While athletic performance hasn’t drawn as much attention as math and reading, new data shows student performance in sports has also taken a hit during the pandemic.
Nationwide, more than 7.6 million high school students participated in school sports in the 2021-22 school year, according to a new survey released this week by the National Federation of State High School Associations. This represents a 4 percent drop from 2018-19, with girls’ sports losing more runners than boys’ sports.
Sports teachers also warn that, just like many students who experienced school interruptions during the pandemic lost their education, sports students experienced “learning loss” in sports.
“Even though our numbers have been really impressive this fall, our kids are coming up short,” said Ann Paulls-Neal, head girls’ track coach at Highland High School and physical education teacher at Wherry Elementary School, both in Albuquerque, N.M.
This fall has been a unique blessing for varsity sports at Highland. Boys’ soccer fielded a 60th team, back to pre-pandemic levels. The girls’ volleyball team’s efforts have had a major exit in five years.
But Paulls-Neal said it has become clear that the epidemic has increased tensions among student athletes in high-poverty schools like his.
High-income student-athletes could afford private accommodations, he said, and many wealthy families in Albuquerque even sent their students to Arizona and Texas to participate in club sports when the school’s athletics was suspended last year because of the move. The COVID-19 crisis.
“Many of our children have not had opportunities to practice their skills,” he said.
Nationally, federal health data show less than one-third of children ages 6 to 17 in families with incomes below the federal poverty level played sports, compared to 70 percent of children in families with incomes above or above the federal poverty level.
Fewer opportunities to practice and play competitively have led to slower growth in athletic skills, especially in professional sports such as the pole vault, long jump, and track and field events, Paulls-Neal said.
“I think it was more noticeable for the track to be individual,” he said. “Those technical events require a lot of reps in a lot of time [of practice], and the kids just didn’t get it for almost two years.”
For example, the top girls jump at the state track-and-field meet this fall was 5″4’—more than two inches lower than the 2018-19 high jump. “Most of our athletes were jumping two to four inches lower than normal,” Paulls- Neal said.
For most traditional varsity sports, he predicts it will take teams three years to return to pre-pandemic levels.
“Often you look at your junior class as some of your best players; they had the opportunity to show some leadership and grow and develop so that they are ready to work in the varsity,” he said. “But it is common in all our programs now to see fewer young people and seniors than freshmen and graduates.
“If you look at young people,” he continued, “they finished eighth grade online, started high school online and when it came to their sophomore year and school was normal, a lot of them felt like they missed that window” of varsity sports.
More diverse sports interests
Federation leaders have been optimistic about their new data, noting that sports programs have been so vulnerable to the pandemic that they have failed to conduct the survey in the past few years. Read also : Help your kids stay safe during sports.
“We’re excited to see a lot of them back at the level of participation, and we’re not changing the season by changing roster numbers and things like that,” said Karissa Niehoff, CEO of the NFSHSA. “So after CCIDID—and we’re still not following COVID—we feel like the numbers we’ve gotten back are encouraging.”
The decline in overall sports participation has been linked to an increase in interest in less serious sports. “We’re seeing an increase in the number of games offered, which is exciting,” Niehoff said. “It’s opening up new opportunities.”
Football remains the most popular boys’ sport, with more than 973,000 students, the NFSHSA found. Although participation in 11-a-side sports fell by 3 percent, there was a 12 percent increase in players in smaller sports, such as six-a-side, eight-a-side, and nine-a-side football.
While traditional football has faced concerns about brain injuries from concussions (including two recent deaths in New Jersey), Niehoff said the number of small and rural schools offering the sport has increased, in part because it has become easier to field teams. for junior boys’ sports and girls’ flag football in junior schools.
The outdoor sport was the most popular for girls nationally in 2021-2022, with about 457,000 students playing, NFSHSA found, but girls volleyball has grown faster, with more than 457,000 students.
NFSHSA also found a growing interest in school-based e-sports, where students play video games and compete in teams.
Kristen Kraft, former Kansas Principal of the Year in 2021 and academic advisor for the High School E-Sports League, said the rise of sports at Andover High School during the pandemic has brought participation from a completely different population than the traditional student. – players.
“It was amazing to me, from a big perspective, how many kids were involved,” Kraft said. “Now that they are back [from the school disruption], the children are really struggling to find their place. And I saw a whole group of children I had never seen before connected to our school. “
The survey also showed a dramatic increase in the popularity of co-ed sports programs, in which students with intellectual disabilities play on the same teams as their classmates. Twenty districts now have other districts with joint programs, up from ten pre-pandemic, and the number of participating students has increased tenfold, from 5,500 in 5,500 to 48,000 in 2021-2022.
“In affiliated sports programs, there’s been a huge increase,” Niehoff said. “In a public secondary school, there are children with mental disabilities. And I will tell you, as a former high school principal, there is nothing better for the culture and climate in a school than to start a joint sports program where regular students are matched with children with intellectual disabilities and do sports. “
“Spirit, friends, mentorship, friendship – it’s heartbreaking to see what this event does for kids,” he added.
Sarah D. Sparks covers educational research, data, and learning science for Education Week.
