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Illinois high school football participation hits 26-year low as other sports grow in popularity. Competitive video gaming could soon join them.


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https://www.chicagotribune.com/news/breaking/ct-high-school-football-decline-20190830-ptht7reqtrc55ipkos2joqbmn4-story.html

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High school football participation in Illinois last year dipped below 40,000 players for the first time since 1993, a sign of the sport’s continuing struggle to attract athletes.

Figures put out by the National Federation of State High School Associations this week show that America’s overall sports participation last year dropped for the first time in three decades. Football led the way: Over the last 12 years, the number of students playing the sport has dipped by 8%.

Football’s losses in Illinois, however, have been far more severe. From a peak of 51,334 players in 2007, the state last year saw only 38,366 teens go out for the sport, a 25% drop.

Illinois High School Association Executive Director Craig Anderson couldn’t explain the sport’s extreme decline here, but said his organization aims to join with other groups to rehabilitate football’s reputation.

“That’s where we really need to turn the tables and try to create a national movement (regarding) football, and the fact that the game is the safest it has even been in its history,” he said. “We just have to get the conversation happening on a variety of levels.”

Coaches told the Tribune several factors are driving the decline, including the trend of children specializing in a single sport and a growing aversion to football’s rigor. But the continuing fear of head injuries remains the biggest reason, some said.

“These are really smart kids,” said Lane Tech coach Tony Faltin. “When you start talking concussions and permanent brain damage, you see some of these parents saying, ‘Eh, I don’t know if I want Johnny to play football.’ ”

His school is cutting against the participation trend, though, with 95 kids on the varsity and junior varsity teams headed into Friday’s season opener. That’s 15 more than Lane Tech has averaged in recent years, he said, something he attributes to vigorous recruiting, a $50,000 investment in top-of-the-line helmets and the sideline presence of the concussion specialist.

“Coaching high school football is lot different than when I played,” he said. “It takes a lot of convincing.”

.....

Some schools are giving up the game altogether. Mooseheart, a small private school near Aurora, started playing football more than a century ago, but this year is forgoing the sport in favor of its first boys soccer team.

“It’s a combination of things,” Executive Director Gary Urwiler told the Aurora Beacon-News earlier this year. “But ultimately, when you look at the strength of our program and look at the profile of our students, the majority come to us with more soccer experience than football.”

Other schools are turning to 8-man football to keep the sport alive. Illinois will have 16 teams playing the miniaturized version of the sport this fall, more than double last year’s total.

...

Meanwhile, a new option could soon present itself. Anderson said the IHSA is continuing discussions over making competitive video gaming a sanctioned sport or activity (titles under consideration include “League of Legends,” “FIFA,” “NBA 2K” and “Super Smash Bros.”), and the official stamp of approval could come by 2021.

“I believe within the next two years we’ll likely have an esports state series where schools can enter and participate,” he said.

The small Illinois town my mother grew up in was a small-school football power for decades but now is kept alive only by a co-op agreement with a neighboring school district, creating one football team out of two separate high schools.  That may become reality here in Indiana as well.

 

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Participation in high school activities in Colorado hits an all-time high ...

https://chsaanow.com/2019-07-15/participation-in-high-school-activities-in-colorado-hits-an-all-time-high/

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This year, a total of 82.53% of the total membership enrollment participated in high school activities in one form or another. That includes 59.35% in sports, and 23.18% in activities. This marks the 21st consecutive year that sports participation has been above 54% of the total membership enrollment, and eighth of the past nine that it has surpassed 58%.

CHSAA's largest activity is music, with 41,499 participants. Football is the second-largest with 16,888 participants, the sport's highest figure since 2012-13, and is followed by boys basketball (11,723), girls volleyball (11,672), boys track (10,243), and girls basketball (9,045).

Boys basketball saw the largest increase in terms of percentage, growing 27% from 2017-18 to 2018-19. Girls basketball had the second-biggest growth, jumping up 24%.

Girls volleyball showed the third-fastest growth (23%) and hockey and spirit (both 13%) were fourth.

Overall, 14 sports and two activities showed growth from the previous season.

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1 hour ago, XStar said:

Competitive video gaming isn't a sport.  It's a competition.  

If it gets a student a scholarship, so what?  Are you saying team-based video games can't team similar lessons like those purportedly taught in football, baseball, or basketball?

 

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5 minutes ago, Muda69 said:

If it gets a student a scholarship, so what?  Are you saying team-based video games can't team similar lessons like those purportedly taught in football, baseball, or basketball?

 

Although I'm not supposed to feed a troll, I just can't help myself. Here you go Muda, enjoy this piping hot flatus hoagie. 

