NYTimes article on football participation....

[CTOkie]

indicates that high school football participation is down 10% in Texas, 18% in Oklahoma and 27% in Ohio and 11% nationally.
My guess is that parents are concerned over the increase of serious injuries, especially concussions and are steering their kids towards soccer and other sports.
Watching the game today is like watching multiple car crashes on each play. Bigger and faster players are flying around like missiles towards the ball carrier.

 

[Soonerheart]

I'm sure concerns about injuries are a consideration for some but lets not kid ourselves... way to many kids today are fat, soft lazy and lack the courage that it takes to play even high school football.

As the ultimate team sport football teaches good lessons about how to be a good member of a team that can last a lifetime

 

[Plainosooner]

indicates that high school football participation is down 10% in Texas, 18% in Oklahoma and 27% in Ohio and 11% nationally.
My guess is that parents are concerned over the increase of serious injuries, especially concussions and are steering their kids towards soccer and other sports.
Watching the game today is like watching multiple car crashes on each play. Bigger and faster players are flying around like missiles towards the ball carrier.

I think there is a very new dynamic in high school football compared to when I liked it a lot better. In Oklahoma for a long time, and more and more in Texas, the state's regulatory people mostly look the other way when players transfer for athletic benefit. The top teams stay at the top because the best players transfer to those couple dozen elite schools. For two decades in Oklahoma, Jenks and Union were the top two nearly every season in the state.

In Texas, there are more elites, but we have a ton who are there every year. It's not just about great coaching.

If you're not on one of those teams, then you're going to get really beat up when you go play against them. Football wasn't as dangerous when I was at OU. My junior year we played for the national championship. The Sooners had more injuries last Saturday night, than we had the whole season in 1971.

There are a dozen factors in that. But OUr injuries aren't because we were outmanned. But when you throw that in, at the high school level, it's a bigger factor.