<p><em>Editor’s note: This is the second in a three-part series examining the state of high school football in Johnson County.</em></p>
<p>Coaching is selling, according to Whiteland football coach Darrin Fisher. Selling prospective athletes, their parents and the community as a whole on your program and making people want to become a part of it and embrace it.</p>
<p>Football has become a much tougher sell as more becomes known about brain injuries and the long-term effects of repetitive head trauma. But while participation has been trending downward both across Indiana and nationwide, the high school programs in Johnson County are holding relatively steady for now.</p>
<p>While more schools are offering football in recent years — a record 325 will compete in IHSAA tournaments this coming season — the number of players competing on those teams has been fluctuating since peaking in 2007.</p>[sc:text-divider text-divider-title="Story continues below gallery" ]
<p>A total of 18,409 players competed in high school football across Indiana last season, down from 19,048 just two years earlier.</p>
<p>Football participation peaked nationally in 2008, when 1,140,024 players were competing at the high school level. That figure dropped to 1,086,748 in 2016, a fairly significant dip of almost 5 percent.</p>
<p>Locally, though, a few schools have managed to buck the downward trend. Greenwood’s numbers were up last season, with 91 players in the program compared with 82 in 2016, and Franklin had 106 players on its three teams last fall. Fisher says that participation at Whiteland has grown steadily in recent years along with the school’s enrollment.</p>
<p>Whether that growth is sustainable over the long haul remains to be seen. Though high school roster sizes are in line with recent history, the numbers at the lower levels have been taking a bit of a hit.</p>
<p>"The biggest drop-off has been our youth numbers," Greenwood coach Mike Campbell said. "We’re still solid where we’re at, but I think it’s indicative of the overall national numbers; we’re starting to see that with a lot of youth kids."</p>
<p>Fisher says that Whiteland experienced a drop in participation over about a three-year window, which could well leave the Warriors with some smaller classes in the future.</p>
<p>"When all the news hit about football being unsafe, when those parents and those kids were making their choices — ‘Do I want to be a football player or not?’ — that’s what it coincides with," Fisher said, adding that participation levels are back up to normal in the most recent groups entering the Whiteland youth program.</p>
<p>Campbell also qualifies the downward trend in youth numbers, noting that while there are fewer elementary-age kids playing tackle football in Greenwood, flag football participation is up. He remains hopeful that at least some of those players will choose to transition over to tackle football as they get into middle school.</p>
<p>Some of that comes down to high school coaches being able to sell the benefits of playing — and Campbell knows exactly who the pitch usually needs to be tailored to.</p>
<p>"Two people have to be ready for the kids to play tackle football," he said. "Number one, mom, and number two, the kid. The kid has to want to be out there."</p>
<p>At Indian Creek, the high school team has 55 players out this year, down slightly from last year’s 59 — but varsity coach Brett Cooper says he’s actually dealing with a surge at the lower levels.</p>
<p>"I know some areas are struggling a little bit," Cooper said, "but we actually have too many kids in our youth league; we have to split teams. We’re looking, probably pushing 30 kids in seventh grade, which is huge numbers here."</p>
<p>For the time being, it seems that plenty of kids still want to be out there — and judging from ticket sales, plenty of parents and fans still want to come out on Friday nights to watch them play.</p>
<p>Center Grove has managed to keep its football program profitable, though profits have gone down somewhat in recent years thanks in large part to rising expenses. The Trojans pulled in $869,901 in gate receipts between 2004 and 2016, with a net profit of $425,458 after expenses.</p>
<p>That averages out to almost $32,728 per year, but some recent seasons have fallen well short of that due to higher costs. In 2016, for example, the program made just $9,569 after expenses of $56,199 ate up most of the $65,768 made at the gate.</p>
<p>Greenwood’s balance sheets for the 2015 and 2016 seasons each show a net profit of just over $20,000, with a total of more than $68,500 in ticket sales and costs of about $27,000 for equipment, uniforms and officials over the course of those two years.</p>
<p>Most of the other programs in the county are treading water from year to year or finishing up with a little bit of a shortfall.</p>
<p>Franklin reported about $40,375 in revenue and just under $33,100 in total expenses last season, but athletic director Bill Doty said that the program would essentially break even after some additional postseason maintenance work — repair or replacement of the sound system, scoreboard, cameras, and headsets — was factored in.</p>
<p>At Whiteland, the football program brings in enough money that students don’t have to pay to play, but the expenses usually eat up most or all of that revenue. According to athletic director Ken Sears, about $10,000 goes to new helmets and shoulder pads each year, with another $6,000 to $9,000 put toward reconditioning. On years when new uniforms are purchased, there is another $20,000 in expenses.</p>
<p>"Throw in $2,000 for balls and other necessities and your gate gets eaten up pretty quickly," Sears added, noting that boys basketball is actually Whiteland’s most profitable sport.</p>
<p>Of course, basketball doesn’t have nearly the same expenses that football does, either. But as long as the costs can be covered, the county’s high school football programs won’t be going anywhere anytime soon.</p>
<p>"I’m very comfortable with where the game is and where it’s going," Cooper said. "You’re going to take lumps and punches just because it is a game of physical nature … (but) I’ve got no worries; I think the technology will adapt and change with it. It already has."</p>
<p>"I think football will have a place for quite a while," Campbell said.</p>
<p>How long of a while may depend in part on how well the coaches can continue to sell the sport.</p>[sc:pullout-title pullout-title="By the numbers" ][sc:pullout-text-begin]<p>Participation in high school football statewide hit its peak in the 2007 season, when 19,147 players were on the rosters of the 316 teams competing in the IHSAA playoffs. A look at how those numbers have fluctuated in recent years:</p>
<p><strong>Year;Teams;Players</strong></p>
<p>2013;322;18,668</p>
<p>2014;317;18,739</p>
<p>2015;321;19,048</p>
<p>2016;321;18,630</p>
<p>2017;321;18,409</p>
<p>Note: There will be 325 teams competing in the 2018 tournament, with four programs joining or rejoining: Crispus Attucks, Bowman Academy, Rock Creek Academy and Traders Point Christian.</p>[sc:pullout-text-end]
