Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:You can be sure the posters scare mongering about high school football never played, don’t have a kid who played, and have never been to a game.
I’ve played at all levels, you should know High school football is nothing like the games you see on TV on Saturday and Sunday. Is it rough? 100% yes. Many bruises, sprains, the occasional dislocation or break. Are there concussions? Also yes, but relatively infrequent. The players are smaller and slower. You just don’t have the brute force and speed that grown men produce. There is also quite a bit of self preservation involved. Go to a high school game. Seriously, you should watch and judge for yourself. You’ll see a majority of plays are essentially wrestling contests with a ball.
Having said that, if your kid is an athlete, he’ll be totally fine as a new player in 9th grade. Flag football is actually a really fun and useful way to get ready for tackle. Check out Flag Star, highly recommend.
This is dependent on your high school. Our high school sends a handful of kids yearly to play in college. The freshman team is good, and every kid playing a skilled position played youth tackle. I know someone here is talking about her husband, who didn't start until 9th grade or later and still played in college, and that may have worked for their family, but it is not the norm. Every few years, a kid like that is successful in our high school football program (for example, a club soccer player becomes a kicker in 9th grade), too. Still, those kids are the exceptions, and to become the exceptions, they are significantly more athletic than the more experienced kids. Think Quincy Williams fast, for example.
![[Post New]](/jforum/templates/default/images/icon_minipost_new.gif){kind=icon}