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Sep. 5—STANDISH — For years, people tried to convince Ben Noe to play football.
“People were telling me since I was growing up I should play football, but I just kept on denying,” said Noe, a reserve sophomore wide receiver/defensive back pressing for varsity time at Bonny Eagle High. “I gave it a try (last year) and I started liking it, and now I love the game. I try to spread my love of football to other people to see if they can join as well.”
Noe, who transferred to Bonny Eagle from South Portland High as a freshman, is not alone.
As teams and fans head to gridirons across the state for season-opening games this week, football is the lone fall high school sport in Maine experiencing a large rise in participation over the last five seasons.
In the 2018 season, 3,213 athletes played football on Maine varsity, junior varsity or freshmen teams. Last season, the number rose to 3,391 — the highest it has been since 3,450 students played in 2017.
Research by the Portland Press Herald/Maine Sunday Telegram shows that just about every other sport has seen a decline in participation over the last 12 seasons.
But not football, which had 3.5% participation growth in 2022 and 5.8% in 2023. Based on rosters provided by 11- and eight-man football coaches across the state, a small increase seems likely in 2024, too.
Participation data is collected by the Maine Principals’ Association and then submitted to the National Federation of State High School Associations.
According to 2023 data from the NFHS, football participation is up 6.4% compared with 2019, the final season before COVID derailed all high school sports.
By comparison, boys’ soccer participation is down 12.4% over the same time period, and girls’ soccer and field hockey have declined 14% and 25.1%, respectively. Overall participation in MPA-sponsored sports is down…
Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/years-decline-maine-high-school-224800881.html
Author : Portland Press Herald, Maine
Publish date : 2024-09-05 22:48:00
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