WEBER COUNTY, Utah — Junior High football Is a unique experience for Weber School District students, said Steven Barela, Wide Receivers and Defensive Backs Coach for South Ogden Junior High.
“It's really part of the culture here in Weber County that all these people coming down to the games,” he said.” We’re here at two o'clock, school gets out, and you to see everyone coming to the games, and seeing that is amazing.”
After forming a committee this past fall, the school district decided that the steady decline in interest proved that it wasn’t feasible to continue the program, said Lane Findlay, Community Relations and Safety Specialist.
“We’ve had to combine schools,” he said. “If we didn’t have enough at one, we had to combine it with another nearby school just to be able to field a team, and so it's been something that we've been dealing with for several years.”
Last year, around 350 students played junior high football; this year, just over 200 played, said Findlay. Weber was the only school district left in Utah to still have a junior high football program.
“You're trying to sustain a program, and football is the most expensive program to maintain for junior highs, and so we were looking at roughly about $50,000 a year at each school to continue,” he said.
With the program no longer continuing this fall, all the junior high players will go back to Little League until they get to high school, said Barela.
“Like my son was, since second grade he's been looking forward to playing here at South Ogden Junior High,” he said.
Barela just hopes somehow, this community can retain the camaraderie and culture that junior high football creates.
“I think it's just a heartbreaker for the whole community,” he said. “I think we could find somewhere in the middle where little league football and junior high is represented, with the junior high and little league together.”
