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Why are HS participation numbers declining #242369 10/13/16 11:57 PM
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USA Today High School Sports
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FOOTBALL

Football, wrestling on the decline, according to NFHS survey

By Jim Halley, USA TODAY High School Sports August 13, 2015

1.1K

There were nearly 10,000 fewer high school football players in the last school year.
There were nearly 10,000 fewer high school football players in the last school year.
Concerns about concussions may be hurting numbers for high school football and the decline of college wrestling may be hurting participation in high school wrestling.

The National Federation of State High School Associations released its annual sports participation numbers from last year and while the overall number of sports participants was up, the number of boys participants was down, mainly because of a decline in the numbers for wrestling and football.

The NFHS figures showed more athletes than ever are participating in high school sports, with 7,807.047 high school athletes in the last school year, an increase of 11,389 from the previous school year. While the number of girls athletes increased by 20,071 participants, there were 8,682 fewer boys participants.

Of the top 10 girls sports, competitive spirit squads and cross country had the biggest jumps. Track and field remains the No. 1 girls sport in participants while volleyball moved ahead of basketball for the No. 2 spot.

In the top 10 boys sports, soccer grew the most with an additional 15,150 participants while wrestling, which has seen a precipitous drop in college scholarships, had 11,306 fewer participants and 11-player football had 9,617 fewer participants. Baseball grew by 3,928 participants and boys basketball grew by 425 participants.

Re: Why are HS participation numbers declining [Re: smokeycabin] #242370 10/14/16 12:01 AM
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High school wrestling participation down for 2014-15

Mark Palmer
Mark Palmer, InterMat Senior Writer
8/14/2015
mark@intermatwrestle.com, Twitter: @MatWriter

Participation in high school wrestling and football was down for the 2014-15 season compared to the previous year, according to the National Federation of State High School Associations in a report issued Thursday.


NFHS -- the organization which tracks high school sports participation on a nationwide and state-by-state basis, among other responsibilities -- reported there were 11,306 fewer participants in wrestling across the country last season, while 11-player football saw 9,617 fewer participants. In reporting these NFHS stats, USA Today offered its own reasons for declines in these sports, stating that football may be taking a hit over concerns about concussions, while claiming that wrestling "has seen a precipitous drop in college scholarships." (Over the past 40 years, there has been a significant decline in the overall number of NCAA Division I wrestling programs, resulting in fewer individual scholarships.)

Because fewer male athletes took to the wrestling mat and football field this past season, the NFHS' overall participation numbers indicate 8,682 fewer boys participated in high school sports overall in 2014-15, while the number of girls athletes increased by 20,071. Looking at overall participation levels for boys and girls combined, more athletes than ever are participating in high school sports, with 7,807,047 high school athletes in the last school year across the U.S., an increase of 11,389 from the previous school year, according to the latest NHSF statistics.

This year's reported drop in the overall number of high school wrestlers bucks a long-running trend of increasing numbers of participants in the sport over the years. Wrestling remains a popular high school sport, with a total of 269,704 boys and girls participating, and 12,403 schools offering the sport nationwide.

In addition to providing overall numbers, the NHSF also breaks down statistics by sex. For boys, the sport ranks eighth in terms of the number of high schools, with 10,597 schools offering wrestling for boys ... and sixth in numbers of male participants, with 258,208. Every state in the nation has boys participating in high school wrestling ... even Mississippi, which is the one state that does not have a sanctioned state championship; however, according to the NHSF report, two schools in that state have a total of 25 wrestlers. In terms of the numbers of individual male participants, the top five states are California (26,374 male wrestlers), Illinois (15,036), New York (13,668), Texas (11,139) and Ohio (11,114). In counting the number of high schools that offer boys wrestling, the top five states are California (848 schools), Ohio (585), New York (497), Pennsylvania (493), and Michigan (445).

According to the NFHS, a total of 11,496 girls wrestle at 1,806 schools in 38 states. In terms of number of individual participants, Texas is tops with 3,977 girl high school wrestlers, followed by California (2,747), Washington state (1,210), Michigan (593), and Hawaii (498). The states with the most high schools that have at least one female wrestler: California ranks No. 1 with 523 schools, followed by Texas (259), Washington state (197), Alaska (102), and Maryland (85).

The NFHS report also provides a big-picture look at overall high school sports participation going back more than four decades. Overall participation among boys and girls has nearly doubled from 1971-72 (the first year of the survey) to today, with 3,960,932 student-athletes in 1972 vs. 7,807,047 participants this year. The number of male athletes has grown by 852,395 since 1972, while the number of girls participating in high school sports has grown more than ten times in that same timeframe.

