HS sports participation declines (including girls' BB)

[Plebe]

Participation in high school sports declines nationally for the first time in 30 years

A national survey shows that a decline in football participation continues.

www.latimes.com

"High school sports received a double dose of bad news on Monday when the annual participation survey by the National Federation of State High School Assns. showed a decline in sports participation for the first time in 30 years for the 2018-19 season.​

​

"Leading the decline was another drop in football participation, with 11-man football dropping by 30,829 to 1,006,013, the lowest mark since the 1999-2000 school year. It’s the fifth consecutive year of declining football participation. ... The girls’ basketball total of 399,067 is the lowest since 1992-93."​

 

[mudcat]

Participation in high school sports declines nationally for the first time in 30 years

A national survey shows that a decline in football participation continues.

www.latimes.com

"High school sports received a double dose of bad news on Monday when the annual participation survey by the National Federation of State High School Assns. showed a decline in sports participation for the first time in 30 years for the 2018-19 season.​

​

"Leading the decline was another drop in football participation, with 11-man football dropping by 30,829 to 1,006,013, the lowest mark since the 1999-2000 school year. It’s the fifth consecutive year of declining football participation. ... The girls’ basketball total of 399,067 is the lowest since 1992-93."​

Would think percentages rather than numbers would indicate interest. Anyone here have those stats?

 

[Fishy]

It's not a concern.

The number of kids is falling, so, obviously, the number participating in sports have fallen.

It'll get worse in some areas like the northeast where we're bleeding population - Connecticut most of all.

 

[DefenseBB]

Umm, the football numbers falling is really the concerning issue due to the injury risk and CTE issues and it will only continue to fall as schools struggle to get insurance and mitigate the risk.

 

[Bama fan]

I am sure there are many factors that play a role here. But one thing that causes participation to fall is the need for parents to find the money to pay for their kids to join. Many schools have steadily increased the fees and "donations" required. And parents are sometimes asked to pay for food, snacks,and drinks for the whole team. One school in this area asked parents to pay for a trainer to be at games and practices. And it is not uncommon for coaches with winning records to get "stipends" from participating parents. Schools are so strapped for money that everything must now be supplied by donation or coercion. It was getting bad when my kids were playing a decade or more ago, and now the grandkids find it even more taxing.

 

[donalddoowop]

As far as girl's basketball is concerned, there was an article last year stating that more girls are turning to volleyball and away from basketball.

 

[meyers7]

As far as girl's basketball is concerned, there was an article last year stating that more girls are turning to volleyball and away from basketball.

Yea, Volleyball is really picking up around here. This fall while football, soccer, field hockey were all struggling to fill Var/JV/Fr teams (or just Var/JV teams), Volleyball had 70 girls show up for tryouts.

 

[Checkmate 2.0]

The kids are getting a reality check in High School. . . Everyone does not get a trophy

 

[Ozimoto]

High school football in not a big deal in the Baltimore region in the counties surrounding the city so the football numbers are not surprising to me, especially given the problems with concussions. Soccer and lacrosse are the "prestige" sports in this area. It would be interesting to see what the numbers indicate in terms of the popularity for high school soccer and lacrosse nationally as those sports seem to be growing in popularity across the country.

Another phenomenon I have seen locally, especially for girls softball and volleyball is that kids who are really good at those sports and who have visions of playing at a high level in college are only participating in high school sports because they "have to" as the coaching and quality of competition is perceived to be second rate. The real effort and time is spent on playing at the club level. If it comes down to a high school coach saying "no club ball during the varsity season" the kids won't play in high school. If they do play, it is because the coach essentially says to them "go play club ball. Just show up for your varsity games and we're good."

 

[CL82]

In my experience the vast majority of girls are playing some HS sport today and doing it at a reasonable decent level with significant off season time dedicated to the sport. It's a good thing in that they are being taken seriously and training like their male counterparts. It's a bad thing in that they rarely get a break from the specific sport that they play.

 

[Plebe]

Would think percentages rather than numbers would indicate interest. Anyone here have those stats?

This 2017 article from Texas Monthly talks about declining percentages of participation in Texas high school football as a long-term trend:

Texas High School Students Are Moving Away From Football

Friday night, lights out.

www.texasmonthly.com

The share of high school students who play the game has been sliding for years, according to records maintained by the University Interscholastic League (UIL), the state governing body for public school extracurricular activities. Between the 2000 and 2016 seasons the sport’s annual participation rate fell off by one quarter. Last year, just under 11 percent of high schoolers in the state—167,428 students—played UIL-sanctioned football and six-man football in Texas. That’s a big drop from 2000, when the number stood at 14.5 percent.​

 

[Monte]

Most of the kids I see, would rather play with their cell phones.

 

[Triad]

Participation in high school sports declines nationally for the first time in 30 years

A national survey shows that a decline in football participation continues.

www.latimes.com

"High school sports received a double dose of bad news on Monday when the annual participation survey by the National Federation of State High School Assns. showed a decline in sports participation for the first time in 30 years for the 2018-19 season.​

​

"Leading the decline was another drop in football participation, with 11-man football dropping by 30,829 to 1,006,013, the lowest mark since the 1999-2000 school year. It’s the fifth consecutive year of declining football participation. ... The girls’ basketball total of 399,067 is the lowest since 1992-93."​

I consider this GOOD NEWS. HS and lower grades Boys and Girl need sports in their lives but not ORGANIZED demanding time and body. The life long effects of hard charging coaching isn't worth the ring or award. Children need children time.
Football I am very vocal in how much I detest this sport and the damage to many adults today from this sport backs me up. There is nothi the brain in it's ocean of fluids that will protect from sudden high impact.

The kids are getti

 

[Triad]

Most of the kids I see, would rather play with their cell phones.

