Youth participation in football is crashing. Towns are combining youth rec leagues because they don't have enough kids to make it work within their towns, and you are beginning to see "co op" teams between towns because they can't get enough kids to play. I do not see a way for football to do anything but decline.
In some towns, (Southington, for example) youth leagues are stronger than ever due to the popularity of the sport at the high school level. As to Co-Op teams, they can also be used as an indication of the growth of the sport. I'll cite 2 examples: St. Paul High in Bristol had a decrease in enrollment in the last decade and numbers were too small to field a team.As luck would have it. Lewis Mills in nearby Burlington, which never fielded a team wanted to start on up. At the same time, the State tech schools wanted to start football teams. Thus for a short period there was the Co-Op team of St. Paul-Lewis Mills-Goodwin Tech (New Britain) until such time as St.Paul's enrollment increased & the other 2 schools could build up numbers to field teams independently.
Example 2: The current Co-Op team of Cromwell-Portland. Portland has never had football until this union. Cromwell, a small school, is currently at a low enrollment. I envision this team as a Co-Op until Portland can stand on its own. First they have to get a feeder system up to the point where the kids have the skillset to contribute in High School lebvel.
I know the concussion issue makes this a two edged sword, but Co-Ops can also be seen as an example of growth of the sport. Twenty years ago, schools in the Farmington River Valley (Avon, Simsbury, etc.) didn't field teams. Now they do. (Simsbury, when they started their youth league, partnered with the Southington Midget Football League for games & practices, until their enrollment numbers merited standing on their own).
