Jude Magnotti ‘26
EE Staff Writer
Football has-no question-been an important part of culture in Trumbull. The Trumbull High School Football team has carried on an important tradition and legacy dating all the way back to its roots with the legendary coach McDougall.
“I believe that students want to be a part of something great and carry on that tradition,” said Phil Koda, the current coach of the Trumbull High freshman football team. However, despite Trumbull’s strong roots in football, an event occurred that permanently changed the course of Trumbull High’s football program.
In 2020, the world experienced a global shutdown with the arrival of the Covid-19 Pandemic. Lives, jobs, and experiences were lost. However, there were few things affected more during the pandemic than high school sports programs. In the middle of the year, all sports including baseball, tennis, and lacrosse were completely shut down. Luckily for football players, their season was already over, having ended in November. Unfortunately, the program coming back the next year would be completely different.
Trumbull High School would go into a two-cohort system during 2020-2021. One cohort of kids would come on Monday and Tuesday, the other would come on Thursday and Friday. Many even choose to stay home the entire year. Needless to say, Trumbull High was unable to have a true football team that year.
However, going into the 2021-2022 school year things were looking up. The masks were slowly coming off and every student was going to school full time. THS finally had another chance to put together a football team, but surprisingly, very few kids from the freshman class tried out. Of course the team had their returning players, but there was not much in the way of 9th graders.
This decrease in players the 2021-2022 season can be attributed to a few possible factors. Coming out of the pandemic, many families still felt uncertainty and worry for their kids. Some households preferred to be safe and largely kept their kids out of sports. Another contributing factor was that most kids had not played sports in at least 1 and a half years.
A current player on the THS football team believes that many “fell into a really big slump coming out of the pandemic”. This could explain why students were so unmotivated to participate in sports during 2021. Luckily for THS Football fans, this lack of participants would not last long.
Entering the 2022-2023 season, Trumbull Football saw a substantial increase in the amount of players going out for the football team. According to current freshman team coach Phil Koda, there were “about 50 players” on the roster during 2022.
The 2022 team was absolutely electric, earning a state playoff berth and making it to the semi-finals of the class LL Championship. Tons of students were coming out to support the team every night and Trumbull had rediscovered its love of football. This trend only continued in 2023 with the team once again reaching the 50 player mark.
With all this being said, the increase in the amount of football players has caught some by surprise. After all, how can a high school football program go from having such bad participation in 2021, to having a massive increase in 2022 and 2023?
Some schools have yet to regain their footing in sports living in the shadow of the pandemic. The thing is though, Trumbull is not like the other schools. As previously mentioned, they have always had a strong culture around football and have achieved a lot of success. However, these are not the only factors that have allowed Trumbull’s programs to bounce back. Some of them come from behavior directly influenced by the pandemic while others have actually come from how the game is played.
First and foremost, Football–and any team sport, really–is excellent for making friends and developing camaraderie with the other players. According to another THS football player: “Some people join because they want to create strong bonds with their teammates”.
Tons of students (especially those who were newer to Trumbull) had been severely disconnected from their peers during the pandemic. This left many kids craving the type of social interactions and bonds that you can create playing football. The pandemic may have disconnected people from each other, but students in particular have only grown closer to each other in the wake of online school. “Students really need the socialization part of sports so why not play football,” said Koda.
Secondly, player safety and coaching techniques have only improved since the pandemic. “With so much attention in the national media about concussions and other issues, coaches, as we always do, had to adjust how skills are taught,” according to Koda. “Player safety is the number 1 priority for any player no matter what the sport, but football getting so much of the national attention and so popular across the country, coaches had to improve and insure players safety”.
Health and safety has always been a concern for football players, but with the higher emphasis on player safety in the past few years parents have had to worry about their child’s physical condition less and less.
Finally, the last major factor has been the advent of the Spread Offense. “This type of offense has allowed more players who probably would not have played earlier in my coaching career be involved in the game,” says Koda.
The spread offense revolves around spreading players out by formation. As a result, it allows players to use more of their athletic ability to make tough plays. This involves far more receivers than a normal run-heavy high school offense which in turn means more players.
The increase of football players at Trumbull High, while unexpected, has been a great opportunity for those looking to regain their footing after the pandemic. It has allowed them to reconnect with their peers while also being more involved than ever and having much more emphasis put on their overall safety.
There is a reason football is the most popular sport in the U.S. and it is for reasons such as these that so many love playing it. However, football has not been the only sport that has allowed kids to thrive in the aftermath of Covid-19. Trumbull sports such as volleyball, track and field, and even wrestling have all seen noticeable increases as well.
As said by Coach Phil Koda: “Today, college coaches are looking at athletes who play multiple sports”. Not only is football a great way to connect with people, it is a shining spot on a students resume even if they are not going to college for sports. Trumbull is a community built on sports and the love students and teachers alike have for it will carry on for many years to come.