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Less births means fewer students

We read with a bit of remorse last week a feature by Alpena News sports writer Jonny Zawacki that this will be the last year of traditional 11-man football at Hillman.

Beginning in 2018 the school will play 8-man football, joining the ranks of similar sized schools Posen, Mio, Atlanta and AuGres. It is a growing trend, as evidence by the Michigan High School Athletic Association splitting 8-man football into two state tournaments this year because of the growing number of schools now playing the 8-man format.

“(We’ve) seen it coming, but we always thought we had a couple more years before making the switch,” said Hillman Coach Bill Koenig.

Not so.

In fact, if current statistics are any barometer, most Michigan schools will be playing 8-man football in the not too distant future.

Statistics released in June by the Centers for Disease Control indicated that the U.S. fertility rate hit an historic low mark in 2016. While the number has been on the decline for many years, the number of births fell 1 percent last year. That meant that for every 1,000 women between the ages of 15 to 44, there were only 62 births in that group in 2016.

Frankly, with statistics like that, the country has a lot more at stake – like having a population necessary to sustain an economy – than playing 8-man football. However, this national trend of lower birth rates has been like this for many years now, which is something education administrators have been concerned about as they try to plan for the future.

Trends have a tendency to be fluid, but it looks as if this trend will be impacting school systems for many years as the babies of today grow into the students of tomorrow.

As student numbers decrease, it looks like 8-man football will someday soon be the new “normal.”

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