For the first time in Coach Dan Sabers’ career as head coach at City High the JV schedule was canceled. The reason behind this cancellation was an uncharacteristic drop in team numbers, specifically in the junior class.

“I didn’t really see it coming,” Sabers said. “It was just kind of like a bunch of [the juniors] got together and said ‘hey, we’re not doing football’, and that was kind of the way it went.”

There are around 16 juniors participating on this year’s varsity squad of 40 players, which is a low number compared to past years at City High.

The reasons for many of the juniors not playing football have been linked to injuries, training for other sports, and academics.

Evan Grace ‘15 and Ryan Brennan ‘15 were among others who made the decision not to play football. This would have been their first year at the varsity level.

“I didn’t want to get injured again,” Grace said. “I was injured last year, and that almost went into basketball season. I only played three games, and I wanted to focus on other sports.”

With multiple sports, come injuries and fatigue. This idea was taken into account by Brennan and Grace.

“I want to focus on basketball and baseball because those are my favorite sports,” Grace said. “I never had as much fun in football as I did in basketball and baseball.”

The transition into junior year is also notorious for its strenuous homework load. At this age too, the pressure for college begins to build up.

“Junior year has a lot of work involved, and having more time to do it is really helpful,” Grace said.

With academics becoming more of a time consumer during the junior year, Brennan and Grace made it clear that there is less time for a social life. They decided that football was something they wanted to give up, especially since many of their friends weren’t going out.

“It’s a big time commitment unless you are spending time with your friends,” Brennan said. “You don’t want to commit all that time to go out there and not be with your friends.”

The trend in junior class members and friends not playing football team seemed to have a domino effect.

“Last year towards the end of the year, some of our friends were saying they might not play next year,” Grace said. “At that time, I thought I was going to play. Then it was half way through the summer and I hadn’t gone to any football lifting. At the same time I’m learning about more and more people who aren’t playing. That’s when I started thinking about if I’d really enjoy it this year.”

Juniors who are on the team this year saw this trend early, and some tried to stop it as they didn’t want to lose friends and teammates.

“I would often try and talk to the players about joining up again, but none of them seemed interested at all in playing,” Eric McDonald ‘15, a current starter on the team, said.

Brennan and Grace are missing some aspects of the game do maintain an interest in the sport of football. Both say they are considering going out next year.

“When you go to the games and you hear the band and you’re under the lights and everything, you miss that atmosphere,” Brennan said.

Juniors on the team and the coaching staff both hope that the team can grow in numbers in the years to come.

“I’m hoping that some of these kids will reconsider and come back out next year, there is no question about that,” Sabers said.

For the time being, having less juniors on the squad this year has changed the way Sabers and the rest of coaching staff practice and prepare for games.

“We don’t do as much physical hitting,” Sabers said. “We have to understand that we don’t have as many bodies, and we have to reduce injuries. So far its worked out very well for us. We tried to condition more to prepare guys to play that much more football too.”

Players on the team have accepted these losses, but continue to push through the season and achieve success.

“The lack of players is admittedly a bit disheartening, but there’s not much that can be done at this point,” McDonald said. “I tend not to think about it too much.”

The future of City High football is looking up. The sophomore team is currently 5-1, while the freshman team flaunts a record of 6-0. The varsity staff looks forward to bringing this talent and hardwork to the varsity level in the years to come.

“Freshman and sophomore numbers are really good, so we feel good,” Sabers said.