High school football rosters surge to highest level in decades
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Coaches, experts cite improved concussion safety measures
By John Grupp
NewsWorks Lab contributor
More Pennsylvania boys are playing high school football than at any time since the 1980s, according to data NewsWorks Lab obtained.
The PIAA reported to the National Federation of State High School Associations (NFHS) that 28,119 boys played football in Pennsylvania in 2025, the most since 1988. The annual NFHS participation survey is scheduled to be released in late August.
There were 5,978 players in the 116-team WPIAL last season, or an average of 51.5 per roster, according to the PIAA. No other district-specific years were available.
The recent surge marks the third consecutive year of higher participation statewide and reverses a downward trend every year from 2009-22.
Pat Gebhart, the PIAA’s associate executive director, said he believes improvements in concussion education and safety are the main reasons for the increase.
“Parents have recognized and realized the value of interscholastic athletics,” Gebhart said. “I think athletic administrators do a great job of keeping kids safe, and parents recognize that.”
While there were no national surveys conducted in 2019-20 and 2020-21 due to the covid-19 pandemic, football participation in Pennsylvania has increased by 12.6% since 2022, when it reached its lowest total in two decades, at 24,975 players.
In 2023, there were 27,850 players, and in 2024, there were 27,700. That is up from 25,515 in the pre-pandemic 2018-19 survey.
“You can see that there’s a significant increase in kids’ participation,” said Shaler coach Jim Ryan, who agrees improved concussion safety “is the biggest thing.”
Shaler, which last season won a WPIAL playoff game for the first time since 2009, has increased participation by 48% since 2017 to 62 players this season.
Nationally, more high schoolers are playing football too, after dipping under 1 million players in 2021-22 for the first time since 1998.
“Football continues to be one of the most popular sports in the country,” NFHS executive director Davis Whitfield told NewsWorks Lab. “The increase in participation is an encouraging sign for the future of high school athletics.”
Bouncing back
Despite recent trends, Pennsylvania remains far from the glory days of the 1970s and 1980s, when the state annually had well over 40,000 players. Overall population loss across western Pennsylvania following the collapse of the steel industry led to widespread declines in enrollment.
Other factors include fewer athletes playing multiple sports as kids focus year-round on one discipline, and boys choosing to play sports other than football. Since 2001 in Pennsylvania, boys lacrosse participation has increased 38.4%, boys volleyball by 32.6% and boys wrestling by 20%, according to NFHS surveys. Football, meanwhile, has increased 3.6% in that span.
By taking a step away from WPIAL conference play in 2020, Butler also has reversed downward trends at the local level.
“(The summer before) my sophomore year, numbers were awful,” Butler senior quarterback Nicco Baggetta said. “We had 15 kids coming to summer workouts. We started winning games, and then kids wanted to come out.”
For sure, the low numbers can be cyclical. Rochester, coming off one of the worst seasons in program history at 1-8, welcomed nearly 30 players to camp this summer. Last season, the Rams could barely field a team, and athletic director Brad Verrico said he was “calling the other team every week, keeping them updated if we are even going to play.”
While Verrico thinks non-boundary, private schools should play in a separate league, he believes it’s up to the individual programs, not the WPIAL or the PIAA, to improve the situation.
“We’re a single-A school, so that is the competitive balance,” Verrico said. “I don’t really have a problem facing the teams we face, because we used to be that guy. Now that we’re not as good, it’s not like we’re going to take our ball and go home. They are just better than us right now.”
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John Grupp and Sophia Lucente are contributors to NewsWorks Lab.
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This article first appeared on NewsWorks Lab and is republished here under a NewsworkLabs License.
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