Cornell High School’s football program wasn’t on life support. It had flat-lined.
Time of death was 2012.
Ten years ago, Cornell, a small WPIAL school, pulled the plug on its football program because of low roster numbers. In other words, Cornell was worried about having enough players to field a team. And even if there was a team, there were worries about injuries to players who were freshmen, young and too small to be on a varsity field.
But there was a resurrection of Cornell football in 2016. And now, 10 years after the program was killed, it has a strong heartbeat. The Raiders made the WPIAL Class 1A semifinals two of the past three years and won nine games in both 2021 and 2019. They are 1-1 this year and were ranked among the top five teams in WPIAL Class 1A only a week ago. And the team has 37 players on its roster in grades 9-12.
“I had been kind of praying over the years that we could get some success and that would hopefully grow the numbers and the interest,” said Cornell coach Ed Dawson. “It’s definitely been a blessing what has happened here.”
Call it a revival of small-school football.
Four years ago, the Post-Gazette ran a story on how small-school football was dying, because of low roster numbers at many schools. It was a problem not only in the WPIAL, but around Pennsylvania and the country. According to an annual participation survey done by the National Federation of State High School Associations, high school football in the U.S. lost 56,392 participants from 2013-17. In Pennsylvania, there were 1,260 fewer players in 2018 than in 2007. Some even suggested some small schools in Pennsylvania should consider starting a league with eight-man teams. The NFHS did not conduct the participation survey the past two school years because of COVID-19.
But the drop in high school football players over the past 15 years or so had been severely hurting small schools. Heck, Northgate High had to play at least one game in 2018 with only 12 players dressed.
But in 2022, it is apparent that small-school football is making a mini resurgence — at least at some schools in the WPIAL. Roster sizes have grown at some schools and teams that have struggled to win are enjoying early season success.
It should be pointed out that Cornell has a cooperative sponsorship for football with Nazareth Prep in Emsworth and Cornell’s roster includes players from Nazareth Prep. But Cornell is still the poster child of the small-school resurgence. And consider these other examples:
• Mapletown is 3-0. Granted, two of the wins have been against struggling Avella, but Mapletown hasn’t been 3-0 since 1997. Mapletown is a tiny Greene County school that has only 105 boys in grades 9-12, but almost one-third of them (32) play football. Only four years ago, Mapletown had 18 players on its roster.
• Northgate, the team that had only one substitute for a game four years ago, is 2-1. Consider that the Flames’ program barely flickered from 2018 through 2020, going winless in those seasons. Northgate now has 38 players on its roster in grades 9-12.
• Bishop Canevin won only one game in 2019 and had only 24 players on its roster in 2018. But last year the Crusaders won the WPIAL Class 1A championship and have 43 players on their roster this season. It might not be totally fair to compare Bishop Canevin, a Catholic school, to a public school, because Bishop Canevin has no geographic boundaries to draw students. But for whatever reason, Bishop Canevin is a small school that has enjoyed sudden success and increased its roster dramatically.
• Carrick is a City League team that plays an independent schedule. Carrick canceled its final three games of the 2018 season because of a lack of players and won only one game over the past six seasons. But Carrick has 24 players this year and won its first game against WPIAL member Carlynton.
“I think schools go through cycles,” said Chris Lucas, in his first year as Northgate’s coach. “Maybe coming out of COVID, people weren’t doing much and didn’t want to do much. But maybe people are just trying to be more involved and that has helped bring out some players.”
Lucas was an assistant the past two seasons at Northgate under Mike Fulmore. Lucas credits Fulmore with perseverance and helping grow the program the past few years. Then last year, Northgate went 3-7.
“I think those three wins last year played a big part in helping us out,” said Lucas, a Northgate graduate.
Lucas knows a thing about the differences between big- and small-school football and what challenges there are at a small school. He was the head coach at West Allegheny for one season (2019) after legendary Bob Palko left. West Allegheny was in Class 5A when Lucas coached there.
“I remember one year at West Allegheny, they were down in the 60s with players and were wondering what they were going to do. Are you kidding me?” Lucas said. “Even two years ago at Northgate, we had only 19 players. Try running a full practice with that. It can be very difficult. You can’t have a full offense or defense. Plus, one injury can change everything.
“I do like coaching at a small school because you can build a relationship with all the kids. When you have 60 or 70 at a big school, that’s hard to do.”
George Messich is in his 40th season coaching Mapletown and has seen many highs and lows in the number of kids playing football.
“Some Class 1A schools and 2A schools have more to choose from, but in the real small schools, things do go in cycles,” Messich said. “Stop and think, we had 33 kids [boys and girls] in our graduating class last year and we have 32 on the football roster this year. That’s crazy. That’s a lot.
“We talk as coaches how we get to coach more now. We laugh about it because when we had a lot fewer kids, we used to have the trainer playing receiver, I’d play offensive tackle and one of our assistants would be the quarterback.”
Lucas and Dawson remarked that coaches at small schools have to make an effort to recruit more players to try football. It’s just the way it is. Sometimes a simple talk with an athlete in another sport is all that is needed to get him to play football. Dawson has even attended midget league games to encourage kids to play in high school.
A sampling of some coaches shows they also believe parent and player worries about concussions have eased some and that has possibly played a role in more kids playing at some schools.
“It got to the point where kids who were playing other sports were saying they didn’t want to play football and take a chance of getting a concussion and having it ruin their basketball and baseball seasons,” Messich said “I think that has cooled some. I could be wrong but I don’t know if we see as many concussions as we did four or five years ago and I think the awareness has helped.”
It should be pointed out that some WPIAL teams still have decreasing rosters. Of the 30 schools in Class 1A, 16 have smaller rosters than they did four years ago. But the difference at a number of schools is minimal, only two or three players. Ten WPIAL Class 1A schools have bigger rosters this season than four years ago.
Even for those teams that have fewer players, it’s schools like Cornell and Northgate that give hope of possibly being competitive again in the future.
“We’re very excited,” Lucas said. “We know we have a tough conference, but of our 38 players, we only have five seniors and four juniors.”
When Cornell didn’t have football from 2012-15, Cornell players were allowed to play at Quaker Valley under a cooperative sponsorship. Dane Jackson, now an NFL defensive back with the Buffalo Bills, attended Cornell, but played football for Quaker Valley.
Dawson, a former Aliquippa player, came to Cornell after a stint at Seneca Valley, a Class 6A school. Friends told him he was crazy to take the Cornell job in 2016. But he is entrenched in Cornell now. He works in the disciplinary office at Cornell and has two sons on the football team. E.J. Dawson is the team’s quarterback and also a linebacker.
“The [cooperative sponsorship] program with Nazareth Prep has helped, but it varies every year how many kids we get from there,” said Dawson, who has 15 players from Nazareth Prep this season. “Our mantra is ‘it’s a marathon and not a sprint.’ We’ve been beating that into the kids’ heads.
“We kind of joke a little bit on our coaching staff that this is like an obstacle course when you coach at a small school. Every day you’re met with different things that maybe big schools don’t have and sometimes you have to jump over them or crawl under them. But we try to show the kids it’s all about willingness and persevering.”
Mike White: mwhite@post-gazette.com and Twitter @mwhiteburgh
First Published: September 15, 2022, 9:00 a.m.
Updated: September 15, 2022, 11:42 a.m.
