Throughout the month of August, Regional Radio listeners and readers heard from high school sports coaches across central Illinois.

A theme among those conversations seemed to be that the number of athletes playing sports at younger grade levels was increasing and didn't seem to be headed to a drop-off. 

LeRoy football coach BJ Zeleznik says he has noticed this trend too and feels, at least for his community, they are taking measures to ensure they don't burn their young kids out on a sport too early and make it fun before getting to the high school level.

For Zeleznik, having kids play flag football doesn't prevent a varsity football coach from teaching kids the things they will be doing when they reach his program when they are teenagers. He believes there's still the opportunity to teach your offensive and defensive systems.