Five (Chicago) Public League schools drop football (1 Viewer)

[Christo]

Five Public League schools have dropped football for the upcoming season according to Chicago Public Schools football coordinator Jaton Jackson.

Chicago Tech, Douglass, Farragut, Gage Park and Uplift will not field football teams. All but Douglass were included on the Public League’s initial football schedule that was sent out in June. Jackson said an updated version will be released next week.

Douglass forfeited the season after six games last year. Farragut was 5-3 last season, Uplift 0-3 and Chicago Tech was 4-5.

More than a dozen Public League schools forfeited last season, which led to the CPS starting a flag football league. CPS mandates that teams need at least 22 players to play, which can be an issue for smaller schools.

Even some larger schools have struggled with getting enough players recently. Young forfeited last season, but will be back playing this year.

The Sun-Times and Daily Herald conducted a survey last year that revealed 87 public schools found an 18.7 percent drop since 2008 in the number of students playing high school football. At some schools the number of students playing football plummeted by 40 percent or more.

https://www.suntimeshighschoolsports.com/2018/08/01/chicago-public-league-football/

 

[Koya]

It's a dying game.  Hard to deny it at this point.  Still enough talent for another decade, but after that?

Going to be interesting to see how this sport evolves/morphs - because it simply can't be what it's been, much as I love it.

 

[eoMMan]

What are "Public League Schools"? High school?

HS football is still huge here in FL. It's odd seeing the Friday night highlights on the local TV news when they barely cover the pros.

 

[CletiusMaximus]

What are "Public League Schools"? High school?

Yes. All public high schools, and there are a ton of them in the Chicago Public League as you can imagine. If Simeon or Walter Payton Prep closed its football program, there would be alarm bells going off. Farragut is Kevin Garnett's high school; don't know much about the others.

 

[Brunell4MVP]

Around DC High Schools are ending teams.  In DC it's a combination of # of players and budget.  Football teams cost more money than other sports.  And game attendance is really small. 

In Northern VA most HS still have varsity teams, but many have stopped freshmen football and some JV too.  One HS of over 2000 students only had 28 players on their varsity football team, and no JV or freshman team.  They had to pull freshmen up to the varsity team and the kids weren't prepared in any capacity.  They got crushed and i think forfeited some games.

It is a dying sport. 

Weird thing is I think many sports are dying at all levels.  The interest isn't there.  Too many other things to do. My kids played baseball, basketball, soccer, and golf at the HS level in a school of 2500.  They never attended a single game they didn't play in.  They think it's a waste of time.  The stands were empty for pretty much all games.  One varsity basketball game I went to had 27 people in the stands.  None were students.  The cheerleaders come, so that's maybe 20 students I guess.  Once a year for their rival the stands are packed.  other than that it's a ghosttown