By Nick Stevens, managing editor of HighSchoolOT
Raleigh, NC – High school sports participation in North Carolina has not returned to pre-pandemic levels, according to data released Wednesday by the National Federation of State High School Associations.
Overall participation in North Carolina was down 9.1% during the 2021-2022 school year compared to the 2018-2019 school year, the last time the NFHS released participation data due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The total number of participants in North Carolina fell from 198,252 to 180,255.
Boys’ and girls’ sports both declined, but girls’ sports saw the biggest drop. The number of girls participating in high school sports in North Carolina dropped from 87,541 in 2018-2019 to 76,612 last school year, a decrease of 12.5%. Boys’ participation fell from 110,711 to 103,643, a decrease of 6.4%.
North Carolina ranked 12th nationally for total high school sports participation during the 2018-2019 school year, but the state has dropped to No. 13 as Georgia jumped to No. 12.
The NFHS has not yet released sport-specific data for individual states, but indicated that information will be released soon.
Nationally, high school sports participation decreased by 4% from 2018-2019 to 2021-2022. Boys’ national participation fell by 3.5% and girls’ participation fell by 4.7%. North Carolina saw larger declines in participation in boys’ and girls’ sports, compared to the national number.
The NFHS believes that these numbers are encouraging overall, despite the reductions.
“Given what has happened in our country over the past three years, we believe that a four percent drop in participation totals from 2018-19 is extremely significant,” said Dr. Karissa Niehoff, CEO of the NFHS. “We know that some states that were able to complete surveys in 2020-21 reported increases in participation last year. Therefore, we are very hopeful that the trend will continue in the coming years as schools fully recover from the effects of the 2020 shutdown.”
HighSchoolOT has reached out to the NC High School Athletic Association for comment.
Football participation continues decline
The football participation data for North Carolina has not been released yet, but the NFHS has released the national data. See the article : Ehsan Kassim joins the Democratic sports team as a Florida state beatwriter.
11-a-side football participation declined by 3.2%, falling below 1 million participants nationally. The number of schools offering 11-a-side football also fell by 3.6%, down 514 schools from 14,247 in 2018-2019 to 13,733 in 2021-22.
However, the NFHS points to increased participation in other forms of football as cause for hope. The number of schools offering 6-man, 8-man, or 9-man football increased from 1,563 to 1,790 – an increase of 12.7%.
Girls’ participation in 6-man, 8-man, 9-man, and 11-man football also grew last year, up from 2,604 to 3,633 – an increase of 39.5%. There was a 40.9% increase in girls’ participation in football as well as an increase from 11,209 to 15,716 participants.
The NFHS called the football participation data “encouraging,” despite the drops in 11-man football participation.
“Certainly, the football numbers are encouraging after the previous report from the 2018-19 season,” said Niehoff. “The transition from 11 players to other versions of the game continues to be attractive to schools in some states, and the growth of girls’ flag football continues to advance in more parts of the country.”
Across all forms of football, including boys and girls, participation decreased by 2.1%, down from 1,051,047 to 1,028,976.
This is a developing story and will be updated.
The results indicate that school sports participation was significantly associated with academic achievement, positive body-image perceptions, and self-esteem. Overall, participation in school sports showed a significant standardized effect (. 225) on academic achievement.
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