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3 minutes ago, Tanka Jahari said:

Although I'm not supposed to feed a troll, I just can't help myself. Here you go Muda, enjoy this piping hot flatus hoagie. 

That is not a troll Mr. Jahari,  it is an honest question.  A number of colleges nationwide offer scholarships based on video game skills,  Indiana's own Trine University being one of them:  https://www.trine.edu/news/2016/esports.aspx

I also fail to understand how one can 'enjoy' a 'piping hot flatus hoagie' in a medium where smell and/or sound is generally not available.  Although  I guess you are welcome to record you flatulence and attach it to a forum post as a .wav or other sound format file.      Methinks that may run afoul of the GID posting guidelines however.

 

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1 hour ago, Muda69 said:

If it gets a student a scholarship, so what?  Are you saying team-based video games can't team similar lessons like those purportedly taught in football, baseball, or basketball?

 

Almost any definition of "sport" I look up maintains some sort of athletic component to it.  That is what disqualifies video gaming for me.  If you want to call it a sport, that's on you.  

 

E-sports is a competition.  Whether it teaches teamwork or not, it lacks a significant component of athelticism or physical exertion to meet the definitions of a "sport" that I read.  You can probably teach teamwork in a cooking class too but that does not qualify it as a sport.  

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17 minutes ago, XStar said:

Almost any definition of "sport" I look up maintains some sort of athletic component to it.  That is what disqualifies video gaming for me.  If you want to call it a sport, that's on you.  

 

E-sports is a competition.  Whether it teaches teamwork or not, it lacks a significant component of athelticism or physical exertion to meet the definitions of a "sport" that I read.  You can probably teach teamwork in a cooking class too but that does not qualify it as a sport.  

https://www.theplayerstribune.com/en-us/articles/gordon-hayward-jazz-video-games

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...

There’s something really exciting happening in the gaming world right now since live streaming became popular in the past five years or so.

Games are extremely complex and nuanced now. Take, for example, a game that’s already past its prime, but for a long while was the dominant force in competitive gaming: Starcraft II. In my opinion, it’s the most difficult game to get good at. I put hours and hours (and hours) of time into it and basically amounted to an average player (well, to be fair, I almost made it to Master level, which is pretty good). What do I mean when I say the game is complex? Well, there’s a metric in Starcraft called Actions Per Minute (APM). The best players in the world hover at an APM of about 300. That’s five actions per second, with each individual action at least having some impact on the final outcome of the match.

Given that context, watching players’ minds work in real time is nothing short of fascinating, and it’s also the best way to improve. Plenty of people watch major sporting events, but the vast majority do so strictly to be entertained. When gamers are watching professionals, yes, they’re entertained, but they’re also trying to learn. In my opinion, that’s pretty cool.

Now some of you might be confused as to why I’m using the term “professionals” when referring to video game players. Well, in the past few years in particular, professional gaming has become a thing, and it’s becoming more and more of a thing. This isn’t even a fringe culture. It’s a movement, really. And as a non-gamer, you can either acknowledge this fact, or you can be wrong.

...

 

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16 hours ago, XStar said:

Not sure if this was meant to support your position of it being a sport or not.

Tell me how many football players are able to maintain 300 Actions Per Minute in a video game.    There is a physical coordination, muscle memory,  and stamina component there that you refuse to acknowledge.

Is golf a sport in your opinion?  Why or why not?

 

 

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37 minutes ago, Muda69 said:

Tell me how many football players are able to maintain 300 Actions Per Minute in a video game.    There is a physical coordination, muscle memory,  and stamina component there that you refuse to acknowledge.

Is golf a sport in your opinion?  Why or why not?

I don't deny any of those things.  I also don't deny that the participants probably perform better when they take care of their physical health.  

As for golf, that's a good question.  I'd lean towards no.  It's a skill competition like darts or bowling or racing cars.  That's not to say that some pro golfers aren't otherwise in good shape and likely very athletic.  But what they do is far more a competition of skill rather than athleticism in my opinion.  

 

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18 minutes ago, Graphic Context said:

The definition of sport from dictionary.com:

an athletic activity requiring skill or physical prowess and often of a competitive nature, as racing, baseball, tennis, golf, bowling, wrestling, boxing, hunting, fishing, etc.

I am not arguing either way, just throwing it out there.

The "or" in that definition is key.  Can anyone here deny that being a top flight competitive video game player mean developing certain skills, much like football?

 

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15 minutes ago, Graphic Context said:

The definition of sport from dictionary.com:

an athletic activity requiring skill or physical prowess and often of a competitive nature, as racing, baseball, tennis, golf, bowling, wrestling, boxing, hunting, fishing, etc.

