Low Numbers-Struggling to Generate Excitement

Call there parents and talk to them and see what happens. Be committed to playing the kids who are committed to your off season program. I like your incentives. Also base numbers and equipment hand out off attendance.

Was definitely thinking about going the parent route. Parent support has not been great so not sure what type of response I will get but it's worth a shot.

All incentives include:
-Shirts, Shorts, Sweatpants, Hoodies
-1st locker, 1st equipment, 1st number selection, helmet stickers
-top 10: eligible to be elected captain, 1st in line for team meals, top 10 T-shirt, top 10 cookout, 2 days excused from august conditioning

We are small at 300+. We also have quite a few multi sport athletes. The OP was talking specifically about those that do not play another sport.

What do you do before or after your weight sessions that is competitive / fun? Give the kids another reason to attend--something that the regulars don't stop talking g about...
Ex: when basketball ends, we set up small teams and brackets and we will play touch football in the gym. Or we will go outside and run routes on each other in a FUN setting not a serious football setting.

Just a thought...I am in a similar situation. My enrollment is just a little larger.

Stay the course, in the end most of us end coaching somewhere else anyhow.

Many times for the better.

Do you hear that noise.....that clanking sound is the sound of the first lug nut coming off of the tires of high school athletics.  It wont be long until the wheels come off.  I truly don't want to sound like chicken little here, but almost every coach that we played last year had lower numbers than the year before.  This site is full of posts from coaches talking about the low numbers and player-school-community apathy towards football and athletics in general.

At our school, we went from a record breaking year to approximatly a 30% drop in numbers.  And it is not just football, baseball coach is saying he can't get anyone interested in getting in the weight room or doing off season stuff.  Some sports we barely have enough to field a team.  Ask the other coaches at your school what their participation is?  I bet they are working their butt off to get players to get involved.

My theory is this, the programs and schools that have a long tradition of winning/competing will have the occasional blip of lower participation, but they still stay strong.  The problem is for the programs that haven't made it over the hump to be a competitive/consistent program, or they are constantly "rebuilding".  Kids just don't seem inclined to put in the extra effort when the chips are down to do what has to be done to get the program going in the right direction.  I hear it all the time, "Were just going to suck so why try".  They don't get that in order to "not suck", every body has to get on board and do the work needed.  No amount of t-shirts and rewards is going to get the kids out at these mid to low level programs.  Throw in community apathy, and the reality is you would be better off putting your energy into looking for another school to go to.  

Hate to sound cynical, but I see so many things pushing kids away from sports (hard work, bad economy, pay to play, lack of mental toughness, mommies afraid of injury, NFL concussion coverage etc.) that I don't see this trend changing any time soon.

I don't buy this...  Our school had the highest number of participants that they have had in about 5 or 6 years this past season.  The year before was the second best.  Last year we had two middle school teams for the first time ever.  In being a HC for 5 different HS there have only been two seasons where there wasn't an increase in numbers from the previous year.  The first was I was new to a school and came in with the attitude of "changing the culture" this was mistake as really all I did was alienate a handful of boys that probably could have helped us.  I learned having a certain structure, certian expectations, and a specific philosophy of discipline has nothing to do with culture through time the culture may change due to these aspects.  The second time was in a year we decided we needed to increase expectations we ran 6 a.m. workouts all offseason again there was a negative impact as our varsity numbers dipped by about 10, although the total program numbers increased (they did not do the 6 a.m. work).  

Increasing numbers
Ensure kids get to play when it matters at all levels
Make sure you have coaches who teach/insipire vs. rep/discipline
Make sure football isn't a year round "grind" these are KIDS playing a sport
Have Fun as coaches with coaches and with players nobody wants to spend 12 months a year working out and playing for people that are miserable if you and the kids aren't enjoying it likely they aren't going to keep doing it.  Laugh, smile, and cheer the boys on!
Place the kids and other coaches interests in front of your own, keep it about them, their growth, their experience, their memories.  We always say it is the Seniors team, everybody only has one Senior year and we as coaches already had ours so this is yours, we start the year with that each year and we end it with the Seniors leading speeches at the banquet, it is their team, we as coaches are there to guide their experiences, we dictate our schemes (we have more experience in this area), practice structure (to ensure safety and development), and playing time (and we make a good faith effort to give everyone opportunities in this area).

coachjm, was your experience at a school/schools that were always struggling for numbers or a program that had a record of success?  I do not doubt there are and always will be programs that just keep on keeping on every year, but it seems that a lot of places struggle to keep the numbers up.

I agree 100% with your statement about increasing numbers, but the reality is that there is a large number of coaches out there that think everything associated with High School football is about sacrafice and misery and what ever other barrier you can put up at a kid. There are a ton of choices a kid can make other than football, and if football equates to drudgery, you can count that kid out. 

Funny.  So true, hence…funny.

This is outstanding Coach Plaa.

Nice that you had a JV in a school with 300 kids.

When I was at a very small school we had JV for about 3 weeks. Injury, eligibility- we ended up scrapping it half way into the JV season. The next year we didn't have JV because the eligibility issue whipped us out before our season even started.  That was one apathetic community when it came to work ethic in school or in football.  We didn't have 300 though.  Maybe half that.

I know exactly what you mean Coach.  On paper, the enrollment the school is accounting for, may appear like you have a certain amount of boys to potentially come out for football.  But in reality certain cellar dwellers historically really don't have as many prospective players as the enrollment would indicate.  Sometimes schools and communities in football, or any sport for that matter, don't want to be helped.  There is sort of a self-fulfilling prophecy that some schools and communities feel compelled to maintain. This ultimately makes it nearly impossible to even come close to getting over the hump let alone building a program.  They're too busy stepping on their own d!@&$ all of the time that they cannot be successful.  The adage "you need to stop losing before you can start winning" comes to mind.  I mean honestly, how many schools have ever been so horrible for decades then have a dramatic turn around where winning is sustained long term beyond just a few years?  Not many at all. 

Another thing that made it challenging was the league had changed. The new league included teams with 800-900 students in the school.  Not a great situation when some of those schools had rich traditions, separate frosh teams, fully staffed, separate JV teams and a strong tradition. later the league reformed to limit the enrollment to 450 I think.  I think it helps if kids think they can actually make the playoffs. They are then more willing to work.