemmon said that the numbers in the CIF survey likely reflect NCS trends.
However, Lemmon stressed that student safety is more of a concern than ever before, and that all sports, including football, are probably safer than they have ever been. Heightened awareness has led to new safeguards and training. State law mandates that all programs adhere to concussion protocol, including standards governing an athlete’s return to the field after a suspected concussion.
Lemmon said that 80 percent of all North Coast Section contests, including all football games, have medical personnel on-site, as mandated by rule. Baseline testing is required by many schools, and more and more schools are adding trainers to their staffs.
“The education and oversight has never been better,” said Lemmon.
Yet the participation numbers are decreasing, and not just at the varsity level. Searle could see the problem at Novato coming, as the numbers in the school’s Pop Warner feeder system, for players in elementary and middle school, declined until that program was dropped. While there is still a San Marin Pop Warner program, in the city of Novato, the beneficiary of that seems to be the stronger San Marin High football team.
At one time, in the ebb and flow of high school supremacy, Novato was a powerhouse. The team won four NCS division championships between 2002 and 2007, including three consecutive titles from 2005-07.
Searle, who played football at Novato from 1997 to 2001, was an assistant on those championship teams.
“I’ve seen the height and the gradual decline,” he said. “I never had a roster lower than 30, but last year we just didn’t have enough (lower classmen) players.”
Due to declining numbers, the Marin County Athletic League has moved to a twoteam program: frosh/soph and varsity, eliminating the junior varsity level. Most of the league’s schools haven’t consistently had enough players to fully field three teams.
“In our county, it (football) is struggling a little bit,” said MCAL Commissioner Susie Woodall.
A variety of reasons are behind the problem. In Marin County, there is one perennial powerhouse — Marin Catholic — which takes away many dedicated football players from the public schools. Searle said many kids have summer jobs or other commitments that prevent them from attending summer practices and conditioning sessions, making fall turnout hard to predict. Woodall thinks declining numbers, in part, can be traced to more athletic options than in years past, more pull on students’ time and more specialization in sports.
And, of course, there is the concussion issue.
“We’re in an affluent, knowledgeable area with parents who are well-educated and are deciding what direction they want their children to go,” said Woodall. “They do their due diligence.”
But many affluent communities still support football. In Contra Costa County, public high schools like Campolindo and Miramonte, roughly the same size as Novato, have successful programs, and throughout the Bay Area teams are thriving in wealthy school districts. Success breeds success and a sense of security. Those teams can often afford a full-time trainer and have the numbers to prevent any pressure to rush players back on the field.
In contrast, declining numbers in a football program can lead to a self-fulfilling prophecy and a destructive cycle. Fewer athletes mean fewer options available when players are lost for a period due to injury or poor grades. Athletes have to play both ways, and spending more time on the field leads to greater risk of injury. Parents see other kids getting injured, and want to keep their children away from the program.
“It definitely can be scary as a coach,” Searle said, whose late uncle, Roger Stillwell, played for Stanford and the Chicago Bears. Stillwell, who also coached at Novato in the 1980s, was an early voice speaking out against the physical toll taken by football. He had more than a dozen back and knee operations before he was 35 and was featured — along with Raider great Jim Otto — in an HBO documentary called “Disposable Heroes.”
As concussion concerns mount, more and more NFL players have spoken out about the need to limit contact until the high school level. Flag football continues to be on the rise around the country.
“Maybe not in Texas or Florida, but I can see a time when varsity football is the only youth level that allows contact,” said Searle, who has a 3-year-old son and 9-month-old daughter. “Not tomorrow, but maybe in 10 years.”
Last month, on a panel on diversity in athletics at San Jose State, sociologist Dr. Harry Edwards speculated that — due to the brain injury crisis — within a relatively short time the NFL will be completely made up of athletes culled from impoverished backgrounds. In other words, athletes without other options or parents preventing them from playing.
“I think that’s a good analysis,” Searle said. “As a parent of a son, it definitely enters my mind a lot. Would I want him to play football?”