Is the love of high school football putting players in danger as Kentucky rosters shrink?

Kenny Walker flips through a three-ring binder on his desk and looks for the page he turns to every day. In the left column is a list of players who’d shown interest in playing football for The Academy @ Shawnee. On the top row are handwritten dates. And next to each name are rows of black check marks and X’s.

Walker pulls up a chair, his left elbow on the desk and his hand on his chin. He goes down the page, one row at a time.

X, X, X, X, check. X, X, X, check ...

It takes less than a minute to take attendance.

Sixteen players came to football practice that Wednesday in September.

“Last Friday night, we had 14 dressed out,” Walker said. “We had 15 the week before and 16 in the first game.”

Many signs suggest Walker should give up the program, or at least consider it. Participation is dangerously low, increasing safety risks. On-field success is nonexistent. And the story is getting worse, for Shawnee and a number of other local programs fighting to stay afloat. 

The Kentucky High School Athletic Association’s participation report shows participation in football has been on a steady decline for at least five years. This year in the state 13,075 students played football — a 9.6% decrease from 2015, when 14,336 participated.

The National Federation of State High School Associations announced two months ago that participation in high school sports declined in 2018-2019 for the first time in 30 years, the biggest contributor being boys 11-player football. According to the federation's annual High School Athletics Participation Survey, the number of participants in 11-player football dropped last year to 1,006,013, the lowest mark since 1,002,734 in the 1999-2000 school year.

While schools like St. Xavier and Trinity boast more than 100 players and a typical metro Louisville team has about 45, schools like Shawnee, Kentucky Country Day and Western struggle to find a healthy number of players for a varsity team on Friday nights. 

The issue isn't faced only by smaller schools. In four years, DeSales saw a decline of more than 40 players from over 100 to now in the low 60s. The school also had to cancel the freshman team this year. Manual brought back its freshman team — which includes a few sophomores — after canceling last season.

Preseason:Shawnee football looks to build new foundation and snap its losing streak

As the 2019 regular season wraps up soon and the best teams turn to the playoffs, some teams are simply relieved to have gotten through a season without calamity after using a handful of players on nearly every snap of entire games.

Every football coach would argue that the sport is about more than winning. But when do roster sizes sideline those altruistic ambitions? 

“Football brings so much to a young man’s life. It teaches you so many things,” Walker said. “It teaches you how to get along with someone else who doesn’t look like you. It teaches you how to get along with others and it teaches you work ethic and discipline and respect. Even if you have 11 or 12 guys, you’re still getting all aspects of the game.”

Shawnee, which has the state’s longest losing streak at 52 games, dating back to 2014, scored for the first time all season last week against Gallatin County.

Against Seneca in Week 3, three Shawnee players left the game with injuries. Walker had 12 athletes healthy enough to play for most of the second half. Several players had their hands on their knees, gasping for air. With the running clock already in place by halftime, the coaches decided to have six-minute quarters in the second half. Shawnee lost 58-0.

For the Golden Eagles, it was another game in the books. But school Principal Kym Rice and athletic director Scott Cissell both support maintaining the program. 

“We have to look at being diverse and differentiating for our kids,” Rice said. “We've got some kids where football is it for them and they won’t do anything else. If I don’t offer football, or whatever sport it may be, I’m missing out on differentiating for the needs of the kids.

"... We never talked about throwing in the towel," she said. "We won’t. We’ll keep going on.”

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Why the decline?

The reasons students choose to not play football vary.

Sometimes, it’s as elementary as preferring to play video games or scroll through their phones in an air-conditioned room. Some don't want to work out on a hot July day with pads or go through a yearlong grueling process to win a championship trophy.

“If you look at teams that struggle — say their record's not so good — then there’s not many kids,” DeSales coach Harold Davis said. “They want to play on teams that are successful and win and be part of that. Everyone wants that instant gratification right now.”

Parents and athletes also have increased concerns about debilitating concussions.

A study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association found chronic traumatic encephalopathy, or CTE, a neurodegenerative disease caused by repeated head injuries, in 99% of brains obtained from deceased NFL players, as well as 91% of college football players and 21% of high school players. The NFL reported the number of concussions suffered in preseason exhibition games this year rose from 34 to 49.  

"There is a lot of concussion emphasis and how much publicity there's been," Davis said. "I do think that's one (concern) with parents. We need to teach them concussion stuff — the way you're hitting and to keep your head out of it."

Another primary factor in participation decline, many argue, has been the effects of open enrollment and magnet schools within the Jefferson County Public Schools system. 

With so many options, many students elect to not attend schools closest to their homes. Some would rather take the activity bus or TARC bus and spend nearly two hours round trip to attend their desired school — and in some cases leave the struggling football programs behind. 

Walker said because of busing, support that used to be concentrated on local schools is now dispersed throughout Louisville. 

But Tracy E. K’Meyer, a history professor at the University of Louisville who’s published books about school desegregation in Louisville, pointed out that the decline in football participation is a fairly recent phenomenon whereas busing was implemented more than 40 years ago.

She did note that families that can afford to send their kids to summer camps, receive tutoring and participate in extracurricular activities also better prepare their kids to win the competition of getting into elite schools. And some of those parents’ money could funnel into athletics and booster clubs.

“The choice system definitely privileges families that have more economic resources,” K’Meyer said.

Kentucky Country Day coach Matt Jones says that the kids’ introductory experience to organized football is crucial to participation numbers, as well. He has about 24 players on his team. Western's roster shows 25, according to the KHSAA website.