The ownership of Cell phones is a parent issue. I don't believe in kids having them. Security or not. No kid should be on a tether electronically or by rope.

 

[Triad]

I am sure there are many factors that play a role here. But one thing that causes participation to fall is the need for parents to find the money to pay for their kids to join. Many schools have steadily increased the fees and "donations" required. And parents are sometimes asked to pay for food, snacks,and drinks for the whole team. One school in this area asked parents to pay for a trainer to be at games and practices. And it is not uncommon for coaches with winning records to get "stipends" from participating parents. Schools are so strapped for money that everything must now be supplied by donation or coercion. It was getting bad when my kids were playing a decade or more ago, and now the grandkids find it even more taxing.

Do the parent also pay for Academic 'Trainers' to be in classrooms too? Or are sport more important to parent than Academics. I believe in physical activity but not strutured/coached. For years the Europeans formed CLUBS to fill that need. Then too some had academics distributed over the range of training college bound, technology bound, and intellectually above the norm the USA won't do that.

 

[meyers7]

I consider this GOOD NEWS. HS and lower grades Boys and Girl need sports in their lives but not ORGANIZED demanding time and body.

NO, this is not good news at all. Very bad news. Very bad. Kids need the exercise, the teamwork, the camaraderie, the responsibility, to learn how to win and lose. There are so many life lessons taught in organized sports.

 

[Triad]

NO, this is not good news at all. Very bad news. Very bad. Kids need the exercise, the teamwork, the camaraderie, the responsibility, to learn how to win and lose. There are so many life lessons taught in organized sports.

Are you [ ] implying ONLY coached sports kids learn life lessons and have long time friends---get real!!
Kids don't need Coached/driven sports--they need Fun sports unorganized. They need ME time away from all this pressure. They can and will have all the long time friends and "moments" with out the pressures. Football playing is nearly certain to have brain damage. Basketball too---look at the concussions on the UConn team lately---in 30 years look for the brain related health issues. Kid got along for thousands of years without playing elementary, HS or college sports. Even Uconn got along without it---and the kids that did play had tough degrees--premed, engineering, etc and graduated.
Kids don't need trophys or rings or awards to prove their worth. As a HS kid Einstein never won a championship in basketball, soccer, hockey and certainly not football--and he did well. Others less know did too. Who was on the 1939 women's basketball team, don't look it up, do it from memory---no one knows.

 

[meyers7]

Are you implying ONLY coached sports kids learn life lessons and have long time friends---get real!!

Ummm, no I did not imply that. You might have inferred that. [ ]

Kids don't need Coached/driven sports--they need Fun sports unorganized. They need ME time away from all this pressure. They can and will have all the long time friends and "moments" with out the pressures. Football playing is nearly certain to have brain damage. Basketball too---look at the concussions on the UConn team lately---in 30 years look for the brain related health issues. Kid got along for thousands of years without playing elementary, HS or college sports. Even Uconn got along without it---and the kids that did play had tough degrees--premed, engineering, etc and graduated.
Kids don't need trophys or rings or awards to prove their worth. As a HS kid Einstein never won a championship in basketball, soccer, hockey and certainly not football--and he did well. Others less know did too.

Ok, none of that was what I advocated. You might try reading again. If you want to address what I posted, why don't you try addressing what I posted??

Who was on the 1939 women's basketball team, don't look it up, do it from memory---no one knows.

They know.

 

[Biff]

One more personal insult and I will lock this thread.

 

[Bama fan]

Interesting report from Alabama High School Athletic Association today about participation. Bama is bucking the nationwide trend with a significant increase in participation. Increase in football, but largest gain was in girl's soccer.

 

[JellyBean]

As far as girl's basketball is concerned, there was an article last year stating that more girls are turning to volleyball and away from basketball.

Great point. Volleyball and Cheerleading are slowly increasing their numbers in our area. A lot of the girls have left our basketball program, 30 to be exact, over the last 5 years for these wonderful sports. I really don't mind the move. At least they are playing a sport. Might not be the one I like or coach but the girls seem to enjoy them. So best wishes to them.

 

[Jeff H]

Being a high school coach I am extremely prejudiced. Still the argument that high school sports lack value seems completely unsupported by both my experience and anything I've read. That being said I would not argue that every kid "needs" high school sports.

Just one study, but it is consistent with the majority of others I've seen.

As a result of a historically tough economic time for scores of Americans including the schools their children attend. The academic success of approximately 550,000 to 725,000 high school student-athletes and non-athletes during the 2011-12 school year was analyzed across the nation. The study identified a significant correlation between athletic involvement and the academic success indicators of graduation rates, dropout rates, average daily attendance, and average letter grades. Graduation rates ranked the highest according to significance during the study. Graduation rates were followed not surprisingly by dropout rates. Average daily attendance ranked third and although average letter grades contributed the smallest level of correlation, non-athletes earned a 2.72 GPA while student-athletes earned an overall 3.01 respectively. The results of every academic success category demonstrated student-athletes achieving greater than non athlete.

 

[Plebe]

I found this to be an interesting article, and who doesn't love some nifty color-coded maps and infographics?

https://www.casino.org/the-next-generation-in-sports/

 

[nwhoopfan]

That graphic needs more contrast between the shades of pink. The two tones of blue clearly stand out.

Track is the most participated in sport in Washington huh? I wouldn't have guessed that. Looks like it covers about half of the country.

 

[Checkmate 2.0]

That graphic needs more contrast between the shades of pink. The two tones of blue clearly stand out.

Track is the most participated in sport in Washington huh? I wouldn't have guessed that. Looks like it covers about half of the country.

Most of the "track" and Cross Country are just interested in a long coed jog for their college resume.