Spike in injuries lead Wadena high school to cancel rest of football season

WADENA. Minn. — A Minnesota school district has just been forced to cancel the rest of its varsity football season because too many players have gotten hurt.
Officials at Wadena-Deer Creek High School, located about 160 miles northwest of the Twin Cities, made the announcement on Facebook on Tuesday. 
Head coach Kyle Petermeier says a huge issue is that those who aren’t injured are all ninth or 10th graders.
“As we work through the middle of the season, the injuries started to pile up, and we went into our week 7 game with very, very low numbers,” Petermeier said. “We are in a position now where we have to trot out a majority of our team that is 14 and 15 years old, and that is not in the best interest of our kids.”
Petermeier says despite this setback, he believes the Wolverines’ future is “very bright.” He says the training players put in during the off-season was “incredible,” and is an indicator of how prepared they’ll be next fall.
“Football is a game that requires strength in numbers, and we will do anything we can to keep these numbers high and keep kids out for football,” he said.
A study released in 2021 found participation in high school sports has declined across the United States, with football seeing the largest drop “possibly because of concerns about head injuries and their potential long-term consequence.”