As high school football teams around the Bay Area kicked off their season this weekend, new statistics show the king of all prep sports is drawing fewer players than it did a decade ago amid a dramatic increase in concussion diagnoses.
High school football participation in California is down 7 percent over the past decade, with some schools dropping teams or even their entire football programs, according to hospital and high school athletics statistics compiled by this newspaper. Every other major high school sport has seen participation grow over that period, and for the first time, track and field has more athletes, knocking football off its pedestal.
But the reason for the trend is not clear. Are parents more reluctant to let their sons play the hard-hitting game? Has a tipping point been reached where waffling fathers and mothers are now pointing their kids toward safer sports?
What is clear is that concern about concussions — traumatic injuries that can alter brain function, especially if repeated — has entered a new era. In the Bay Area, 3,064 girls and boys ages 9 to 18 were diagnosed with sports-related concussions in 2015, an 82 percent increase since 2005, according to numbers compiled by the California Office of Statewide Health Planning and Development exclusively for this newspaper. Across the state, hospitals recorded 17,533 sports-related head injuries in 2015 for that age group, up 57 percent over the same time period.
No one knows for certain whether the significant increase in reported concussions is a reflection of the greater awareness of the injury, credited in large part to changes within the National Football League starting in 2007 to address the growing debate over the long-term effects of repeated head trauma, or the fact that kids spend more time in competitive sports now, increasing the risk of concussions.
Dr. Christine Boyd, a pediatric sports medicine physician at Stanford Children’s Health, suspects the steep increase is due mainly to heightened awareness, but she believes many more concussions are still going undetected.
“Most are silent,” she said. “These numbers may be only the tip of the iceberg, because in general, we think most players don’t report symptoms. And in school districts where they don’t have trainers and folks on the sidelines, they are probably missing most.”
East Bay pediatrician Dr. Eli Sills worries about the problem both as a doctor who has treated dozens of high school football players for head, spine and debilitating joint injuries and as a parent.
“Given the disproportionate number of serious injuries I’ve seen related to tackle football, I have very real concerns about allowing my son to play the sport,” he said of his elementary school-aged child.
Make no mistake, football isn’t the only sport impacted by concussions; the state’s medical stats do not break the concussion numbers down by sport. Some youth soccer leagues, for instance, have implemented rules barring players from “heading” the ball. However, there are in general fewer concerns about head trauma among soccer players, and participation in the sport statewide has increased by almost 16 percent since 2006, with 99,044 boys and girls playing last year, according to California Interscholastic Federation statistics.
Amid the sobering concussion numbers, football — which remains the most dangerous mainstream youth sport, according to studies — has fallen to become the second most popular sport on high school campuses. With overall participation numbers falling, youth sports officials are paying attention.
Since the NFL implemented its new concussion protocol amid much publicity in 2007, fewer high school athletes have chosen to play the sport. In California, 100,538 mostly boys snapped on chin straps last year, down from a high of 108,065 in 2006. The new most popular high school sport, track and field, had 101,851 boys and girls competing last school year, a 15 percent increase since 2006.
“The reason I think the youth football numbers have dropped is due to the issue of concussions,” said Roger Blake, California Interscholastic Federation executive director. “Parents, rightfully so, are asking questions and have concerns.”
Blake, whose agency oversees the state’s high school athletics, said the drop was precipitated by parents pulling their boys from Pop Warner and youth tackle leagues years ago.
“Now those kids are in high school,” Blake said. According to data from the Sports & Fitness Industry Association, 1.52 million youths nationwide ages 6-12 played tackle football in 2009, but the numbers for that group dropped to 1.23 million last year.
Mission San Jose High School in Fremont dropped its entire football program — freshman, junior varsity and varsity teams — this year because of fewer kids participating. It wasn’t sudden; the school competed with 40 players last year, down from 99 in 2009, according to state data.
“I do think the concussion concerns are a reality and did contribute to the decline in numbers over the past few years,” said Tom Thomsen, the school’s athletic director.
Two other Fremont high schools, Irvington and American, dropped their freshman teams this fall, as did Concord High in Concord. College Park in Pleasant Hill started the season without a freshman team but may add one later. Valley Christian in Dublin dropped its varsity team.
Irvington’s athletic director, Michelle Stone, said aside from students picking up other sports, the football head trauma issue definitely played a role in decreasing numbers — the school had 93 players in 2009, which dropped to 69 last year.
The CIF has reacted to the dangers by implementing strict concussion protocols — rules and procedures to test for and treat concussion symptoms — over the past several years, including limiting teams to two, 90-minute-maximum full-contact sessions each week, improving tackling drills, improving coach training and lengthening recovery times for players with concussion symptoms.
