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The National Federation of State
High School Associations (NFHS)
just released its annual Sports
Participation Survey, which as
it has every year for more than
two decades, shows more kids
playing sports than the previous
year.
But there’s a twist to the
2011-12 academic year’s all-time
high of 7,692,520 participants —
the gain is attributable to a
significant increase among
girls’ participation (an
additional 33,984) that more
than made up for a
9,419-participant drop in the
boys’ figures.
The number of boys participating
in high school sports
(4,484,987) still leads the
number of girls (3,207,533), but
the number of girls has been on
the rise for 23 years straight.
(Want some interesting trivia?
When the participation survey
was first done, 1971, there were
over 3 million boys
participating in high school
sports — and under 300,000
girls.)
In the 2011-2012 academic year,
seven of the top 10 boys’ sports
registered drops in
participation, with 11-player
football, outdoor track and
field, basketball, wrestling,
tennis, golf, and swimming and
diving all down from last year.
Only three sports in that top 10
(baseball, soccer and cross
country) showed increases.
Outdoor track and field,
basketball, and volleyball
continued to be the top three
participatory sports for girls,
with volleyball up by 9,571
participants from 2010-11.
Soccer surpassed fast-pitch
softball as the fourth
most-popular girls sport, up
9,419 from last year, while
cross country, tennis,
swimming/diving (counted as one
sport), competitive spirit
squads and lacrosse completed
the top 10. Along with soccer
and volleyball, cross country,
competitive spirit squads and
lacrosse all had increased
participation from 2010-11. (The
other five sports in the girls’
top 10 — tennis,
swimming/diving, track and
field, basketball and softball —
showed incremental drops).
Some sports made surprising
gains. Lacrosse, which ranks No.
11 in participation among boys’
sports, topped the 100,000 mark
with about 5,000 additional
participants. Wrestling
continued its rise in popularity
among girls, with almost 1,000
additional participants up to
8,235.
The complete 2011-12 High School
Athletics Participation Survey
is available as a free download
on the NFHS Web site at www.nfhs.org.
Interactive results, which can
be sorted by year, sport, state
and more, are also available. |
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