High school sports participation increases for 26th consecutive year
<p class="p1">The number of participants in high school sports increased for the 26th consecutive year in 2014-15, topping the 7.8 million mark for the first time, according to the annual High School Athletics Participation Survey conducted by the National Federation of State High School Associations, NFHS. </p><p class="p1">Based on figures from the 51 NFHS member state high school associations, which includes the District of Columbia, the number of participants in high school sports reached an all-time high of 7,807,047: an increase of 11,389 from the previous year. </p><p class="p1">While boys participation dipped 8,682 from the previous year, girls participation increased for the 26th consecutive year with an additional 20,071 participants and set an all-time high of 3,287,735. </p><p class="p1">The boys participation total of 4,519,312 is No. 2 all-time behind the 2013-14 total of 4,527,994.</p><p class="p1">Six of the top 10 girls sports registered increases in participation this past year, led by competitive spirit squads (5,170 additional participants) and cross country (3,495). </p><p class="p1">While track and field remained the No. 1 sport for girls with 478,726 participants, volleyball (432,176) moved ahead of basketball (429,504) to secure the No. 2 spot. </p><p class="p1">Ten years ago, basketball was No. 1 for girls, followed by track and field, and volleyball.</p><p class="p1">Among the top 10 boys sports, soccer registered the largest gain with an additional 15,150 participants, while wrestling (11,306) and 11-player football (9,617) had the largest declines in participation. </p><p class="p1">Besides soccer, other top 10 boys sports that had increases in the number of participants were baseball (3,938) and basketball (425).</p><p class="p1">Eleven-player football remains the runaway leader in boys participants with 1,083,617, followed by outdoor track and field (578,632), basketball (541,479), baseball (486,567) and soccer (432,569). </p><p class="p1">The remainder of the top 10 include wrestling (258,208), cross country (250,981), tennis (157,240), golf (148,823) and swimming/diving (137,087). </p><p class="p1">After outdoor track and field, volleyball and basketball, the remainder of the top 10 girls sports are soccer (375,681), fast-pitch softball (364,103), cross country (221,616), tennis (182,876), swimming/diving (166,838), competitive spirit squads (125,763) and lacrosse (84,785). </p><p class="p1">Among some of the non-traditional high school sports on this year’s survey, archery and riflery registered significant increases in participation. </p><p class="p1">An additional 2,877 participants (boys and girls) in archery brings the overall total to 7,744 with schools in eight states sponsoring the sport. </p><p class="p1">Riflery was up 1,010 participants for a total of 4,238 with competition in 10 states. </p><p class="p1">Also, while boys wrestling was down by more than 11,000 this past year, the number of girls participating in the sport increased by 1,592 for a total of 11,496.</p><p class="p1">The top 10 states by participants remained in the same order as last year, with Texas and California topping the list with 804,598 and 797,101, respectively. </p><p class="p1">The remainder of the top 10 included New York (389,475), Illinois (340,972), Ohio (319,929), Pennsylvania (319,562), Michigan (295,660), New Jersey (279,377), Florida (267,954) and Minnesota (235,243). </p><p class="p1">The participation survey has been compiled since 1971 by the NFHS through numbers it receives from its member associations. </p>