That’s not enough to ease the fears of Pamela Roberson, whose son Alexander started at Heritage High School in Brentwood as a 5-foot-10-inch, 190-pound freshman with a size 13 shoe. Despite Alexander’s physical attributes and his interest in playing, Roberson and her son agreed the dangers were too great. Instead, he’s stuck to focusing on saxophone, swimming and schoolwork.
“I couldn’t handle any traumatic injuries to my son through a dumb sport like football,” said Roberson, a former emergency medical technician who was on the field at Stanford during the 1985 Super Bowl and witnessed “unbelievable” injuries. “All sports have their risks, but football goes above and beyond what I would consider tolerable.”
James Crudo, a former quarterback for Oakland’s Bishop O’Dowd, said he gave up high school football after two years because of a series of concussions from a variety of sports and a serious fall when he was 3. The concussion he suffered in football practice was the tipping point for him and his parents, he said.
“With the added dangers of concussions in the news and the real focus on head trauma, it just made sense to let football go,” the 20-year-old college junior said. “I was OK with just focusing on basketball, so I didn’t feel like I was giving up too much.”
Shamik Mehta has had the concussion discussion with his wife and 15-year-old son Vishal but with a different outcome. His son is now a sophomore cornerback on the Saratoga High School junior varsity squad.
“It was a big struggle with my wife and I. How much do we try and protect him and how much do we let him come into his own?” Mehta said. “There’s a risk in everything we do, and it’s not enough to warrant me not letting him do it.”
Mehta said some of his concerns were alleviated by Saratoga’s new helmets, which include sensors that relay a message to the sideline when a dangerous hit occurs.
Head coach Tim Lugo knows the affluent school is fortunate to have the funding to purchase the state-of-the-art equipment. The team, in its second year with the Riddell InSite helmets, now has 45, allowing more than half of the players to wear the $399 head protection. Ten parents bought the helmets on their own, Lugo said.
In fact, the parents of one player who recovered from a concussion last year allowed their son to play after learning about the technology and other steps the team has taken to reduce hits to the head, he said.
Even so, Saratoga High saw its football participation drop from 98 players in 2011 to 66 last year. The school has an athletic trainer for games and practices, but state CIF data show that only 21 percent of high schools have a full-time athletic trainer. If you add part-time athletic trainers and those who only work games, only about half of the state’s campuses have their own medical professional on hand.
But not all coaches are convinced fear of head injuries is driving players away. State participation figures leveled off after the initial decline post-2007, and started to rise slightly before dropping again last year, according to the CIF.
After 35 years of coaching, Kevin Macy, head coach of Moraga’s Campolindo High football team, said it’s “politically correct” these days to be super protective about concussions: “But most kids recover from them, and most of them are very minor.”
His program, a perennial powerhouse, fielded 131 players last year, up from 108 five years ago.
“We’ve scared everyone to the point that if a kid gets a concussion they are damaged for life,” he said. “We’ve turned concussions to an airborne disease. We’ve scared the world so much.”
Jacob Westphal, the school’s starting quarterback, said he’s lucky he has never faced a serious injury. And the 17-year-old senior feels reassured that the team’s athletic trainer and physician are there to assess injuries and pull any player out of the game when needed.
“The way I look at it, like most everything in life, it has significant risks,” he said. “When you’re out there playing, if you’re worried about getting hurt, it puts you a step back in the game. And I love what football gives us. There are so many life lessons that come out of it about teamwork, mental and physical toughness and facing fear.”
Westphal said the limits on tackling in practice may backfire when they suddenly must hit in games — “I just think it makes it more dangerous.”
Kionte Zerai, a 17-year-old senior cornerback at Concord’s Ygnacio Valley High School, said the new CIF regulations lessen contact, and his coaches teach proper tackling techniques.
“We don’t do that much tackling (in practice) anymore,” he said. “It’s more of a quick hug, where you hold and wrap the other player up.
“I’m not worried about it,” he said. “I feel I’m aware of what I’m doing. I’ve been taught to avoid injuries.”
On Thursday, Irvington’s junior varsity team got baseline tests in the school’s computer lab to allow the full-time trainer the ability to monitor the players’ brain function throughout the season. Such innovations have Athletic Director Stone, a grandmother whose own kids played high school football, feeling better about where the sport is headed.
“Parents don’t always quite understand, and they just want to protect their kids,” she said. “I’m feeling confident now that if my grandson wants to play, I’d let him.”
Staff writer Leigh Poitinger contributed to this report. Contact Matthias Gafni at 925-952-5026. Follow him at Twitter.com/mgafni.
