[Lisa Douglas]

I think numbers of players, to some extent, gauge interest in the program. However, you don't have to have a lot of players to be good...It's just the ones you do have need to be pretty good and you need enough of them that the reserves can give the starters some breaks without losing too much in talent and ability.

Very True.
I like what Hazard's Principal once said about coaches trying to inhibit their players from playing more than one sport...(paraphrasing of course)
"In a school, as small as us, we can not afford for coaches to be selfish with talent"... this used to be the way all small schools looked upon sports.They wanted everyone to play as many as they could or wanted.
Then some got away from it... and this caused great changes and "swings" in interest...
Everyone wants to be on a winner or even associated with a winner, but to be very honest about it, the sports like football, baseball, soccer, volleyball, and larger team sports are always an athlete's best bet... like on a basketball team there's JUST 5 of them... and that's all there's gonna be out there.. granted there will be substitutions, but essentially there's gonna be 12-15 on the whole thing and that's it.
Like you said... numbers are a reflection of interest. Year-before-last around 27-28 played, then last year there were 30-32, this year there's 33-35.... and you have to factor into the equation there is even a jv team now and the numbers are going to go up... there's a resurrgence of interest in Tiger Football and all of the kids in every sport support one another and want to see success. It's a new day for football and IT'S ABOUT DAHMED TIME!