Can this be true??? And if so, why? And, what can we do about it?

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The Census Bureau conducted a survey in 2007 and found that, among the general public, walking is technically the most popular sport. Swimming and bowling are also incredibly popular among the masses.

Other sports that are growing in popularity: basketball, tennis, and rugby. There are nearly twice as many hoops players as there are baseball players in the United States. In fact, participation in baseball fell more than 8% over the decade. Wrestling tumbled a whopping 44% over the same time period. [color:#FF0000][/color]

http://shine.yahoo.com/team-mom/lacrosse-fastest-growing-sport-us-203700673.html

Why didn't my red, show up as read in the above post?

It might be the way the question was asked to the head of the "household". Check the SURVEY sample. Also I would think the US Department of Education who actually has individual school and school district counts every year as well as state departments of education. USA Wrestling has some pretty good data also on kids and hs participation rates.

http://www.nfhs.org/Participation/HistoricalSearch.aspx

Wrestling Facts


SCHOLASTIC WRESTLING (DATA PROVIDED BY NATIONAL HIGH SCHOOL FEDERATION OF ASSOCIATIONS)
•Scholastic wrestling ranks 6th of all boys' sports in terms of participation at the high school level with over 273,000 nation-wide. (see high school Participation Numbers from the NFHS)
•Wrestling has its high participation rates since 1980 (Total Male Participation - Total Male Participation Graph)
•Since 2002-03, the number of high school wrestlers has grown by over 30,000.
•Over 10,400 schools sponsors wrestling which is the highest ever
•In 2008/09, 42 new wrestling programs were established in Arkansas and the Arkansas High School Athletic Association became the 49th state to sanction a high school state wrestling championship currently, Mississippi is the only state that does not.
•The Cadet/Junior National Championships is the largest wrestling tournament in the world (over 3600 entries).

COLLEGIATE WRESTLING (INFORMATION PROVIDED BY NCAA AND GAO REPORT)
•Intercollegiate wrestling has over 100 years of competition.
•Collegiate wrestling typically ranks in the top 5 in revenue production of all NCAA Championships (2009 NCAA Championships set a NCAA attendance record).
•81 new intercollegiate wrestling teams (all divisions) have been established since 2002
•Wrestling has one of the lowest per cost student-athlete of any male sport with a large squad size which makes it an ideal sport to help increase male enrollment.
•Wrestling has very modest start-up costs and needs
•Wrestlers have performed exceptionally well in the classroom as evidenced by the number of All-American and NCAA Champions earning National and Conference Academic accolades.

WOMEN'S WRESTLING

•Since 1994, the number of women who wrestle in high school has grown from 804 to over 7000. (Total Female Participation - Total Female Participation Graph)
•22 colleges now sponsor a varsity wrestling program
•Women's wrestling is now a recognized Olympic sport
•Texas, Hawaii and Washington sponsor a state high school championship

INTERNATIONAL WRESTLING
•Wrestling was included in the ancient Olympic Games, and was one of the select sports included in the first modern Olympic Games in Athens, Greece in 1896
•Over 135 nations sponsor a wrestling federation.
•Wrestling is one of the top three medal winning sports for the United States

This is high school data - does not include kids participation data

http://www.nfhs.org/Participation/HistoricalSearch.aspx

Year Sport Boys Schools Girls Schools Boys Participation Girls Participation
2009-10 Wrestling 10363 1009 272890 6134
2008-09 Wrestling 10254 1034 267378 6025
2007-08 Wrestling 10090 1287 259688 5527
2006-07 Wrestling 9445 1227 257246 5048
2005-06 Wrestling 9744 1081 251534 4975
2004-05 Wrestling 9562 941 243009 4334
2003-04 Wrestling 9526 808 238700 4008
2002-03 Wrestling 9543 805 239845 3769
2001-02 Wrestling 9578 798 244637 3405
2000-01 Wrestling 9404 896 244984 3032
1999-00 Wrestling 9046 734 239105 2474
1998-99 Wrestling 9022 661 235973 2361
1997-98 Wrestling 8900 619 229176 1907
1996-97 Wrestling 8738 217 227596 1629
1995-96 Wrestling 8677 225 221162 1164
1994-95 Wrestling 8559 249 216453 804
1993-94 Wrestling 8538 220 223433 783
1992-93 Wrestling 8438 50 222025 404
1991-92 Wrestling 8392 50 229908 219
1990-91 Wrestling 8404 21 230673 132
1989-90 Wrestling 8416 0 233856 112
1988-89 Wrestling 8839 0 242064 204
1987-88 Wrestling 8358 0 246771 124
1986-87 Wrestling 8426 16 251281 18
1985-86 Wrestling 8724 1 247653 1
1984-85 Wrestling 8722 2 244598 6
1983-84 Wrestling 8273 0 248300 0
1982-83 Wrestling 8272 0 254581 8
1981-82 Wrestling 8869 0 256107 0
1980-81 Wrestling 8512 0 245029 0
1979-80 Wrestling 8751 3 273326 48
1978-79 Wrestling 8683 0 281704 0
1977-78 Wrestling 9653 0 338328 0
1976-77 Wrestling 9772 0 355160 0
1975-76 Wrestling 9772 0 355160 0
1973-74 Wrestling 9130 0 319048 0
1971-72 Wrestling 7587 0 265039 0
1969-70 Wrestling 6870 0 226681 0
Total 339852 12954 9680101 58655

Saw a piece in the paper recently (KC Star I think) that said Lacrosse is the fastest growing sport in America--recreation, club, college, female. In Ks and Mo I think for high schoolers it is still a club sport. A Leavenworth County club team plays several KC area (KS and MO) teams--several seem to be organized around individual high schools (Rockhurst, Lees Summit, several Shawnee Mission schools). Eventually should expect lacrosse people to petition for state activity association (KSHSAA) recognition and establisment of fully recognized high school teams, leagues, state tournaments. IT will be another late 1980s/1990s football VS soccer fight.