Football in Highschool?
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Anonymous
| Our son has suddenly developed an interest in football - but he is already a highschool junior. Any tips on where he could get some training or join a team? We are in NOVA. He plays with friends and has always played soccer. So he is athletic but has never played on a football team. |
Anonymous
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Most football teams will take anyone. I am at a big NOVA public and freshman year most of the boys arrive never having played football at all and some schools have to basically beg boys to play. A reasonably athletic kid should have no trouble. Show up at tryouts.
Your jurisdiction probably runs a rec flag football league. In meantime show up for that. Don't think there is a whole lot of rec tackle football anymore given what people now know about football and brain impacts. |
Anonymous
| Find a kicking coach and be the kicker. |
Anonymous
| Brain dead bum |
Anonymous
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He needs to contact the football coaches immediately because they are training now for next year. Our school has a rule that (unless you’re a transfer) you must attend the spring semester workouts and training to play next fall.
My kid is a sophomore and just joined FB and this is what he’s doing. Our school is in a really competitive FB area (not DC area) and our school is very competitive—my kid has no experience, but, he’s huge (6’5 230) so they are happy to have him even with no experience and in addition to team training one of the coaches is personally instructing him after school to get him up to speed. All that to say—it’s possible for him to join BUT he needs to talk to the coaches and go from there. |
Anonymous
| I think it would be hard to jump in as a senior. It's really violent at the age because they are all man-sized and I think you'd be looking at Varsity. If they'll let him play J-V as a senior, that would be better and safer. I think if he's athletic, he'll be fine if he does the summer camp. I'm sure they do workouts now - he should see if he can join those. |
Anonymous
They take everyone on the team but only a few play in the games. He can practice throwing and catching the football with you or friends or a local gym. A lot of flag football teams are boys and girls so it’s not taking seriously. Flag football doesn’t fill the stadiums. |
Anonymous
It won’t be hard if he wants to work hard and if he’s willing to join all of the practices. They probably have off season lifting going on. Tell him to email the coach now. He will likely be on varsity because of his age. But depending on the school, he will see little to zero actual time in games with no experience. That’s okay because he can still go to practices. If he’s at a school that doesn’t have a huge football team he might actually play. |
Anonymous
Practice throwing? No—OP’s kid won’t be throwing. Line. |
Anonymous
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Yes, talk to the coaches now. They will be happy to have him but it will be helpful if they can help prep him a little before the season (but strict rules on when tackling can happen etc, still helpful).
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Anonymous
Still. If he’s playing football he can at least be proficient in throwing the ball. It’s not like a normal ball shape. |
Anonymous
DP and I agree with the other poster. This is not a concern. He will never throw the ball. Do you know anything about the positions? |
Anonymous
| Most parents do not allow their kids to play football in the DMV (see head injuries and CTE), so he should have no problem walking on to the HS football team - they literally take anyone |
Anonymous
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At our school, seniors aren't allowed to play on JV. They are too physically developed to be safe playing with 9th-10th graders. (Yes, I recognize that this is very individual and some 9th graders are bigger than some 12th graders - but as a general rule this tends to be true.)
Agree that he should reach out to the coach now. He'll find out what the policy at your school is, and get the coach's advice about how best to prepare. My 9th grader has never played, but is interested in trying it next fall. He missed the window for the freshman team, so he'll be on JV if he does it. He's doing workouts with the team now 1-2 times a week and plans to participate in some spring training. He understands that he won't get much playing time at first - not just because he isn't good enough yet, but because football can be downright dangerous if you have a bunch of older teens on the field who don't know what they're doing. They really have to learn how to tackle safely, how to fall. |
Anonymous
| In Nova almost all high schools will take any athletic kids. Its not a difficult sport to get on the team. |