I am not arguing either way, just throwing it out there.

You should bold "athletic activity" as well.  I think that's where reasonable people might disagree what constitutes "athletic activity".  

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12 minutes ago, Muda69 said:

Race car drivers?

 

I don't consider driving a car an athletic activity.  Would driving a 400 mile race at speeds reaching 200+ mph be physically taxing?  Sure.  Giving birth is physically taxing too.  I don't consider it an athletic activity.  

Basketball, Football, Soccer, Tennis, Gymnastics, Weightlifting, Running, Swimming, Skating/Hockey.

Edited by XStar
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2 minutes ago, XStar said:

I don't consider driving a car an athletic activity.  Would driving a 400 mile race at speeds reaching 200+ mph be physically taxing?  Sure.  Giving birth is physically taxing too.  I don't consider it an athletic activity.  

Basketball, Football, Soccer, Tennis, Gymnastics, Weightlifting, Running, Swimming.  

We get it, your personal definition of "'athletic activity" and by extension "athlete" is purposefully narrow.

https://bleacherreport.com/articles/1638728-5-ways-to-win-a-debate-with-anyone-who-says-nascar-drivers-arent-athletes#slide1

 

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51 minutes ago, Muda69 said:

We get it, your personal definition of "'athletic activity" and by extension "athlete" is purposefully narrow.

https://bleacherreport.com/articles/1638728-5-ways-to-win-a-debate-with-anyone-who-says-nascar-drivers-arent-athletes#slide1

 

 

Who is "we"?  Are you speaking for someone else in addition to yourself? 

It is funny that you offered a bleacherreport article to back up your viewpoint.  Because the standards for writing for that site are so high that every article is full of worthwhile opinions.  How about you save me the time and tell me what it says so I can tell you what I disagree with.  I don't believe in giving such trash sites a click of my attention.  

You've now demonstrated you've completely lost track of the debate.  NASCAR drivers absolutely can be athletes but now you're introducing another term to this debate.  Until now, I've only attempted to define an "athletic activity" because that seemed to be a pre-requisite for determining what a sport is.  Now you're trying to imply that if anyone is an athlete, the activity in which they happen to be engaging in must be considered an athletic activity.  The world's greatest athlete could be washing his car.  That happens to require a minimal amount of physical activity.  Yet nobody in their right mind would consider that an athletic activity even if the Olympic gold medalist in the Heptathlon were doing it.  That doesn't mean I'm saying that person is not an athlete.  Just that he's not engaged in an athletic competition when he's washing his car (or playing video games).

I kind of get what I'm up against here though.  Because so many people play video games, even as adults, and there is finally something substantial that can be gained by a few select people in doing so, everyone is going to try to justify their behavior by making video games out to be a worthwhile endeavor.  Nobody wants to admit that all those years spent in their parent's basement playing Call of Duty instead of going out on dates or taking showers were a waste of time.  So now that a handful of people have actually benefited by being good at video games, every "gamer" wants to cling to that success and extrapolate far past reality.  That's all this "debate" really is.  People trying to justify their behavior.  

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1 hour ago, XStar said:

Who is "we"?  Are you speaking for someone else in addition to yourself? 

We are Legion.

1 hour ago, XStar said:

It is funny that you offered a bleacherreport article to back up your viewpoint.  Because the standards for writing for that site are so high that every article is full of worthwhile opinions. 

As opposed to your opinion, which must always be worthwhile?

1 hour ago, XStar said:

 Now you're trying to imply that if anyone is an athlete, the activity in which they happen to be engaging in must be considered an athletic activity.  

You try not being an athlete and drive a NASCAR car or Indy car in a competitive 400-500 mile race.  Tell me how it goes.

So to you an  'athletic activity' must include running, jumping, throwing, or catching.  Correct?

1 hour ago, XStar said:

I kind of get what I'm up against here though.  Because so many people play video games, even as adults, and there is finally something substantial that can be gained by a few select people in doing so, everyone is going to try to justify their behavior by making video games out to be a worthwhile endeavor.  Nobody wants to admit that all those years spent in their parent's basement playing Call of Duty instead of going out on dates or taking showers were a waste of time.  So now that a handful of people have actually benefited by being good at video games, every "gamer" wants to cling to that success and extrapolate far past reality.  That's all this "debate" really is.  People trying to justify their behavior.  

Sound like sour grapes that you suck at video games.  Just admit it.

I've played video games for 30+ years now and I have a successful career, a loving family,  great friends, etc.  Does that mean I still have to justify that behavior to you?

 

 

 

 

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