“When you’re 11 years old and you got some old guy you don’t know yelling at you and making you run and do up-downs and pushups in the dust, if you give up football at that point, you’re not coming back next year," Jones said. 

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A comeback

Tucker Smith cried when he found out he couldn’t play football anymore. Two years ago as a freshman, he started on the Trimble County varsity team that had 27 players.

But injuries — broken ribs, torn labrum, meniscus tear — piled on for the Raiders in 2017. Many of the starters were playing both sides of the ball, meaning their bodies were more prone to danger.

Interest dipped. Then-football coach Mike Isley discussed with the Trimble County Schools superintendent and principal about ending the program. In July of 2018, the school announced it would be shut down.

“The numbers have been going down. It’s going down everywhere across the state,” said Isley, the current athletic director at Trimble County and the head football coach in 2016 and 2017. “It was for safety reasons. Not having enough players if somebody got hurt.”

They did not come to the decision easily. 

“It was heartbreaking. For safety reasons, we had to do it,” Isley said. “We had no other choice.”

“I was pretty disappointed since I had played football my whole life,” said Dylan Chandler, who played on the 2017 varsity team as a freshman. “I didn’t want to transfer because I played (in the Trimble County schools) my whole life. It was frustrating to know that we had the opportunity to have the team and then not enough kids were showing out.”

But Isley wasn’t giving up. His life since childhood revolved around football and he couldn’t stand not doing anything on Friday nights.

Brian Simmins, the football coach at Trimble County Middle School in 2018, found a teaching position in the high school and revamped the weightlifting program. With a few dozen students showing up, along with football interest, the notion of bringing back the football program brewed.

“I don’t know if it was taken for granted, but I think that the realization that this could happen — that you could lose the program hit hard,” Simmins said. “Until something like that happens, you don’t fully appreciate something until it’s gone.”

Read this:More Kentucky high school girls are hitting the football field

The Raiders brought back the junior varsity team that includes now-juniors Smith and Chandler following a one-year hiatus. Simmins said the school will field just the JV team in 2020, with a mix of varsity opponents, or perhaps play an independent schedule. The goal is to have a varsity team in 2021.

“We’ll see after the season,” Isley said. “Are the kids growing? As far as they’re playing, are they gaining the knowledge to be successful? Do they plan on playing next year or is it just a one-year thing? Lot of factors involved. We’ll have to sit down with the administration to talk after the season.”

Of the 32 players on the roster, 13 are freshmen and 10 are sophomores. The most experienced group are the 13 freshmen, not the three juniors and six seniors on the team, as they played on the middle school team last season. Simmins said the rest of the players had little to no football experience prior to this year.

Ironically, a game against Frankfort earlier this month was canceled on the morning of the game because the opponent didn’t have enough linemen.

Many of the Trimble County players’ practice jerseys are ripped. Of the five tackling dummies on the practice field, four are heavily duct-taped. One is just Styrofoam. But Simmins preaches that “it’s a matter of building relationships and developing the program year-in and year-out.”

As for the players, they’re just glad to be playing football again.

“Fine with me,” Smith said about playing in JV, not varsity. “I like Trimble County and I love playing for them.”

Private Louisville schools Beth Haven and Evangel Christian took a different path. Beth Haven ended football after the 2008 season. 

Beth Haven, which enrolls fewer than 200 students, had 25 players on the 2008 football team that went 3-7. The school projected 22 players would be on the 2009 team, with at least half of them being freshmen.

“It just wasn’t safe to field a varsity team with that many underclassmen,” said Kevin Sample, an assistant coach at Beth Haven from 2006 to 2008 and a principal of the school from 2007 to 2009. “The talent level was as different as daylight and dark."

Sample, who was to be the head coach in 2009 had the school continued the football team, was part of a group, along with the board members, that decided to shut down the program. He said that if the school had fielded a junior varsity team, it needed to get special permission to play the seniors on that team — something its opponents wouldn’t have wanted.

“No one was angry. When you have a group of young people and you explain it to them and their parents, that the biggest factor in your decision was safety,” Sample said. “While you’re going to be very sad about that, no one can be angry about making a decision that’s best for your child.”

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Fighting on

Walker, the Shawnee coach, recalls a game 25 years ago when he was an assistant coach at Atherton. The memory of his team facing St. Xavier still haunts him.

“We had 18 players on the team and three of them were kickers,” Walker said. “They had 99. I counted them. I will never forget that. That night sticks in my mind.”

Walker has coached large teams like the 1999 Fern Creek squad that had 120 players. But in his 25 years of coaching, he said he’s never faced a circumstance as tough as the current one at Shawnee.

“I’ve never been in a situation where I’ve only had 15 people,” he said. “I don’t think I have adjusted actually. I don’t think I ever will.”

Outside the coach’s office, the same day when just 16 players came to practice, 46 locker stalls surrounded the athletes, who chattered loudly with music in the background. A few slouched on the couch and scrolled through their phones. Then one by one, they entered the coach's office to receive bus passes from Walker, coaching the first year of his second stint at Shawnee.

“Can I get a TARC pass?” asked a player.

“Please and thank you?” Walker responded.

“Can I get a TARC pass, please?” he asked again.

Walker took out a dozen passes from his pocket and handed one to the player.

“Thank you.”

“I’m not just coaching for today,” Walker said. “I’m coaching for tomorrow, too.”

David J. Kim: DKim@courierjournal.com; Twitter: @_DavidJKim. Support strong local journalism by subscribing today: courier-journal.com/subscribe.