National decline in participation has slowed

The number of high school football players in the U. S. shrunk again last year, but the decline isn’t as steep as previous years.

Statistics from the National Federation of State High School Associations’ annual participation survey showed 2,489 fewer players in the country in the 2019 season. That’s the 10th time in 11 years that participation has dropped. But last year’s numbers suggest the decline in players might be slowing. Consider in the three previous years ( 2016- 18) the declines were 23,311, 20,540 and 30,829. Last year’s decline was the smallest in 10 years.

The NFHS has been conducting the participation survey for 50 years. According to the NFHS, participation in 11- player football reached an all- time high of more than 1.1 million in 2008. Last year, a little more than 1 million played football. All told, 2019 had 108,779 fewer players than 2008.

In Pennsylvania, the number of football players in 2019 dropped for the 11th consecutive year. You can view this a few different ways. Yes, it is the 11th consecutive year that participation in Pennsylvania football dropped. But the decline from 2018 to 2019 was only 225 players. That’s not much when you consider the PIAA has 565 footballplaying schools.

Last year’s decline of 225 players, however, ties for the most since the 2010 season. And overall, there were 1,620 fewer players in Pennsylvania in 2019 than 2008.

The NFHS will not have a complete participation report for the first time in 50 years because spring sports were not played in most states due to the COVID- 19 pandemic. But the organization did have statistics from the fall and winter seasons. Those numbers showed girls volleyball has now passed girls basketball as the second- most popular sport in the country for girls with 462,559 participants in 2019. That’s 60,000 more than 10 years ago. Track and field is the No. 1 participation sport for girls.