As high school football teams across North Carolina prepare to kickoff the regular season, one team is preparing to shut things down.

Granville Central High School will not field a football team this season due to a lack of participation, the school’s athletic director confirmed to HighSchoolOT on Thursday.

“We will not have a team this year. Participation and dwindling daily attendance are factors,” athletic director Richard Givens said.

The school will not field junior varsity or varsity teams.

Granville Central was not scheduled to play this week, but was scheduled to begin the season next Friday at home against Cedar Ridge.

The Panthers also had non-conference games scheduled against Bunn and Wake Christian. Granville Central is a member of the Northern Lakes 2A/3A Conference, which includes football teams at Carrboro, J.F. Webb, Louisburg, South Granville, Southern Durham, and Vance County.

Granville Central was 1-9 last season.

Earlier this month, Patton High School announced it will not field a varsity football team this season either. Patton also cited a lack of participation as the cause, but will field a junior varsity team this season with hopes of returning to varsity competition in the future.

In February, Jones Senior announced it would not field an 11-man football team this year, instead the school will play 8-man football. School district officials said at the time they hope Jones will return to 11-man competition in the future.

While participation concerns in football has been a major topic in high school sports across the country for more than a decade, North Carolina has seen two straight years of participation growth in the sport.

In 2023, North Carolina dded 1,266 football players and reported 29,075 football players across the state. Participation is up more than 13% since the COVID-19 pandemic, when participation hit the lowest level since at least 2002.

Nationally, 11-man football is the most popular high school sport for students to participate in. The sport has grown for two straight years across the country. According to data from the National Federation of State High School Associations, 1,031,508 high school athletes participated in 11-man football last year.

Source: highschoolot.com