Central plans to have 2023 football season, but obstacles remain

By Willis Patenaude, Times-Register

It was earlier this year when Central made the surprise decision to cancel the 2022 varsity football season for a variety of reasons, but mostly revolving around the program’s inability to field a full team in recent years. That culminated in numerous game cancellations, something activities director Aaron Reinhart tries to avoid.

Over the intervening months, Reinhart, coach Ben Heitland and others, took a long look at the program. While the aforementioned problems are still present and prevalent, in a turn of events that underscores Reinhart’s commitment to the program, Central decided this past week to field a varsity team and compete in the 2023 football season. 

Despite this commitment, the intervening months before the first kickoff will be rife with hitches, none more so than the ability of the program to field a full team.

It was this reason that led player Isaac Loan to agree with the cancellation, stating, “I agreed with the decision last year because over half of the team were underclassmen and we didn’t have very many kids out.”

In a conversation with Reinhart, he stood behind the decision, but was also forthcoming concerning the obstacles that lay ahead. Chief among them remains the commitment level of Central students when it comes to putting on pads and helmets. 

Ideally, the school would have at least 40 kids to field a full, legitimate JV and varsity roster, but Central has only averaged around 20, which is made ever more difficult if those athletes are mostly underclassmen, as was the case this past season.

It’s simply not a sustainable existence, though Reinhart mentioned this problem is not unique to Central. It’s a statewide issue, with Reinhart offering up Calamus-Wheatland and Rockford as other examples. As recently as 2018, Rockford played in the championship game, but this past year, announced it would only field a JV team due to declining numbers. 

According to stats from the National Federation of State High School Associations (NFHS), between 2011 and 2021, Iowa saw a 23 percent decline in football participation among high school students.

This situation is burdened more by the enrollment numbers at Central, which have stagnated since 2007. No major increase is expected in the foreseeable future to help the participation problem, which currently is impacting boys sports programs more significantly. However, Reinhart noted the girls programs, which have higher participation rates mostly because there are more of them, will experience similar issues in the coming years as enrollment numbers are expected to decline. 

Additionally, when participation rates are lower, it highlights the numerous injuries that occur. There is no one to fill that spot, which has led to cancellations and other issues in recent years. Since 2017, Central has cancelled at least one game every year except last season.

Then throw in the numerous coaching changes, with three in the past five seasons, which “throws ripples in the water,” as Reinhart stated. While Reinhart doesn’t believe this is an overarching issue in getting students to come out for football, he recognized the impact and highlighted Heitland’s involvement in the community and the school in an effort to connect with students, build relationships and grow the program.

In the face of overwhelming adversity, Reinhart believes there are solutions to the problem, one of which is getting back to offering youth football programs. This used to exist at Central, although, prior to his arrival, a concern over concussions brought it to an end. Now, Reinhart wants to revive it because something has been lost in its absence.

“What we’ve realized is now we have kids coming into junior high that have no experience making football plays and being in football positions…[and] are ill-prepared to be on a football field,” Reinhart said.

Reinhart said the goal is to create a third and fourth grade flag football team that will function internally, but options will be explored to play against other similar teams. Creation of a fifth and sixth grade tackle football league with other eight-man teams in northeast Iowa, before they transition to junior high, would center on the sport “being fun,” in addition to the fundamentals and how to play the game.

Reinhart discussed the school’s “Building Bridges – Road to Athleticism,” which was rolled out in 2020 and developed with the help of coaching staffs, in an effort to identify and refine training, specifically related to the weight room. It’s meant to focus on practical, sport specific weight training because each sport requires different methods of training.

Underlying all these efforts is the determination to create a team mentality and a team-oriented culture, rather than an individualistic one, which has been a minor, gnawing issue. Combating this, as Reinhart sees it, requires an emphasis on building leadership qualities within the athletics programs, given the influence students have on their peers to be involved and engaged in certain activities. That influence far outweighs that of most teachers and parents. 

In an effort to target this area, there are plans in development to utilize educational modules provided by the NFHS that focus on team leadership, as well as sending students to conferences, leadership opportunities at the AEA and a football camp at Graceland University in June. Essentially, no stone is being left unturned in an effort to establish a “we before me” culture within the sports programs.

One way Reinhart believes will help bring this culture about is by having students participate in multiple sports, rather than specializing. The reasons offered by Reinhart for why he supports this are numerous, including a known decrease in injuries, lack of overuse on certain muscle groups, providing a variety of sports related movements and building overall strength.

“The more opportunities you give yourself, the better athlete you’ll be,” Reinhart said.

As far as how this helps implement a team mentality, which is essential in any sports program, the logic is as follows: when you go out for multiple sports, you’re spending more time with the same teammates from another sport, which inevitably cultivates a bond. Those athletes learn how to compete with each other in multiple circumstances. Trust and camaraderie is likely to develop the more students interact across multiple sports. 

In addition, the lack of student athletes in general makes multiple-sport athletes at smaller schools like Central vital to the continued existence of the entire athletics program in general, as opposed to the survival of just one program. Basically, for one program to prosper, the entire sports department has to prosper.

When it comes to the actual decision to hold a football season next year, it was made with a lot of “what ifs” still surrounding the program, namely whether or not Central will be able to field a full team. Based on the turnout from a Nov. 30 meeting to discuss the future of the program, it remains to be seen, as only half the current roster showed up for that meeting. As it stands now, after making phone calls and holding conversations with students, there are about 15 to 20 students Reinhart believes are committed to playing, with a handful of tepid commitments as well.

However, Reinhart, much like Loan, remains undeterred.

Said Loan, “I’m glad that we are going to have a season. I agree with the decision because we will have a few more upperclassmen and all of the future sophomores will know what high school football is like.” 

Reinhart recently reached out to around 16 other schools with programs that have faced similar circumstances to get information and advice on how to improve the situation. During those conversations, the reliance on youth programs was reinforced, as was getting more people with football experience involved in the team. 

It should be noted there were not serious conversations about Central combining with another school or removing the program altogether. There are currently no criteria or deadlines in place for next season, should similar circumstances arise. It will be dependent on participation, individual commitments and who those commits are, and injuries.

“We want to make sure we’re doing what’s best for our kids. We believe we can get through next season and we’re very optimistic about how our team will look in 2024,” Reinhart said.