Why are Long Island high schools struggling to field a football team? Local coaches cite three main reasons.

After Port Jefferson and Amityville dropped varsity football for the fall season, Long Island coaches pointed to three factors they say are contributing to declining numbers in some communities: specialization in other sports, reduced participation in youth football programs and overall declining school enrollment.

More and more, athletes are choosing to play one sport year-round. Travel sports increasingly stretch beyond their traditional seasons, leaving athletes with less time to play multiple sports.

“I do think that specialization is probably the No. 1 reason why kids aren’t playing,” Floral Park coach Ron Pickett said. “Because it’s not just football. Participation numbers are down in a lot of sports.”

Oceanside coach Rob Blount sees a similar issue. He said football requires more time and preparation than some athletes are willing to commit, especially as travel sports compete for their year-round attention.

“You have more people focusing on other sports, getting caught up in the travel culture,” Blount said. “And it’s really taken away from kids participating in a sport like football, which is hard and you have to give a little more time to.”

A strong youth football program can help sustain numbers at the varsity level. Sayville coach Rob Hoss said his program has approximately 40 varsity players despite the school’s declining enrollment and move into Suffolk Division IV.

“Our enrollment has really significantly dropped,” Hoss said. “But we really haven’t seen a drop in football participation. I think part of that is the fabric of our community. The community supports football.”

Hoss credited Sayville’s youth program with creating a steady pipeline into the high school program. Young players regularly attend varsity games wearing Sayville football jerseys.

“Our youth program is really the strength and becomes the bones and the foundation of our program,” Hoss said. “Our PAL program does a phenomenal job of getting good numbers, and it’s sort of a trickle-up effect instead of a trickle-down effect.”

Pickett has seen the importance of that pipeline at Floral Park. The town’s youth football program folded for several years before being revived. It now fields teams at several age levels, and Pickett said more children in the community are playing football again.

Declining enrollment on Long Island presents a different challenge.

Of the 124 school districts on Long Island, 91 have had enrollment declines of at least 10% in the past decade, according to a recent analysis of the latest census data by Newsday’s nextLI initiative.

The Port Jefferson district has experienced a 20% decline and Amityville’s enrollment is down 10%, the analysis showed.

“I’m not sure that the problem is exclusively less kids want to play football on Long Island as much as I just think there’s less kids in schools,” St. John the Baptist coach Phil Alba said.

Alba thinks cost of living and changing family patterns have contributed to that shift.

“I think the cost of living and the economics have made families decide to have less kids or wait longer for kids,” Alba said. “I just think that’s a real thing that is affecting the demographics.”

Declining participation already has affected two Suffolk programs and cost their players the chance at a varsity football season.

“We’re in this business for kids,” Hoss said. “When you see kids who love football be denied an opportunity to play, it’s extremely frustrating.”