HIGH SCHOOL SPORTS PARTICIPATION CONTINUES TO GROW
Thursday, November 3rd, 2011 -- 12:36 PM
For the 22nd year in a row, participation in high school sports grew during the 2010-11 school year, according to the annual High School Athletics Participation Survey conducted by the National Federation of State High School Associations (NFHS). In the October edition of the WIAA Bulletin, sports participation for the 2010-11 school year reached another record-breaking total of 7,667,955 participants nationwide. NFHS executive director Bob Gardner said that based on the survey, 55.5% of students enrolled in high schools participate in athletics which he said emphasizes and reinforces the idea that high school sports have a significant role in student involvement in schools across the country. Cross country and outdoor track and field gained the most participants in boys sports while lacrosse led the way for additional participants for the girls. Basketball programs lead the way for both boys and girls with outdoor track and field second. As far as participants, outdoor track and field leads the way for girls followed by basketball and for the boys there are more participants in football than any other sport with outdoor track and field a distant second. Texas and California were #1 and #2 in list of participants by state. The participation survey has been compiled since 1971 by the NFHS through numbers it receives from its member associations. The complete 2010-11 High School Athletics Participation Survey is available on the NFHS web site at www.nfhs.org.Feel free to contact us with questions and/or comments.