INDIANAPOLIS | Over 7.7 million high school students participated in prep sports in the 2012-13 school year according to a recent survey, marking a rise for the 24th consecutive year.
In numbers found by the National Federation of High School Associations (NFHS), approximately 21,057 new prep athletes — 15,190 of them girls — competed last season, showing growth every season since 1988-89.
The total number included 4,490,854 boys — the sec0nd-highest total since the NFHS began keeping numbers in 1971-72 — along with an all-time high of 3,222,723 girls, a number that’s also increased for the last 24 years.
“While we recognize that many schools are experiencing challenges with funding high school sports programs, we are encouraged that schools are responding to the challenges and that more and more students are involved in high school sports,” Bob Gardner, NFHS executive director, said in a statement. “Playing sports within the school setting continues to be the desire of more than 55 percent of students enrolled in our nation’s high schools.”
Colorado — which opens the 2013-14 prep sports season officially on Aug. 29 — ranked 20th overall in the number of participants last year with a total of 130,891 boys and girls involved in sports sanctioned by the Colorado High School Activities Association.
The top 10 states in terms of participations numbers are Texas (798,333) and California (777,545), followed by New York (389,475), Illinois (339,944), Ohio (327,919), Pennsylvania (315,492), Michigan (304,438), New Jersey (270,423), Florida (243,397) and Minnesota (230,421).
Courtney Oakes is Sports Editor of the Aurora Sentinel. Reach him at 303-750-7555 or sports@aurorasentinel.com. Twitter: @aurorasports. Facebook: Aurora Prep Sentinel