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According to multiple coaches...

EdgyTim

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May 29, 2001
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Channahon Illinois
"It's early July and lots of teams are searching to find freshman, frosh/soph opponents. That can only mean numbers are lower than expected and teams are dropping a level as a last resort"

"I know of one school looking for 4 freshman games. That means 4 teams in one conference won't have a freshman team."

Not good.

Discuss.
 
There looks like there may be a team in south suburbs that wont be able to field a varsity team. Have been averaging less than 20 kids.
 
As for the Frosh level, you have to work the hallways the first few days the Freshman are in school. You can not base a season off of summer frosh attendance.
 
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There looks like there may be a team in south suburbs that wont be able to field a varsity team. Have been averaging less than 20 kids.
I am guessing the school name starts with the letter "R" or possibly a "T."
 
Combine that with the IHSA rule that you can participate in only one game in the same day is going to really cause problems. People in the I-8 were talking about possibly moving frosh games to be the opener on Friday nights and the Soph games to Monday because depth is a problem for schools in 3A or 4A. If that were to happen who knows how scheduling would go with many schools not having Frosh teams?

It seems that those trying to kill football as a high school sport are getting the job done despite all the attempts at making it a much safer experience.
 
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Wilmington played a freshman game against Bradley-Bourbonnais a few years ago (2013 if I remember right). After the first couple of possessions, the game was pretty good...once the Wilmington kids got over the shock of 80+ kids taking the field for BB for warmups. The Cats had like 35 freshmen that year, so it was the same effect that they had on the I-8 small (most of which had less than 20 freshmen). Somebody reminded the Cats that they played the Bradley Lions and beat them every year since they were 6, and half of the BB squad used to be Lions...lol.

Conference parity needs to take this into account, and the SICA breakup clearly had a lot to do with this. A program that plays V-JV-So-FA-FB should not be in a conference with a bunch of schools that play V-So-F. But numbers problems may just cause this...

And the failure of a program to admit to its numbers issues needs to be addressed...Westmont was really bad at it. The Sentinels would call on Wednesday and ask to move the soph game to Monday, so the sophs could fill out their varsity, and then cancel the soph game on Monday afternoon...They did this to Wilmington multiple times, to the point Reents started scheduling a non-conference opponent for the freshmen the week they played Westmont. 2014 I took my big guy and a bunch of this friends to watch/scout Manteno-Peotone the week the Cats played Westmont because Westmont played this trick, and when I told my Manteno friends they didn't believe me - until Westmont did the same thing to the Panthers Week 8.

One solution I expect to see is that some of the Five level schools are likely to have their Freshman B teams play some of the small school freshman teams...And you may find some big schools having their JV play other schools Soph teams to fill out schedules...
 
I am guessing the school name starts with the letter "R" or possibly a "T."
The Stars I'm guessing.Surprised Southland does not start football.T? Falcons or Thunderbirds? It's really sad.Growing up in the 70's & 80's & playing football in the Sica every Sica school ever even Argo had a A & B team!!! Plus about all of them played 3 or 4 JV games.Even SFDS had JV!!! Now they don't even have a team.Thornton was the only Frosh team I could remember who didn't have a B team but then on a Monday Lockport who had a C team as did DGS or Joliet Central,Joliet West or HF would send their B team to play a 10th game just so we would fill out 9 games.
 
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I also remember how shocked I was sometime in the 90's or early 2000's when Shepard did not field a Soph team.Argo did not field a Frosh team last year & reading the Reavis Preview it said that conference had low numbers & was having JV games not Soph games before Varsity.
 
I think this has to do with 2 things: all the negative press football is getting related to concussions and the mentality of the kids.
Using Huntley as an example. The youth program went from over 400 kids a few years ago to an expected registration of about 250 this year. Some of that is due to population trends in the area but a lot more of it is due to parents choosing not to allow their kids to play until a certain age, if at all. The HS program had over 70+ kids playing freshman LY. Their FVC mandated Frosh team consisted of only a handful of Sophomores and the Frosh B team was all freshmen. Out of those 70+ kids its my understanding less than 30 have returned this year?! Granted you will get a handful of kids who played as first year freshmen and decided the sport wasn't for them, but you also have a large amount of kids who didn't come out because they didn't want to be tackling dummies for the Varsity. When I played, you understood that outside of a few elite players, that's what Sophomore year was. It was a right of passage and you looked forward to junior and senior year when it was your turn to beat up the underclassmen. Unfortunately, i am guessing neither of these trends will end anytime soon...
 
