High School punts on football

Quote possibly not. I think one thing that might of made a difference too was the way the Internet changed recruiting for small town kids. When I was in high school we played all the sports and if by the time you were a senior you might be able to go play at a local D-II or JUCO if you stood out enough in any particular one.

Kids my brother's age were able to put profiles and highlights online and discover more options, meanwhile realizing it might be better to specialize once they reached a certain point.

 

Around 20 years ago, a previous sports editor demanded I do a story about how the growth of soccer was killing football. Except the numbers didn't support his premise, either locally or nationally.

I still don't believe the two are related -- the average high school soccer kid is smaller than the average football player -- and the numbers probably still wouldn't fit. But it feels like an interesting story idea, even if done anecdotally from talking with kids who did walk away and parents who steered their kids to other sports.

Locally, I've heard of more soccer players becoming the football team's kicker, including a kid this year who left a powerhouse soccer program (where he likely wasn't going to play much).

 

My internet comment was more directed toward the part of your post where you described how pre-millenial boys in your town "risked being mercilessly mocked and labeled a pussy", but not during your younger brother's era.

It was a similar thing in my town. A reason many boys stuck with football, even those that were just practice fodder benchwarmers, was for the social status benefit: it confirmed you weren't a wussy, made you part of a cool group, and increased your chances of success with girls.

But doesn't sound like that benefit is there the same way today--and I suspect the online world has plenty to do with why. There's so many other awesome diversions now, what's happening on a high school football field no longer seems such a big deal.

Combine that with the concussions/injury thing and, well, now it just ain't worth the aggravation.

 

When I was in school there was one kid who could have played football, but didn't. He was an OK basketball player, but not somebody you'd call one of the cool kids.

What was different was that in my brother's age range some of the cool kids decided not to play, I think in part because they came to the conclusion skipping football would help their basketball careers. I think the Internet probably played some role in them coming to that conclusion.

 

The football team at my school was a perennial 2-3 win disaster. There were some kids on it who were popular, but that was on their own merits, not because anybody was awed by their latest four-touchdown loss. For the otherwise anonymous kids on the squad, it did nothing to boost their social standing.

 

At my high school, in 1987, I used to tease the football players, telling them that I could put together a team of kids from our school who didn't play football who could beat them.

That's mostly because a lot of our school's best athletes worked after school jobs.

And, since this was an all boys high school in the Bronx, hardly any of the (white) kids were getting laid, whether they played football or not.

 

SOME potentially standout football players go and play soccer; usually receivers and defensive backs.

The heavily-muscled football types (linemen, linebackers) aren't usually too good for soccer; they don't have stamina to run for 80 minutes.

 

Yeah, this is one of those things that would be extremely different in NYC. My experience was in a one high school Midwestern small town in the 80s when nearly the entire damn town attended every game.

It definitely meant something to be on that field in part because of nothing else going on.

 

Back, inasmuch as Stoney made a great point.

Look, it's one thing to be playing in the Bronx in front of family and friends on a Friday afternoon. It's quite another when half your little town is spilling into the stadium to see you on Friday night. That still has considerable pull with kids, and I'm not just talking about my very, very small corner of the world. For good or bad (yes, probably bad), this is going to be the most visible experience of their life for quite a few young men.

For the 1,038th time, things are different in a metro area, and if you only know a metro area, you might not understand how big the difference is.

 

It's not universal in small towns either. In my hometown there's still the community element for high school sports. But if you told the town either football or basketball was getting the ax and you have to choose, basketball would stay in a landslide.

 

And that's "what's wrong with Kansas."

 

Fine. I'm still not talking about my very, very small corner of the world.