Fattening Them Up for Football

By B.J. Phillips

Some grade schoolers are held back so they can put on pounds

Throughout the land, college football stadiums yawn empty and forlorn, awaiting the contests of next fall. But in one important respect, next fall has already arrived: the recruiting war, the annual midwinter crusade to corner the market on high school football flesh, has begun. College coaches have abandoned their campuses and sallied forth to woo players from small-town fields and big-city playgrounds.

In some cases, players have been preparing for these visits since age twelve or 13. Parents squeezed by inflation and sons fired by dreams of glory have become so eager to win athletic scholarships that students voluntarily repeat the eighth grade to fatten up for high school football.

Spending an extra year in that grade circumvents rules against "red shirting"* that limit high school eligibility to four consecutive seasons. Thus the "holdbacks" come onto the playing field as freshmen with another year's size and speed. The practice costs taxpayers thousands of dollars to educate the athletes for an extra year, is of doubtful benefit to the boys' social and intellectual development and threatens to turn high school into a farm system for the colleges and pros.

The extent of the practice is difficult to judge, since school systems do not maintain separate records for students who repeat a grade voluntarily and those who repeat for academic reasons. But officials in Texas, South Carolina, Pennsylvania, Georgia and Louisiana admit the practice has become routine at some schools. In Georgia, the number of holdbacks has become so widespread that the state legislature ordered an investigation into the issue. Says Bill Fordham, executive director of the Georgia High School Athletic Association: "More and more schools are doing it because it's legal. The end will come when the taxpayers decide they're not going to pay to set up football factories in their schools."

In the absence of legislative action, however, parents may request that their sons repeat a grade, and school officials are bound to comply with their wishes. Often following the lead of high school coaches who have held their own sons back, parents insist that their young footballers need an extra year of "maturity" before entering high school. Douglas Griffin, superintendent of schools in Murray County, Ga., recalls, "Our high school basketball coach held his son back in the eighth grade, and he ended up getting a college scholarship. After that, it kind of snowballed." Adds Griffin, who held his own football-playing son back as well: "If a parent makes the request, we honor it. A scholarship is worth a lot of money to a family these days."

Proponents of the practice point to players who went on to successful high school and college careers after repeating a grade. John Bond, the freshman quarterback who led Mississippi State to an upset win over then undefeated Alabama last October, voluntarily repeated the eighth grade at his Valdosta, Ga., school. Says Bond: "I wasn't too hot about the idea at first. All my friends had gone on to high school, and I had new friends. I felt dumb. But I realized that at least I could get some playing time if I stayed back, so I did it. It was a lost year in one way, but I gained a lot from it." Houston Oiler Wide Receiver Mike Renfro, who repeated the seventh grade in Texas at his coach's request, disagrees: "I wouldn't keep kids back. After all, football isn't everything."

Though some coaches encourage holdbacks, many have doubts. Says Ray Latoof, head coach at New Orleans' De La Salle High School: "In some cases, it might help, but many parents have delusions of grandeur." Buddy Windle, head coach at Georgia's Murray County High, is even blunter: "A lot of kids are burned out with football by the time they get to high school. Of twelve players in our senior class who were held back, only four are still on the team. And for every holdback, there's another kid who didn't even come out for football because he thought the holdbacks would do all the playing." Still other coaches worry about competitive unbalance caused by the holdbacks. Says one: "Our average age is 16 or 17. When we play against 19-year-olds, it's like playing a junior college team."

Perhaps the cruelest result of the practice is that it encourages youngsters to pin their hopes on an athletic future to the detriment of normal educational and social growth. Nearly 1 million boys play high school football, but only 21,500 of them win scholarships to major colleges and universities. And only 333 college players were drafted by the pros last year. Insists Fordham: "The coaches request it, and the parents buy it. The kids who are good enough to make it on talent, the ones you read about in the sports pages, are never held back. It's the marginal athletes who do it, hoping that something magical will happen. But having a kid repeat a year just feeds the pipe dream."

As the practice spreads, coaches are also pressed to encourage grade repetition by townspeople who want winning high school teams. Says Andy Urbanic, head coach at Pittsburgh's Penn Hills High School: "The pressure to win at all costs begins to come down on the coaches, who in turn put it on the kids' heads." But some coaches have resisted and won nonetheless. Lloyd Bohanon, coach of Georgia's championship runner-up, Griffin High, says parents have asked him about holding their sons back. "I've never advised anyone to do it," Bohanon says. "A kid sees only the short run and says, 'Hey, it'll get me a scholarship.' But I worry about the damage that could be done to his self-image and peer relationships. Anybody who coaches football to get kids scholarships is in the wrong business. You coach to help kids, and holding back doesn't help kids."

--By B.J. Phillips

* The practice, common in college football, of holding a player out of varsity competition for a year.

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