High school football

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A running back sweeps the left end in a high school football game near Cincinnati, Ohio
A running back sweeps the left end in a high school football game near Cincinnati, Ohio

High school football is one of most popular interscholastic sports at high schools in the United States and the second most popular in Canada right after ice hockey. The game's popularity with both audiences and students is widespread across both nations.

High school football dates back to the late 19th century, concurrent with the start of many college football programs. In the late 19th and early 20th century, many college and high school teams played against one another. Many other traditions of college football such as marching bands and homecoming games are mirrored in high school football.

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[edit] Rules

Rules are established by the National Federation of State High School Associations. Two states, Texas and Massachusetts, use NCAA playing rules.

With their common ancestry, the rules of high school football are largely similar to the college game, though with some important differences:

  • The four quarters are each 12 minutes in length, as opposed to 15 minutes in all other forms of the game.
  • Kickoffs take place at the kicking team's 40-yard (37 m) line, as opposed to 30 in college and the NFL.
  • If a ball crosses the plane of the goal line on a missed field goal, it would be a touchback and the opposing team will start at the 20-yard (18 m) line.
  • Any kick crossing the goal line is automatically a touchback; kicks cannot be returned out of the end zone.
  • Pass interference by the defense results in a 15-yard (14 m) penalty (and automatic first down), regardless of where the foul occurred (unlike the pro ranks where the ball is placed at the spot of the foul).
  • The defense cannot return an extra-point attempt for a score.
  • The use of overtime, and the type of overtime used, is up to the individual state association.

At least one unique high school rule has been adopted by college football. In 1996, the overtime rules originally utilized by Kansas high school teams were adopted by the NCAA.

[edit] The high school football season

High school football stadium in Manhattan, Kansas
High school football stadium in Manhattan, Kansas

Training for the upcoming season usually starts in June with weightlifting and other conditioning activities. Some states allow seven on seven scrimmages, while others prohibit formal practices during most of the summer. Near the end of the summer in mid-August, double sessions tend to begin and usually last for one week. After double sessions end, regular season practices begin with daily sessions each week day afternoon except on game day. Practices are sometimes held on Saturday as well, but almost never on Sunday.

The regular season typically consists of eleven weeks; ten games and a bye week. The first game of the season is usually in early September and the final game is usually in late November. The vast majority of high school football games are scheduled for Friday nights, with Thursday evenings and Saturdays being less heavily used (these are common in larger school districts where the facilities are used by multiple schools). Larger schools (especially those with successful programs) can often draw attendances in the thousands, even for regular season games, and in some cases may play the game at a college or professional stadium to accommodate the expected large crowds.

Each state has at least one sanctioning organization for public schools. In many states a separate organization governs interscholastic athletics at most private schools. Each sanctioning body divides its member schools up into anywhere from two to eight size classifications based on enrollment and then each classification is further divided into geographic regions. The size classifications are arranged from 'A'/'1A' (the smallest) to 'AAAAAAAA'/'8A' (the largest), though the nomenclature and number of size divisions vary from state to state. A school's size classification will change if its enrollment rises or declines over the years. At the smallest schools, particularly in rural communities or smaller private schools, variations on the game using six, eight, or nine players per side instead of the traditional eleven (or twelve in Canada) are encountered.

Prior to the 1970s, many states crowned state champions through polls, but playoff systems have become nearly universal since then and most states have steadily increased the number of teams eligible to participate and total number of classifications. Though the playoff scheme and number of teams eligible varies, regional champions will compete in elimination playoff rounds — in a tradition borrowed from pro football rather than college — to determine a state champion for each size classification. The championship games are usually held at a neutral site, usually a college or NFL stadium needed to accommodate the larger crowds. Note that some states with large populations such as New Jersey only crown regional champions, and in many large cities, including Pittsburgh, Virginia Beach, Buffalo, New York City, and Los Angeles, public high schools compete in their own "city leagues" and may or may not ever play opponents outside of them. At the other extreme is West Virginia, in which regional championships do not exist; the state's playoffs are seeded on a statewide basis.

Some publications and internet sites release nationwide rankings based on polls or mathematical formulas which take into account various factors like average margin of victory and strength of schedule. Schools that finish atop these rankings, particularly the USA Today poll, are sometimes considered to be the national champions.

[edit] Home schooling and high school football

Homeschooled students may also participate in high school football through independent or freelance teams that compete against small private (or in a few cases, public) schools. In some states, such as Florida, state law allows homeschooled students to compete in interscholastic athletics for their local school district. Thus, homeschooled Tim Tebow, who was one of the top quarterback prospects in the nation, was able to play for the nationally-ranked public Nease High School. Tebow won college football's most coveted individual award, the Heisman Trophy, in 2007 as quarterback for the University of Florida. The legislature in the state of Alabama, where Tebow played in a nationally-televised loss against Hoover High School, is considering a bill, dubbed the Tim Tebow Bill [1] that would grant similar rights to Alabama's home schooled students.

[edit] College recruiting

Main article: Recruiting (college athletics)

In all states, the HS football season will have ended by late December, but the recruiting process by which colleges offer scholarships to high school seniors often starts in the summer, before the school year and football season begin. Football camps are held at college campuses where a large number of potential recruits can be evaluated simultaneously in various speed and skills drills. Colleges will typically take potential recruits on tours of the campus and athletic facilities, or the college may have its team's coach visit the recruit at home or at school.

While all colleges do much of their recruiting from local and in-state high schools, where they can network with HS coaches and booster clubs, the nation's top college programs can easily recruit athletes from around the country. Some colleges have historically been aided in this regard through their their prominence within their religious affiliation, such as Notre Dame or BYU.

