The Chicago Daily Herald reported that flag football to replace tackle at Naperville junior highs Junior high ball carriers will be down with the tug of a flag — not the thud of a tackle — this fall in Naperville Unit District 203, as the district switches to noncontact football for seventh- and eighth-grade athletes. District 203 joins neighboring Indian Prairie Unit District 204 in eliminating junior-high tackle football, citing decreasing participation and concerns about injuries, including concussions. Between the past two seasons, participation dropped by 45 students, from 258 players on seventh- and eighth-grade teams at five junior highs in 2016, to 213 players on the same number of teams last fall.
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