Some local school districts barely have enough football players to make an 11-man team. And schools are working hard to ensure student athletes have the ability to play football, even if it means changing the size of the team and finding new teams to compete against. While some parents and students may have concerns over injuries and concussions, those aren't the only reasons why interest is waning.
Read the full transcript below:
Lucas Willard: This is Northeast Notebook. I’m Lucas Willard. High school football in New York is going through changes. From shrinking rosters, to changes in attitude about the sport, the outlook for high school football in the state is shifting. But interest in high school sports, as a whole, is not waning. And other forms of football are becoming more popular. On today’s show: Is pigskin really on the skids?
The Coxsackie-Athens Riverhawks began their 2026 fall football season in August with a shortage of players. Christian Hince covers school sports in Greene County for the Gazette News Group.
Christian Hince: Last year, their entire program had 16 freshmen, but according to the coach, when I talked to him, he said only three or four returned. They were hoping to have low 20s, mid 20s, hopefully by the beginning of the season. Unfortunately, that didn't happen. I was at their first game of the season on September 4th, and they only had 17 players.
Lucas Willard: The Riverhawks opened their season with just one more player than the required minimum of 16. It was a risk.
Christian Hince: So hypothetically, if they had two players injured out for the game by halftime, they would have to forfeit.
Lucas Willard: Fast forward to the game on September 25th against Greenwich.
Christian Hince: So, they started the game with 17 players, had three injured by halftime, and had to forfeit. And then come Monday, I talked to the coach, and they canceled the season.
Lucas Willard: It was a sting for the district and an unfortunate repeat of a similar situation in 2024, when the team also did not make it to October. But Coxsackie-Athens is not the only district that began the season with a low number of interested players. Kyle Manny is the Director of Athletics at Lake George Central School District. Lake George high schoolers play football on a combined team with students from the Warrensburg and Bolton districts.
Kyle Manny: We looked at our numbers and said, "Hey, we think we're going to be, you know, maybe low 20s with kids that would be eligible for our kind of varsity level, and talked with our coaches and really felt, "Hey, this was the best move for us to maintain a football offering.
Lucas Willard: The Warrensburg-Lake George-Bolton Wolverines switched this season to eight-man football – that was something Coxsackie-Athens did try for a small number of games in 2024 after their 11-man season was halted. Kyle Manny says he was a little worried about making the change to the game that involves three less players on the field at a time. That was until other districts in the region were also having some difficulty in putting together the minimum 16 players for an 11-man team.
Kyle Manny: Imagine just the logistics of, “Hey, to have a game, we've got to travel over two hours,” right? But when some local schools in the section said we're going eight-man. So five schools, adding to these four schools that had already played eight-man in Section 2, that really was the impetus to bring it, I think, in a bigger way to our section.
Lucas Willard: There are less schools for an eight-man team to play against. That can be challenging for a district looking for a way to keep its football program when there are less students wanting to join the team. Christian Hince says there’s other resistance toward shrinking the team.
Christian Hince: Starting with the fact that it's eight players instead of 11, there's the classic John Madden quote: "If there aren't 11 players, it isn't real football.”
Lucas Willard: When did he say that?
Christian Hince: When they were making Madden, yeah, because I guess he saw Tecmo Bowl…
Lucas Willard: When they were making the video game?
Christian Hince: Yeah, yeah. It's I think it was in the original handbook for Madden.
Lucas Willard: Kyle Manny also wondered if students and families would welcome the change to a smaller team.
Kyle Manny: Absolutely, you know, I had the same question. We just had our homecoming this past weekend, and it was our first game that we hosted here at Lake George. We had one other home game that was at Warrensburg, but yeah, I was wondering about that. And to be honest, our stands were full, both visitor and home side. It felt like a regular homecoming.
Lucas Willard: The unfortunate truth is that interest in traditional high school football is on the decline.
Christian Hince: Yeah, just football is kind of dropping in New York and nationally.