Combine that with the IHSA rule that you can participate in only one game in the same day is going to really cause problems. People in the I-8 were talking about possibly moving frosh games to be the opener on Friday nights and the Soph games to Monday because depth is a problem for schools in 3A or 4A. If that were to happen who knows how scheduling would go with many schools not having Frosh teams?

It seems that those trying to kill football as a high school sport are getting the job done despite all the attempts at making it a much safer experience.
This isn't effective until next year. This year is only "suggested"
 
Many parents are turning their kids to soccer which studies show is no more if not less safer than football
 
Many parents are turning their kids to soccer which studies show is no more if not less safer than football
There are a ton of concussions in soccer. Two players both going up to head a ball collide. And the long term effects of heading balls over multiple seasons.
 
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There are a ton of concussions in soccer. Two players both going up to head a ball collide. And the long term effects of heading balls over multiple seasons.
Exactly!!! I think they should move girls soccer to fall and boys soccer to spring
 
Many parents are turning their kids to soccer which studies show is no more if not less safer than football

Coming from a community which had a quality soccer program prior to having football, I understand the comment if you had football first. Manteno Youth Soccer Association runs the soccer program for Manteno, Grant Park, Beecher, Momence and Peotone, with an average of 1000+ kids in the program between the five communities ending in 8th grade. If you go back 25 years, pre-Manteno & Peotone youth football, they were usually closer to 1200 kids. Manteno regularly went deep in the soccer playoffs prior to playing football, and still is a annual conference favorite...Peotone not only does MYSA, but also has a more competitive league in town...Herscher also has a large youth program and a solid Tigers team, always towards the top with Manteno & Peotone...

Herscher has two youth football programs, one in Limestone and the other in Herscher...Manteno Wildcats' youth program attracts kids from Bradley & Bourbonnais. Peotone's Blue Demons have stabilized after not being able to fill a Varsity team in 2012.

The programs coexist & tolerate each other...Manteno's second head football coach guaranteed a very short stay by calling the soccer team "lawn fairies" early in his one year tenure, and then going winless...If you really want to see the victims of the soccer generation, go look at your cross country teams...soccer gutted the CC programs at Manteno, Herscher & Peotone to the point they are just now coming back.

Switching soccer seasons, boys to spring and girls to fall, won't solve any problems. In fact, it likely wrecks most smaller schools boys track programs - schools under 700 kids have enough trouble with filling baseball & track rosters. And the girls have four primary travel non-school sports: Volleyball, Basketball, Softball & Soccer. Reality says I've never seen a high school girl try a softball-soccer combination, in a community which actually won a 1A Soccer championship the same year it was 3A Softball runner up with no girls playing both.
 
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It's not helping the discussion when the premise of this forum has no facts to discuss, only hearsay.
However, we all will not be surprised if the football numbers are lower for all of the above reasons.
The numbers in a program have everything to do with the head football coach and the culture of the program.
If the head football coach is not selling the program below the high school level, he will lose some kids who are on the fence.
The Culture of the program has to be enthusiastic, with assistant coaches who are passionate about the development of young men, organized with effective off season programs. It also helps to win.
Let's continue this discussion with facts and point out programs that are doing all the right things for football.lets turn this discussion to a positive forum.
 
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I research Illinois High School football.In looking at the great Joliet Central run as far back as 1976 they had discussed the very topic in the Trib 1976 now football being dangerous
 
Fortunately, Freshman summer camp participation/interest is surprisingly high. I really hope this indication of things to come. In my experience numbers drop at the sophomore level forcing a smaller program to make one of two decisions with the new ihsa rule. 1. Play freshman up and have them play a sophomore schedule...or 2. Move sophomores up(who won't get much playing time) and sacrifice you JV level. Ultimately I would hope opposing coaches could have the discussion ahead of time. Let's stay hopeful that the numbers in this great sport of ours continue to rise!
 
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