The National Federation of State High School Associations on August 10 released its latest athletic participation survey, which covers the 2015-16 school year. The information is collected and reported by the state high school athletic associations that make up the NFHS' membership, and it's the best guide available to assess school sports participation. So what can we learn from this year's survey?
We may be nearing peak participation
NFHS counted a record 4,544,574 boys sports participants and a record 3,324,326 girls participants to reach a record 7,868,900 participants overall. (A participant is defined as any filled roster spot, so a three-sport athlete would be counted as three toward the overall participation total.) This is not unusual, in that high school sports participation has set a record every school year since 1990-91, in large part thanks to a nearly unending growth spurt in girls sports since Title IX in 1972 mandated equal support of boys and girl activities.
However, the youth population in United States has been on a steady decline since 2010, which means the available pool of young athletes is falling, too. That could be good news for anyone who wants to try out for a team -- less competition! But, demographically speaking, it's going to get harder to keep this pattern of growth.
Football -- not dead yet
There are plenty of surveys showing parents not wanting their young children to play football because of a fear of concussions, and in the past few years have seen a steady decline in participation at the high school level. However, NFHS was very proud of football, which is still far and away has the most participants (even combining boys and girls track and field into one number, football is still up by a few hundred participants -- note that both sports are popular in part because they generally don't cut anyone), staunching the bleeding in 2015-16:
While some states reported a decline in football participation in 2015, 24 states registered increases in boys participation in 11-player football. When combining boys and girls participation in 6-, 8-, 9- and 11-player football, the number of participants increased 138 – from 1,114,253 to 1,114,391.
“The NFHS and its member state associations have taken significant steps over the past 10 years to minimize the risk of participation in football and all high school sports, so this report on the continued strong interest and participation in high school football is very encouraging,” said Bob Gardner, NFHS executive director. “With the adoption of state laws and protocols for concussion management in place, we continue to believe that the sport of football at the high school level is as safe as it has been since the first rules were written in 1932 – and we believe this year’s participation report is confirmation of that belief.”
Actually, boys weren't responsible for tackle football's growth in 2015-16 -- girls were. The number of girls in the sport increased in one year to a record 2,140 (1,964 in 11-player football), up 24 percent from 2014-15's 1,698. In some places, girls participation is literally saving high school football.
One other football factoid: high school flag football is booming. Girls participation jumped 20 percent from 2014-15 to a record 10,867, and boys participation leaped 46 percent to another record, 1,226. Not a big number nationwide, but I would expect that to keep growing as parents get more queasy about tackle football.
The most popular sports are still the most popular
The top 10 sports for both boys and girls in 2014-15 are still the top 10 in 2015-16. The top 10 for boys: 11-player football, outdoor track and field, basketball, baseball, soccer, cross country, wrestling, tennis, golf, and swimming and diving. The top 10 for girls: outdoor track and field, volleyball, basketball, soccer, fast-pitch softball, cross country, tennis, swimming and diving, competitive spirit squad (yes, it counts as a sport) and lacrosse.
Boys have spirit, yes they do
Speaking of competitive spirit squad, that's one of the fastest-growing sports for boys. While girls' participation dropped slightly, boys participation zoomed up 23.6 percent from 2014-15 to 3,322 in 2015-16. That's still well below the 125,531 girls participants, though.
Girls participation is going up, but it's still a long way from boys' numbers
The percentage of high school participants who are girls reached a record of 42.2 percent in 2015-16. However, that ratio has been close to 42 percent for about five years, which signals maybe we're never going to get to truly equal participation numbers. Much of the disparity comes from football participation numbers. But it also comes from the variance by state in getting girls involved with sports. By my calculation, 26 states are above that 42.2 percent girls participation rate, led by Minnesota at 48.7 percent. Having so many girls participate explains why Minnesota, which ranks 21st among states in population, is ranked 10th in high school athletic participation. Other states with relatively even boy-girl ratios include Pennsylvania (47.2 percent), Vermont (46.3), New Hampshire (46.2), Maine (46), Kentucky (45.6) and Connecticut (45.5).
Kentucky is rarity among Southeastern Conference states in being above the national average in girls participation. At the bottom is Alabama, at a measly 34.6 percent, followed by Tennessee (36.1), South Carolina (37.8), Mississippi (37.9), Arkansas (39), Texas (39.3), and Georgia (39.8). Actually, two non-SEC states have a low girls participation rate -- Iowa, at 39.2 percent, and Kansas, at 39.9 percent. If these states can boost girls' participation up closer to the level of a Minnesota or Pennsylvania, maybe we won't be at peak high school sports participation after all.
