Maryland High School Football Participation Declining

April 5, 2013 / Football
somd.com

http://somd.com/news/headlines/2013/16688.shtml

When the undefeated St. Frances Academy football team prepared to play Friends School of Baltimore last October, they didn’t expect to win without playing.

But that’s exactly what happened when Friends was forced to forfeit after showing up with only 13 players.

“I was very surprised,” said Maryland Interscholastic Athletic Association Executive Director Rick Diggs of the forfeits. “I’ve been director for 20 years and I can’t remember the last forfeit.”

What happened to Friends is unusual, but not unheard of in Maryland.

Football participation in Maryland in the 2011-2012 season dropped by nearly 500 student-athletes from the previous year, a 3.5 percent drop, according to the most recent data from the National Federation of State High School Associations.

It’s the largest decline the state has seen in seven years, and the third drop in four years.

The MIAA, which oversees the state’s private schools, has also seen smaller schools like Friends consistently struggle to field full-sized football rosters. The Friends School forfeit was the first of two this season in the MIAA.

“You ideally want 35 kids to a roster, but there just aren’t enough kids to go around,” Diggs said.

To cope with the decline, some schools have begun dropping their freshman or junior varsity squads in an effort to put more


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