MICHEL MARTIN, HOST:
A high school in Kansas is trading in the typical Friday night lights for something different this year. NPR's Ben Abrams has the story.
(CHEERING)
BEN ABRAMS, BYLINE: This is what Wichita Independent High School's football field used to sound like on Friday nights.
(CHEERING)
ABRAMS: But this year, Panther Field will sound much different. After the end of the 2024 football season, the school realized they had a problem.
PAUL DRUZINSKY: We started looking at how many players we might actually be able to field, and it became increasingly obvious that we were not going to be able to have enough to have a team.
ABRAMS: That's Paul Druzinsky, the head of Wichita Independent School. And they needed at least 15 to 20 students for this season, but not enough of them signed up.
DRUZINSKY: It was a very sad decision to have to make. And we were really worried about, what will it do to morale? What will it do to the life of the high school?
ABRAMS: Wichita Independent is a K-12 school with less than 400 students, and only 76 of them are in high school. For senior class president Jack Roe, it was about much more than losing any game.
JACK ROE: As a senior, football, Friday night lights - it's a major part of any school year. The senior class has a lot of band members and a lot of cheerleaders, and without football, they wouldn't have anything to do this fall.
ABRAMS: Roe worked with junior class president Ben Sackett to find a way to fill those Friday nights.
BEN SACKETT: It was kind of immediately just like, how can we preserve all of these great things about football, even if it can't be actual football?
ABRAMS: And Panther Night Lights was born. Instead of football games every week, the school will host a series of games and activities for students, faculty and the community to participate in.
SACKETT: Things like slip and slide kickball, for example, which I think are not only fun to play but are going to be really funny and entertaining to watch, are going to be some of the best activities we can possibly have.
ABRAMS: Wichita Independent School's situation is not unique. A 2024 report from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services says the number of school-age kids playing sports dropped by roughly 5% between 2017 and 2022. The report says barriers to kids playing sports include time constraints and social pressure. For rural communities in particular, the decline has to do with access to facilities, programs and opportunities, says David Dzewaltowski with the University of Nebraska College of Public Health.
DAVID DZEWALTOWSKI: The rural issue versus urban issue really is more subtle in the sense of, what does that community offer? What are the opportunities? And then given those opportunities, is there incentives for kids to participate or not?
ABRAMS: In the last few years, Dzewaltowski observed a trend in rural communities where sports are really an option only for kids whose families can afford it, in money and time.
DZEWALTOWSKI: But your typical child who just wants to participate for recreation reasons is probably not getting the opportunities or the pathway to get more involved.
ABRAMS: Back at Wichita Independent School, Jack Roe says he's ecstatic that Panther Night Lights will be available to everyone.
ROE: I think what I'm most excited for is the opportunity for these kids that aren't really the best at, like, big sports like football or basketball to be able to go under the Panther night lights and compete in a friendly and competitive way, and the opportunity and joy that it'll bring them.
ABRAMS: Roe says he's excited to make new, different memories under the Friday night lights.
Ben Abrams, NPR News. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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