Prep coaches say 7-on-7 makes them worry about football’s future, according to survey

The News Tribune surveyed 40 high school football coaches within the South Sound about their thoughts on private football trainers and 7-on-7 football.

Here are the results:

Takeaway: 92.5 percent of the coaches said they have at least one player who works with private trainiers.

Takeaway: 72.5 percent of the coaches said they’ve had players miss their school’s team events for private training.

Takeaway: 97.5 percent of the coaches say they offer offseason workouts for free or minimal cost to students. And many commented that they offer for free what private trainers offer at a higher price.

Takeaway: 75 percent of coaches say they’re seeing athletes specialize and train at an outside facility instead of play other school sports.

Takeaway: 97.5 percent of coaches say it would be more beneficial for an athlete to compete in another sport in the offseason instead of 7-on-7, while 75 percent said they’re seeing athletes do the opposite.

Takeaway: 80 percent of high school coaches said that they’ve had talks with college coaches about this — and that the college coaches would rather athletes compete in a different sport in the offseason than play 7-on-7 football.

Takeaway: 82 percent of coaches say that they have had players or parents tell them that private football trainers promise a higher likelihood of receiving a scholarship because of the trainers’ connections.

Takeaway: All but one coach say that just because an athlete trains at an outside facility, that doesn’t mean that athlete is more likely to get a college scholarship. And many coaches said that the athletes training there that do get a college scholarship, were likely getting one regardless.

Takeaway: Of the 34 coaches who responded to this question, 15 said that they’ve had at least one player who transferred out of their program who was also affiliated with an outside training facility. And two coaches who said they’ve had no players transfer said that they’ve “heard rumblings, though” and “but they’ve been asked to.”

Takeaway: 95 percent of coaches agreed that this has become a big enough problem in their eyes that the Washington Interscholastic Activities Association should step in to look into the issue.

Takeaway: 87.5 percent of coaches agreed that the offseason 7v7 culture makes them worry about the future of high school football. They worry athletes will continue to think 7-on-7 is a way they can be recruited to play college football, that college football coaches might someday turn more of their recruiting eyes to 7-on-7 and that players learn me-first, individual tendencies from it that will rip at the core of the high school teams’ team-building fabric.

We asked coaches to give their comments about 7-on-7 football and private trainers and also what they would offer as some solutions to what they see as a growing problem in their sport. Check that out here:

This story was originally published July 14, 2017 at 5:33 PM with the headline "Prep coaches say 7-on-7 makes them worry about football’s future, according to survey."