Stats of Decline of Football Participation

[indian-outlaw]

... AAU and travel ball have really hurt sports in my humble opinion. Poor coaching in many cases and concentrating on one singular activity. Not to mention how damn expensive it is!

You hit the nail on the head. It's rare, today, that a kid in sports doesn't have their parents mentioning at nearly every juncture their kid is in the "select" or "travel team" Its not that the kids a are good, its that there are enough of these teams around that if their parents have the $$$ to participate, the kids can find a team. heaven forbid you would have to try out for your school team. It's, IMHO, that the real culprit is everyone gets a trophy/ribbon mentality. God forbid we have multiple teams in a community that plays each other, mostly for fun, and THEN have it turn out that one of those teams is better and your kiddo has to face the fact sometimes you lose.... With electronic games, you can play over and over and eventually win so you never ever lose. (You do know in Missoula at least that HS Soccer is a no-cut sport)

There may not be enough kids in Montana to form teams but that is not the case in Portland, Seattle or Vancouver BC. There are well over 100 players trying for 12 spots on the AA bantum hockey in the sno-king organization. The other players flow down to the A, B and C recreation teams. The same goes for select baseball. They are certainly not ribbon collector teams like apparently you have in Missoula.
The point is 11 man tackle youth football is really a big waste of time for developing athletic skill. At that age they should play 6 man, or even 6 man flag.