will this be a trend?

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/breaking/ct-whitney-young-cancels-football-season-20170926-story.html

Whitney Young cancels rest of football season, saying it can't field enough players

Katherine Rosenberg-DouglasContact Reporter
Chicago Tribune

Whitney Young, one of Chicago’s top academic high schools, has canceled its football season with three games left to play because it cannot field enough players.

Chicago Public Schools requires a 22-member roster for a varsity football team. While the Whitney Young Dolphins were at that level the beginning of the season, the roster has dropped to 19, according to the school's principal, Joyce Kenner.

“We’ve decided to suspend the entire football program,” Kenner said Tuesday. “This is based on the low numbers due to injuries and some of our players being academically ineligible. This is just about student safety, honestly.”

Among the canceled games was this Thursday's homecoming match against Curie High School. A soccer game will be held for homecoming instead, Kenner said, and the school's dance will be held Oct. 21 because the Jewish holiday Yom Kippur is this weekend.

The Whitney Young team had not won any games this season. It recently lost to Simeon High School, 72-0, and forfeited its game to Taft High School because it could not field enough players.

Just two seasons ago, Whitney Young went 9-0 for the season and made it to the Illinois high school playoffs. The school lost in the first round to Niles North High School, which announced this week it has suspended its football season because of a "possible hazing incident."

Whitney Young had already scaled back its football program to a single varsity team, absorbing younger players.

The football coach, Timothy Franken, said the school requires players maintain a 2.0 grade point average. But that wasn’t the only problem the school faced in maintaining its program, he said.

Waning interest in football nationwide, population declines in the city and the concerns of letting freshmen and sophomores play against much larger, stronger seniors from other schools were all contributing factors to what he called “the right decision under the circumstances.”

“The plan is to regroup and try to make playing football attractive at Whitney Young," said Franken, who has coached at Whitney Young for more than two dozen years.

"We’ve got to focus on getting people in here that are football players,” he said. “You’ve got to have kids that like contact, that are physical and aggressive.”

Franken said more and more people have concerns about young players getting hurt on the football field. He said he’s had many conversations with former coaches and athletes who told him they won't let their kids play football.

“High school football is not the NFL,” Franken said. “Since this has come to light, the knowledge, the information-sharing, the coaching has all improved and we’re teaching ways to make it safer.”

But he acknowledged the difference between a freshman and a senior could potentially be 100 pounds.

“We played Simeon last week. It wasn’t quite an even match and I didn’t think it was fair to our kids," he said. "Having a 14-year-old and a 17-year-old, one’s a young man and the other’s a kid. In a game like football where you’re talking about a contact sport, that can be too much to overcome."

Sam Knox, assistant executive director at the Illinois High School Association, said football hit its peak interest a few years back, but since then he has seen statewide, if not nationwide, decline in interest.

"The participation numbers are declining but it’s very rare that a team would simply cancel its season based on participation," Knox said. "Usually if they don't have big numbers they know that going in and they still try to field a team each week."

Knox said there are plenty of reasons for a decline in interest, including being lured away by another sport, or a part-time job and the promise of money it brings.

"Safety concerns, I'm sure, are near the top of the list as to why parents wot let them play or why they may not feel safe playing," he said.

Sean Haley, who works in the financial field at the Chicago Board of Trade, said the friends he made playing football for Whitney Young in the 80s are still some of his closest, all these years later. He said he talks to football buddies, “if not every day, then at least several times a week.”

Haley was shocked when he read about the season being canceled.

“While I was there we would actually have more players than uniforms,” Haley said. “We had 50 players on the team at the varsity level alone. To go from that to not even having 22 players is unbelievable.”

Haley drives past his old high school on his way to work each day, and said he sees a lot less school spirit in the form of letter jackets and other team gear. He cited the school’s rigorous academic screening and said maybe the school is just more focused on academics than ever.

But he said he is saddened by the suspension because he learned so much from his time on a team.

“The games were a big part of going to school every week. We’d sell tickets, we’d engage with other kids. You learn leadership, you learn how to rely on others and work with others; it’s a lifelong bond,” he said.

Whitney Young's principal announced the cancellation on Monday after meeting with the team. Franken and Kenner said there are one or two seniors who may have a good shot at playing college football.

Kenner said she might recommend the students go to a Division III school for the first year, before transferring to a school with a more prominent football program. Franken said one of the players had a great junior year and scouts saw that.

“He’s got senior video from the games we did play. There are schools aware of his ability and what he can do,” he said.

Haley, who was both a linebacker and a center, said he worries about the college-bound kids who would’ve used their football experience on college applications to show how well-rounded they are.

“Even beyond the football part of it, they ask you about extra-curriculars. Certainly, if someone is not eligible they shouldn’t be allowed to play. But everyone who goes to that school is a smart kid to begin with,” Haley said.

Franken said the academic rigor at Whitney Young can put a 2.0 GPA out of reach. “You come from elementary school to Whitney Young, that’s a big transition, whether you’re an athlete or not.”

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