Your situation is much different in that soccer and lacrosse have eaten into football numbers directly. Additionally, the good baseball talent in FL aren't spending time on the football fields. I coached youth in Florida and struggled to get kids while being surrounded by overflowing soccer fields.
I also think part of the problem is the brand of football this generation wants to play. They want to play spread and pass-oriented offense. The good athletes are often 6', 170 and don't want to be a Wing in a Wing-T. They want to throw and catch the ball. Gone are the days of Power-I and lining up and running your 5'10, 215 pocket muscle RB 25+ times a game. Look at Honaker, Graham and Ridgeview and Union is going that way. They, at least conceptually, are using their athletes. In the past football didn't need the baseball and basketball players....they do now and need to promote a culture of multi-sport athletes. A good AD goes a long way in smoothing this over. It also helps if the head football coach isn't an ego-driven blow-hard and is open to "sharing" athletes during the winter and spring sports.
Lacrosse and soccer (at the high school level) are winter sports down here, so they really shouldn't factor in. I'll give you baseball, as it's a year round sport and the local sports complexes have tons of baseball fields, with games going on all year. I think one thing that factors into it (as tornado99 pointed out) is that at the better programs, you might only see 50-60 players on a roster with an enrollment of 3K+, but every one of those players look like they belong on a football field. It's probably that some of these schools cut players. In addition, July workouts/7 on 7 and August practices are just brutal here in South Florida with the heat and humidity. I can walk outside at 9 AM and it's like opening an oven door. Still, you'll see some schools with enrollments between 1500 and 2000 that will have less than 40 players.
Declining enrollments, more entertainment options are just two of the driving factors. Sometimes, it's not even a matter of enrollment. Down here in South Florida, there are schools with enrollments of 3K+ that have 40-60 players on their roster. The game I went to last night, Treasure Coast (2,967 enrollment) had 54 players and Sanford Seminole (4,062 enrollment) had 62.
Last night at Vero Beach in a game ppd from Friday because of a COVID outbreak at Palm Beach Gardens HS, it was...
Vero Beach 26
Palm Beach Gardens 11
The highlight of the game was when a kid from PBGHS picked up a Vero fumble on the bounce around the PBHHS 40 and headed towards the end zone. Around the Vero 30, he slowed down and looked like he wasn't sure he should be running that way, and circled back around for maybe 10 yards until he saw his coaches and teammates going nuts screaming for him to turn back. He turned back around and was still able to weave his way through the confusion for a TD after running probably 100+ yards for a 60 yard return.
As an added bonus for PBGHS, they turn around and play Palm Beach Dwyer on Saturday night on 2 days rest while Vero has an open date anyway....
Tonight, we're in Stuart to watch South Fork host Sebastian River. It was a sweltering 91° at kickoff with no breeze out here in the swamps of western Martin County.
Sebastian River 15
South Fork 0
Half
The SF center has the yips and I've lost count of how many snaps he's either air mailed or rolled back to the QB. It's at least 5, and all have resulted in big losses and one in a safety.
A vintage Union team, maybe like the 2017 (IIRC) team, would win this game by multiple scores. This Union team isn't in the same universe as that one, but might be able to play within a couple of TD if they play well and don't self destruct. The decided advantage with the home crowd should help. I saw where Vegas set the over/under for SHHS attendance at 100. I took the under...
South Fork missed a FG to take the lead with under a minute to go.
Tomorrow night is Tampa Jesuit at Treasure Coast, and we get a rare Wednesday night game next week with Palm Beach Gardens & Vero Beach, which was postponed tomorrow night because of a COVID outbreak at PBGHS. Hopefully, next week will deliver 3 games for us.
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Why are numbers so low?
in SWVA Football
Posted
Lacrosse and soccer (at the high school level) are winter sports down here, so they really shouldn't factor in. I'll give you baseball, as it's a year round sport and the local sports complexes have tons of baseball fields, with games going on all year. I think one thing that factors into it (as tornado99 pointed out) is that at the better programs, you might only see 50-60 players on a roster with an enrollment of 3K+, but every one of those players look like they belong on a football field. It's probably that some of these schools cut players. In addition, July workouts/7 on 7 and August practices are just brutal here in South Florida with the heat and humidity. I can walk outside at 9 AM and it's like opening an oven door. Still, you'll see some schools with enrollments between 1500 and 2000 that will have less than 40 players.