As Marblehead High School’s football season winds down, the Magicians are confronting a challenge that extends well beyond wins and losses: a sharp decline in participation that left the school without a freshman team this fall.
The numbers are dropping at every level, from youth football to the high school program, raising questions about the future of a sport with a long and successful tradition in Marblehead.
According to Marblehead High School registration records, 95 students signed up for football in 2024, compared with 85 in 2025 and just 57 this fall. That’s a 40% drop in two years.
That’s worse than the statewide drop of about 16% since 2008, according to the Massachusetts Interscholastic and Athletic Association. Several teams have been forced to forfeit games this season due to small rosters.
In Marblehead, the most dramatic change is among freshmen. Thirty-one ninth graders registered in 2024 and 32 in 2025. This year, just six signed up, and Coach Jim Rudloff says only four remain on the team — not nearly enough to field a separate freshman squad.
With the season nearly over, the decline has become one of the biggest challenges facing the program as coaches look toward next fall and beyond.
“Our football numbers have always mirrored the class size. So, as enrollment declines we see a decline in our numbers,” Rudloff told the Current.
Rudloff, in his 17th year as head coach, said Marblehead has traditionally averaged 75 to 85 players across its football program, including 60 to 65 varsity players and 15 to 20 freshmen.
Youth football
The numbers are also falling at the youth level, where longtime volunteer and coach Matt Martin has watched participation fluctuate — and, more recently, plunge.
“My numbers are substantially down in the last 10 years,” Martin said.
When Martin began coaching in 2005, Marblehead Youth Football had four teams made up entirely of third- and fourth-graders, he recalled. This year, he said, only four children signed up at that level.
The youth program traditionally organizes players into divisions by grade, with third- and fourth-graders at the D level, fifth- and sixth-graders at C, primarily seventh-graders at B and eighth-graders at A. In recent years, Marblehead has had to combine seventh- and eighth-graders to field teams.
Martin pointed to a particularly striking example of how quickly participation can change. The current sophomore class had 52 players participating in youth football when they were eighth-graders, he said. The following class, now freshmen at MHS, had only about 11 in youth football.
“That’s a huge change,” Martin said.
The dramatic difference between those two classes helps explain why Marblehead High has been able to field varsity and junior varsity teams this season, but not a freshman squad.
Rudloff said the high school program depends heavily on players who come up through the youth leagues.
“We rarely get a player who did not play football at the youth level. So, our numbers usually reflect the youth football numbers, plus or minus a few kids,” he said.
The decline is hard for Martin, who has volunteered with youth football for more than two decades.
“It’s frustrating to me because that’s where my heart is,” he said. “I hate to see the numbers so low.”
Why are fewer kids playing?
Across Massachusetts, football participation has declined over the past decade, raising concerns about the sport’s future. Coaches and athletic officials have pointed to several possible factors, including concussion concerns, competition from other sports, shrinking school populations and the time commitment required.
Locally, neither Rudloff nor Martin believes there is a single explanation.
“I don’t know if it’s kids not signing up, or classes being smaller,” Martin said.
Rudloff rejected the suggestion that private schools are drawing significant numbers of players away from Marblehead High.
“I don’t believe private or Catholic schools hurt us anymore than anyone else,” Rudloff said.
He pointed to the program’s success in preparing athletes for college football, with graduates going on to play at schools including Brown, Princeton, Texas A&M, Ohio State and Middlebury.
“I would respectfully disagree that someone has better opportunities just by going somewhere else,” he said.
Safety concerns are another part of the conversation.
Both the high school and youth programs have invested in Guardian Caps, padded helmet covers designed to reduce the force of impacts.
Martin said Marblehead Youth Football purchased about 75 of the covers last year, with players wearing them during practices throughout the week. He said players are less enthusiastic about wearing them during games.
Rudloff said the high school program was among the first on the North Shore to adopt Guardian Caps. He has also reduced physical contact during practices.
“This season we have only been in ‘full pads’ for two of our practices. There is no ‘full contact’ or ‘going to the ground’ in practice,” he wrote in an email to the Current.
Rudloff acknowledged that families must make their own decisions about the risks of football, while noting that injuries occur in other high school sports as well.
Another challenge is the sport’s demanding schedule.
“Football is different in that you have four practices to play one game,” Rudloff said. “To be competitive you must watch film of your opponent, digest analytics and prepare your body for the physicality.”
He added, “For some it is easier to choose a sport in high school that does not require as much. It does not make football a better sport than others, just different.”
Looking ahead to next season
Asked whether he plans to field a freshman football team next year, Rudloff said, “Yes. However, last summer we could not definitively plan for not having a freshman team until the Friday before our first practice. We literally had the freshmen coaches prepared to both field a team or do something else this fall. We had to plan for kids signing up on the first day of practice. It has to be treated the same way this next year. We will plan and promote freshmen football. If we didn’t, we would be confirming what schools like Pingree and St. John’s Prep are telling any potential Marblehead kids, and we would just be creating a self-feeding cycle.”
Martin believes one way to attract more young players is to create a stronger connection between flag football and traditional tackle football.
“I think we should find a way to bridge the gap between flag and regular football,” he said.
This year, he worked with Marblehead youth sports leaders to send email reminders encouraging families to register.
Meanwhile, the high school team continues to offer youth football clinics through Marblehead Recreation and Parks each summer.
Rudloff said larger sixth- and seventh-grade classes offer hope that participation could rebound in the coming years.
He also noted that football isn’t the only sport likely to feel the effects of changing enrollment. He expects participation numbers in girls basketball and boys hockey to dip this year as well.
For Martin, the concern goes beyond the number of players on the field. After more than 20 years coaching, he believes football offers lessons in teamwork, discipline and perseverance that young people carry with them long after their playing days are over.
“Football is the greatest game there is,” he said. “It teaches kids life lessons.”