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Re: Why are HS participation numbers declining [Re: smokeycabin] #242374 10/14/16 08:35 AM
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Re: Why are HS participation numbers declining [Re: smokeycabin] #242375 10/14/16 08:41 AM
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http://www.humankinetics.com/excerpts/ex...t-participation

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A closer look at some trends in youth sport participation
This is an excerpt from Social Issues in Sport, Second Edition, by Ronald B. Woods, PhD.
With participation in youth sport at an all-time high, it would appear that things are rosy in the sporting world of kids. In 2000, the number of American youth who played on at least one organized sport team was found to be 54% of kids between ages 6 and 17 (American Sports Data, Inc. 2005). A similar study five years later showed that among a slightly older age group of 10- to 17-year-olds, sport participation had jumped to 59% (National Survey of Children’s Health 2005).
A related study produced a mixture of good and bad news. It revealed that team sport participation peaks at age 11, basketball remains the most popular team sport, and participation in sport by girls has never been better—but frequent participation by both boys and girls in team sports is declining. A closer look, however, reveals a host of problems. Perhaps the most alarming statistic is that by some estimates, over 70% of participants drop out of youth sport programs along the way to high school. Speculation is rampant as to the cause, but no clear pattern has yet emerged. Possible causes of youth dropouts in sport include the following (Cary 2004):
• Overemphasis on winning as the objective with resulting increases in pressure to win and achieve
• Stress on high performance that translates into longer hours of practice, longer seasons, and specialization in one sport at an early age
• Expenses of participation, traveling teams, sport camps, sport academies, coaching, and equipment that are out of reach of middle-class families
• Increased injury incidence due to inordinate demands on young bodies
• Increased participation in alternative sports by young people who are turned off by traditional adult-organized programs
• Lack of training for youth coaches and the resulting frustration of kids who take orders from well-intentioned but misguided coaches
• Earlier starts in youth sport (sometimes as young as 3 or 4 years of age); children simply grow bored with a sport after a number of years

A more recent study sponsored by the Women’s Sports Foundation (2008) investigated the participation of American youth in exercise and organized team sports. The findings were that 72% were participating or had participated in a sport during the past 12 months, while 12% had dropped out of sport and 15% had never played sports. Perhaps more revealing were the statistics showing that gender, race, and location of kids significantly affected their likely sport participation.
Comparing gender, boys were more likely to be involved in sport at every age and more likely to play multiple sports, and a higher percentage of boys tended to be avid sport participants. Girls tended to enter sport later than boys (7.4 years compared to 6.8 years for boys), and girls also dropped out sooner and in greater numbers. Interestingly, girls were more likely than boys to take part in a wide array of sports including cheerleading, dance, competitive rope jumping, and volleyball while boys tended to stick with more traditional sports.

In suburban communities, participation rates between boys and girls are comparable, but in rural and urban communities, girls fall far behind boys. One telling statistic is that 84% of urban and 68% of rural girls have no physical education classes at all in 11th and 12th grade, compared with only 48% of girls in suburban schools who do not participate in physical education.
Youth sports are racially and ethnically diverse and in fact at many ages, boys of color tend to have higher participation rates in sport than Caucasians. However, the picture for girls of color is not encouraging. They seem to be hit by both gender and skin color discrimination, and their participation levels fall significantly below those of Caucasian girls. The reasons for this are a combination of culture, family responsibilities, income level, and living locations (Women’s Sports Foundation 2008).
Let’s take a closer look at some trends in youth sport.
If you had asked someone in 1975 which sports were most popular with youth, it is likely that the answer would have included traditional boys’ sports like basketball, football, baseball, track, swimming, and perhaps skiing, wrestling, bowling, and gymnastics. Now that girls are much more involved in sport, the types of sport activities have broadened to include sports such as volleyball, soccer, cycling, lacrosse, field hockey, ultimate Frisbee, cheerleading, double Dutch, and stepping. Table 6.2 shows the most frequent physical activities by gender (Women’s Sports Foundation 2008).
Dropping out of youth sport and physical activity continues to be a concern, especially since a majority of youths seem to withdraw during the middle school years. The structure, emphasis on competitive results, length of season, and commitment, along with boredom, are typically cited as primary reasons. A section later in this chapter, Why Kids Play—and Stop Playing—Sports, looks at specific reasons kids give for dropping out of organized sports (see page 110).






Last edited by smokeycabin; 10/14/16 08:43 AM.

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