Lucas Willard: Is that because of worry about people getting hurt?
Christian Hince: Yeah, definitely.
Lucas Willard: You think so?
Christian Hince: Yeah, I’ve seen comments under my article about the season's cancellation, and the big thing is injuries, concussions, and safety.
Lucas Willard: Christian also thinks a drawback is eight-man football doesn’t have a state-level tournament for teams to compete in. But there’s other reasons why less boys are playing tackle football. Robert Zayas is the executive director of the New York State Public High School Athletic Association. Also known as NYSPHAA, the group oversees interscholastic high school sports in the Empire State. He says one major reason for football’s decline is sports specialization among students.
Robert Zayas: I think that brings an awful lot into, maybe the figures, that we see, is “Hey, total participation is down.”It's not necessarily down. It's just that we're seeing less kids play three or two sports in a season compared to maybe potentially just specializing in just baseball or just basketball.
Lucas Willard: As Robert explains, students are now more likely to pick one sport. And football, unlike other sports like volleyball or soccer, is not a club sport – so athletes can’t play tackle football year-round. But Kyle Manny in Lake George says there’s no single reason to explain tackle football’s decline in popularity.
Kyle Manny: People always want the one thing, right? Why is this happening for football, right? And I think the answer is not one thing, right? If we were throwing them all in a bucket, there's multiple things. Specialization, yeah, throw it in the bucket. That's one of the reasons we're seeing, maybe, a decline in football numbers at small schools. It's not the only reason, right? You alluded to, “Hey, are there parents who are cautious about that it's a contact sport in concussions.” Yep, that's one of the reasons that certain kids may or may not play, right? You know, there's as you alluded to, football is one of those sports where there isn't a club offering. There's not club football. There's not an off-season offering for football, right? Maybe that's one of the reasons, right? So, there's many reasons I think, and it's not just one that factor into this. And one of the things that we’ve looked at is: I think some people think oh, it’s just happening in our community. But as you alluded to – no, it’s broader than that.
Lucas Willard: But there is at least one version of football that is not shrinking.
Lucas Willard: Now, what about flag football? Is that growing in popularity?
Christian Hince: Girls' flag football had a very, you know, very successful. You know, it's definitely growing in the Capital Region.
Lucas Willard: As Christian Hince points out, girls’ flag football is on the upswing. Robert Zayas says it’s not only one of the fastest growing sports in the state, but across the country.
Robert Zayas: We have over 250 teams within the structure of our association playing girls' flag football.
Lucas Willard: Across the state line in Massachusetts, Governor Maura Healey recently called on the Massachusetts Interscholastic Athletic Association to recognize girls’ flag football as an official varsity sport. Healey says the sport creates opportunities for “young women to compete, lead and represent their schools.” And back in Lake George, Kyle Manny says he wants football to remain — no matter what form it takes.
Kyle Manny: Our ultimate goal is to have a football offering for our student-athletes, right? So whether that's eight-man or eleven-man, we want to offer football to the kids that want to play it here, and we want to offer it in a sustainable way.
Lucas Willard: And, he reiterates, eight-man is real football.
Kyle Manny: The Adirondack League, which is the league that we're part of, used to play eight-man football. So we're saying we're returning a little bit to our roots.
Lucas Willard: And Robert Zayas at NYSPHAA says he does not see high school sports, overall, shrinking in New York or nationally. He sees sports programs only growing.
Robert Zayas: Students who participate in high school sports get better grades. That’s research-based. There’s no disputing that fact. They also attend school at a greater rate. They also get less discipline referrals than their non-participating classmates. So, all of those things factored together, it only makes sense for schools and state associations to continue to find ways to increase participation for our student-athletes.
Lucas Willard: Northeast Notebook is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio. Our editor is Diane Devore. Music by Eduardo Rivera. I’m Lucas Willard, I produced this episode. You can subscribe to Northeast Notebook as a podcast. And please remember to rate and review. It helps others find the program. Thanks for listening.
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