Participation in high school sports at all-time high

“It’s clear that the value of of high school sports is stronger than ever,” CIF Executive Director Ron Nocetti said in the press release.

Girls’ flag football saw the biggest growth, seeing its participation numbers nearly double from 2023 to 2024, which was the driving force in participation among female athletes increasing more than 3%, overall.

In the fall of 2023, 10,832 played flag football. Last year, that number grew to 19,971, an increase of 84%.

“It’s gratifying to see it take off like we thought it would,” said Steve Sell, Aragon athletic director since 1996 and will begin his first year on the CIF Executive Committee this school year.

“There are few barriers to entry,” Sell continued. “A kid can come into high school having not ever spent a dime (playing flag football). … They can come in with no prior experience and excel.”

Flag football isn’t the only sport that has helped increase participation. Boys’ volleyball, which saw a slight dip overall, is still a healthy and growing sport.

“I’ve gone from nine kids on boys’ volleyball to two full, robust rosters over the last six years,” said Sequoia athletic director Melissa Schmidt, who begins her term as the Central Coast Section vice president this year.

The rise of flag football may have something to do with the decrease of participation in girls’ volleyball, which saw a slight dip.

Girls’ sports, overall, saw an increase of nearly 11,000 more participants last season as numbers continue to grow since the nadir of COVID. The spring season of 2020 was canceled, as was the fall and winter seasons of during the 2020-21 school year before restrictions were lifted in late January and all sports were played from February to the end of the school year.

It was that return to play that really showed Sell the importance of high school athletics.

“The one thing COVID did for high school athletics: if parents thought the importance of high school athletics was a 6 or 7 (on a scale to 10 before COVID), it went up to 9, 9.5. Getting out, connecting with other kids; it became, ‘Oh wow! My kid really needs this,’” Sell said. “That became really clear.”

Participation dropped from 815,452 athletes during the 2019-20 season to 753,606 for the 2021-22 season.

There were no numbers for the 2020-21 season, however.

“We didn’t collect data that year (because of COVID),” said Rebecca Brutlag, CIF director of media. “The numbers wouldn’t have been accurate.”

But it didn’t take long for those numbers to rebound and there has been a steady increase over the last three years.

Football still have the most participants on the boys’ side, with more than 91,000 athletes, an increase of nearly 2%, while girls’ soccer has nearly 48,000 players.

But track and field has the most participation, overall, with more than 104,000 boys and girls running, throwing and jumping.

“We definitely saw a dip post COVID,” Schmidt said. “Maybe not kids in high school. It was the kids in middle school who didn’t go back to sports, or late elementary (aged kids).”

Which leads to something that Schmidt said she has noticed over the years — the ebbs and flows of athletic high school classes. She said last year’s freshman class was heavily involved in athletics. The upcoming senior class? Not as much.

“That’s kind of something I’ve seen over the last 10 years,” Schmidt said.

Sequoia will help grow those numbers for the 2025-26 season as it establishes a traditional competitive cheer team this season. Nearly 15,000 athletes participated in the sports last year.

“I think anything we can offer our kids to keep them connected to school, that’s good,” Schmidt said.