Getting an Early Start

Nothing says summer like sitting outside on a warm evening, watching the sun set below the horizon and enjoying a little high school football.  The new "Boys of Summer" hit the field tonight (with some teams playing already last night in the shadow of the Packers' pre-season game) for the opening of their regular season.  This is the earliest that a Wisconsin high school football season has ever started--August 17th.

It will be more than two weeks before most of these kids even start school--and yet they will have played three games--a full one-third of their season--outside of the academic year.  Part of that is due to the state law about not starting classes before September 1st (unless you can get a state waiver for your district) but mostly it is due to Thanksgiving being as early as it can be this year--which means that deer hunting is as early as it can be this year--which means the WIAA playoffs have to be done earlier than in the past few seasons.

The outrageously early start to this season hurts high school football--which is already seeing a decline in participation across the country--in a number of ways.  First, it requires the start of practice earlier in the summer.  That puts teams out on the practice fields on hotter days, with more intense sunshine and higher humidity levels--which increases the risk for heat stroke--and makes it miserable for everyone. 

Second, it further condenses the summer for already over-scheduled kids.  With classes running into June, vacations or other activities have to be packed into about a six-week window before practices start in the first week of August.  If these kids play summer baseball or soccer, there is no break between seasons--as those now have to wrap up by the end of July or lose players to football.  And I'm sure there are more than a few parents who would rather spend August weekends Up North at the lake sitting in the boat--instead of on an aluminum bench at a football field.

And finally, it diminishes fan excitement for the sport.  Part of the fun of high school football is wearing your jersey to class for the day--and your girlfriend wears the opposite color jersey--and the cheerleaders put the "Good Luck" signs on your locker and maybe there is an all-school pep rally in the afternoon to get everyone fired up.  For the first three games this year, there will be none of that.  Players will probably sit around and play video games until it's time to head to the field or the bus.

As there always is, there is a very simple solution to this that would get high school football back to its proper place on the calendar in Wisconsin: drastically reduce the number of teams that make the playoffs.  The start of the season was moved up a week a couple of years ago when the WIAA decided to do away with the Thursday-Tuesday-Saturday schedule for the final regular season game and the first two levels of the post-season and went to just one game a week.  Eliminate two-thirds of the teams that have zero chance of winning a title anyways and you can start on Labor Day weekend and still get your entire season in before Thanksgiving.

Since that is highly unlikely to happen, we are stuck with mid-August games with thunderstorm delays, reduced crowds and heat levels that put the players at risk--all so 120-teams that barely finished with winning records in their conference can get pounded into the turf in an October playoff game that really isn't necessary.