Son desperate to play high school football

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I’m a former player, former coach and current father of a high school football player. In my opinion football is the very best highschool experience that any student can have. This is for the simple reason that no other activity is so central to the life of the school community.

Friday nights football games are packed - with over 50% of the students attending. There is no other event like that - even graduation will only have a quarter of the student population.

No sport will have a student participation level as high as football. With 22 starting positions back ups and scout teams - the football program (freshman, JV and varsity) has well over 100 players. In my son’s school the program has 165 players and 15 student managers. In a school of 2400, over 10% of the male population is a football player.

Finally, no sport or activity will have the community cachet of football- people wanna know about football people wanna talk about football.

Let your son play - good luck.

Not everywhere in the DMV. Our football games are horribly attended by students (and barely attended at all). Maybe the suburban VA schools are different.

The WCAC local games are well attended but the games where they play national opponents kind of blow as not many fans from Ohio or Georgia make the trip.

Basketball is by far and away the sport that brings out the students and the community…but the DMV often has 5-6 teams ranked in the top 50 nationally in any given year.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’m a former player, former coach and current father of a high school football player. In my opinion football is the very best highschool experience that any student can have. This is for the simple reason that no other activity is so central to the life of the school community.

Friday nights football games are packed - with over 50% of the students attending. There is no other event like that - even graduation will only have a quarter of the student population.

No sport will have a student participation level as high as football. With 22 starting positions back ups and scout teams - the football program (freshman, JV and varsity) has well over 100 players. In my son’s school the program has 165 players and 15 student managers. In a school of 2400, over 10% of the male population is a football player.

Finally, no sport or activity will have the community cachet of football- people wanna know about football people wanna talk about football.

Let your son play - good luck.

Not everywhere in the DMV. Our football games are horribly attended by students (and barely attended at all). Maybe the suburban VA schools are different.

The WCAC local games are well attended but the games where they play national opponents kind of blow as not many fans from Ohio or Georgia make the trip.

Basketball is by far and away the sport that brings out the students and the community…but the DMV often has 5-6 teams ranked in the top 50 nationally in any given year.

I’m not that poster but the other who’s kid played youth but never got on the field in high school. He went to Madison in Vienna. He maybe played 5 minutes total his entire freshman year in games. HS games are packed. It’s a very popular sport.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’m a former player, former coach and current father of a high school football player. In my opinion football is the very best highschool experience that any student can have. This is for the simple reason that no other activity is so central to the life of the school community.

Friday nights football games are packed - with over 50% of the students attending. There is no other event like that - even graduation will only have a quarter of the student population.

No sport will have a student participation level as high as football. With 22 starting positions back ups and scout teams - the football program (freshman, JV and varsity) has well over 100 players. In my son’s school the program has 165 players and 15 student managers. In a school of 2400, over 10% of the male population is a football player.

Finally, no sport or activity will have the community cachet of football- people wanna know about football people wanna talk about football.

Let your son play - good luck.

Not everywhere in the DMV. Our football games are horribly attended by students (and barely attended at all). Maybe the suburban VA schools are different.

The WCAC local games are well attended but the games where they play national opponents kind of blow as not many fans from Ohio or Georgia make the trip.

Basketball is by far and away the sport that brings out the students and the community…but the DMV often has 5-6 teams ranked in the top 50 nationally in any given year.

I’m not that poster but the other who’s kid played youth but never got on the field in high school. He went to Madison in Vienna. He maybe played 5 minutes total his entire freshman year in games. HS games are packed. It’s a very popular sport.

In upper NW DC and close in MoCo it’s just a very different scene.

Basketball rules because Sidwell, JR, SJC, PVI, Gonzaga et al are always ranked well nationally….but only SJC and Gonzaga play in the “big leagues” for football.

SJC and Gonzaga also play like 6
national opponents each because it’s SJc, Gonzaga, Good Counsel and Dematha in their own little mini-WCAC league.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Never should’ve agreed to flag football. It’s a gateway to tackle which is why the nfl is promoting it.

😭. You are right. I told him I would let him play as a compromise to not playing tackle. It's a recent thing. Any advice for me moving forward?

I’m not kidding when I say make him
Do an entire research paper, 5 pages, on the risk of concussion in football AND the effects that concussions (especially multiple) have on your physical and mental health in years to come. Show him how to find reliable sources (not ChatGPT)

He’s a 14 year old boy. He will do this, and still assume that it would never ever happen to him.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Football is a great sport. Has positions for all body types and truly is a team game. The injuries can be difficult, but they are not as prevalent as most make them out to be. The coaching, training, and competition in football are typically superior to anything you will receive in other sports. Living in fear is no way to live. This is a good thing for high school age boys to learn.

Disagree and my boys played college ball. Its a high injury sport and I'm not even talking concussion. Its also a high cheat culture sport at the high school level and not the type of values you want your son learning. Its packed with men who have no business being around children, although there are also some coaches who are gems.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Football is a great sport. Has positions for all body types and truly is a team game. The injuries can be difficult, but they are not as prevalent as most make them out to be. The coaching, training, and competition in football are typically superior to anything you will receive in other sports. Living in fear is no way to live. This is a good thing for high school age boys to learn.

Disagree and my boys played college ball. Its a high injury sport and I'm not even talking concussion. Its also a high cheat culture sport at the high school level and not the type of values you want your son learning. Its packed with men who have no business being around children, although there are also some coaches who are gems.

That every high level sport

[Anonymous]

I work in a school and I’d put our football coaches up against anyone in any school for what they do for our kids. No one works longer hours for less for 100s of kids than that group of guys. If the rest of our faculty gave 25% of the time and energy that those coaches do for our students we’d have a lot more students that would be on the right track. Don’t get me wrong, they want to win, but they way they go about getting kids to buy in sets the kids up for success.

[Anonymous]

DCs have played Hs football, wrestling, lacrosse, basketball, track, cross country, baseball. Interestingly, basketball had us at the orthopedist the most with ankle injuries. I don’t love football but didn’t disallow it. If I had, I think they would have gotten over it since they had other sports to play. I’ve seen concussions in lacrosse and basketball as well as football.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:DCs have played Hs football, wrestling, lacrosse, basketball, track, cross country, baseball. Interestingly, basketball had us at the orthopedist the most with ankle injuries. I don’t love football but didn’t disallow it. If I had, I think they would have gotten over it since they had other sports to play. I’ve seen concussions in lacrosse and basketball as well as football.

And wrestling, though I think it can be a really great sport for the right person.