Students who played for larger high schools, or who competed in nationally-televised matches, have a natural advantage towards recruitment, while players who competed at smaller schools - such as most states' 1A and 2A categories - will have their skills and achievements judged versus the lower-caliber opposition they faced and, as such, are rarely considered as top prospects. Occasionally, though, a student at a smaller school will receive a full scholarship – for example, Dallas Cowboys offensive lineman Leonard Davis received a scholarship to the University of Texas despite playing football in Wortham, Texas, a class 1A school.

Though it is an expensive project, HS football players often increase their visibility by sending out video highlights of their playing skills to college recruiters. If a student receives no scholarship offers, they may still attempt to make a college team by becoming a "walk on" and paying their own tuition in the hopes that they can make the team and possibly receive a scholarship. Others will try out for a non-scholarship team, such as a Division III school, or a two-year junior college team. The latter option is also popular with students with academic or behavioral issues that would prevent them from playing at a four-year college.

While the vast majority of HS football players will not even be considered for a scholarship offer, players who receive nationwide attention will invariably receive scholarship offers from more than one school and will often hold a press conference to announce their final selection. "All Star" exhibition games like the U.S. Army All-American Bowl, which is televised nationally by NBC, give the nation's top prospects the opportunity to publicly announce their college selection or to provide one last opportunity to showcase their talents to college recruiters. By National Signing Day, the first Wednesday in February, most top recruits will have already signed non-binding letters of intent or verbally committed with colleges.

[edit] High school football phenoms

High school football has produced a number of athletes that draw national media attention while still in high school. Some, but not all, have continued on to success in college and/or the NFL.

  • Matt Barkley - first junior ever named Gatorade National Player of the Year[1]
  • Cedric Benson – led his Midland Lee squads to three consecutive Texas 5A state championships (scoring 15 touchdowns in those title games); first high school athlete to appear on the cover of Dave Campbell's Texas Football
  • Brian Brohm - led his Trinity Shamrocks to three straight Kentucky 4A state championships; he appeared on the cover of Sports Illustrated during his junior season of high school.
  • Jimmy Clausen – never lost a football game he started in his prep career; announced his college decision at College Football Hall of Fame after arriving in a stretch Hummer limousine
  • Tim Couch – set a number of national high school records, including passing yardage (12,104), while at Leslie County High School (Hyden, Kentucky).
  • Ronald Curry – record breaking quarterback whose Hampton High School teams in 1996 and 1997 are widely considered the best in Virginia history, but his star was eclipsed in college by district rival Michael Vick.
  • Ken Hall – nicknamed “The Sugar Land Express” while rushing a 11,232 yards (10,271 m) total over his career (1951-'53), a national record that still stands after more than 50 years.
  • Todd Marinovich – was famously subjected to a strict diet and training regimen from early childhood by his father to prepare him for football stardom but later drug usage undermined his college and NFL careers.
  • Ben Mauk - set national single season records for yards (6,540) as well as national career records for completions (1,105), attempts (1,931), and yards (17,534); furthermore, he holds the second highest national career touchdown mark (179), all earned while winning two OHSAA titles at Kenton High School.[2] After three seasons at Wake Forest, ending with a catastrophic injury to his throwing arm in 2006, he recovered to start for the University of Cincinnati in his final season in 2007.
  • T. A. McLendon – rushed for a national record 178 touchdowns over his career at Albemarle High School.
  • Ron Powlus – college football analyst Beano Cook predicted he would win two Heisman Trophies in college.
  • Emmitt Smith – broke Hall's record for most career 100-yard (91 m) games with 45.

[edit] High school football in the media

As most games take place during primetime, television exposure of HS football on a local basis tends to be limited to championship games only. Local public access cable television and local radio stations often air regular season contests, and in some cases, the school's own radio station broadcasts the game using student announcers. There has also been a massive increase in recent years of web based stations covering high school sporting events. One such station is HSSP Radio in Indiana [2] who webcasts via sportsjuice.com [3] In many television markets, local stations will air 30 or 60-minute "scoreboard" shows following their late Friday newscast with scores and highlights from games in their coverage area. Starting in 2005, the ESPN family of networks have also aired regular season matchups between nationally ranked teams.

Despite this increased national media attention, some states restrict the broadcast of high school games. One example is the University Interscholastic League, which governs public school sports in Texas. The UIL has a long-standing ban on television broadcasting of high school football games on Friday nights, believing that doing so could hurt ticket sales (radio broadcasts are allowed, though). Because of this, several games that have been broadcast on ESPN and Fox Sports Net in recent years have had to be played on either Thursday night or on Saturday to avoid the UIL's ban. In Michigan, live television broadcasts of regular season games are prohibited by the state athletic association.

[edit] Portrayals of high school football in movies, television, and literature

Hollywood portrayals of HS football, whether comedies or dramas, often portray the game at the center of a small town's existence and the focus of its attention. Also see Jock (subculture)

[edit] See also

[edit] References

  1. ^ Los Angeles Times: Barkley earns Gatorade's national player-of-year honors
  2. ^ University of Cincinnati Football. Retrieved on 2007-08-07.
  • ESPN College Football Encyclopedia by Michael McCambridge - lists all-time records for all current Division I and Ivy League colleges, including games played against high school teams ISBN 1401337031

[edit] External links

[edit] Scores and results

[edit] Nationwide

[edit] State and regional

Virginia High School Football Ratings, Rankings, Game Predictions & Game Simulater. It is not sponsored by the VHSL.