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Football participation plunging in California


Mr. P

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Football participation plunging in California

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Whether he’s recruiting in the Pacific Northwest, Texas or any cranny in between, Washington coach Chris Petersen always asks high school coaches about numbers.

Not uniform numbers. Not heights and weights. Not 40 times and reps on the bench.

Petersen wants to know about player participation.

“How are your numbers?”

The responses from coaches in one state — for the Pac-12, the most important state — are not encouraging.

High school football participation in California is declining, rapidly.

 . . . 

The Pac-12 is facing numerous challenges as it attempt to keep pace with the SEC, Big Ten and other Power Five conferences, from the eat-your-own nature of its schedule to the lack of TV exposure to revenue for operations.

But there might be no greater threat over the next five or 10 years than a shrinking talent pool in its primary pipeline.

According to data collected by the National Federation of State High School Associations, participation in 11-on-11 tackle football in California has dropped 8.8 percent in the past five years:

2013 season: 103,474
2014 season: 103,740
2015 season: 100,205
2016 season: 97,079
2017 season: 94,286

 . . . 

Relative to other Power Five conference, the news is even worse for the Pac-12:

The primary pipelines for the SEC, ACC, Big 12 and Big Ten have not experienced nearly the same level of participation decline as California.

In fact, numbers are up slightly over the past five years in Texas (164,544 to 164,664), Florida (40,606 to 41,852) and Georgia (32,979 to 33,027) while declining about four percent in Ohio (44,431 to 42,637).

“It’s so laid back on the west coast — football’s just not as important to them,’’ said Mike Farrell, the national recruiting director for Rivals. “If there’s an opportunity to get injured, some parents just pull the kids out.

“But in Texas, it’s part of the culture. In the southeast, there’s a swagger about playing football. In the northeast and midwest, there’s just a toughness about the mentality.

 . . .

Indeed, participation in soccer in California high schools has jumped by 10 percent over that past five years.

Track numbers are up.

Water polo numbers are up.

Lacrosse numbers are up.

Even volleyball participation has, um, spiked.

“It’s a culture thing,” said Smith, who grew up in Southern California. “Get into nature, play lacrosse, go snowboarding. I don’t know if it’s a downward spiral yet (in football), but there’s definitely a lull.”

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Let’s not dive too much into the politics of this thread.  

But I won’t pretend that they aren’t playing a part in it.

the fact of the matter is that southern culture is tough and hard working while west coast is all about relaxing and doing what comes natural, while the northeastern US is all about industrialization of everything...  

Read reports about LA support of the Rams...  it’s kind of sad

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5 hours ago, JV_COACH said:

Homosexuality, and the mindset that says it’s ok does not mix well with football. That is why participation is going down

Really? So football is down because of gay people? lol Some of the best players in the NFL are gay. I think gayness and football go hand in hand. There are way more reasons football is in decline besides gay people...silly.

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  • 2 weeks later...

It part of globalization.  Reastically spccer is king in sports world wide.  Parents are aware of the problems football can cause and instead of pee wee American football they are putting their kids in soccer instead.  Many times it sticks.  I see it happening in big city Texas and even in smaller towns.  Very few schools below 4A offer Soccer in HS so football still reigns supreme, or at least breaks even in Texas.  California for the most part are so progressive football doesn’t fit what they want to see in the future.  I am not sure that there will not be other conferences that will deserve the power 5 rating than the Ppac 12

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