California’s participation numbers in high school sports continue to increase to new highs, with 835,088 student-athletes competing in education-based athletic programs last year, according to a new study from the California Interscholastic Federation (CIF).
Girls flag football saw the biggest increase in participation at 25.4%, rising to 24,979 participants, and is now the sixth most-played sport amongst girls. Soccer, volleyball and track & field are the top three most-played sports for girls with roughly the same number of participants at approximately 48,000, followed by softball (29,639) and basketball (28,147) rounding out the top five. Girls wrestling increased 15.6% to 10,204 participants, while beach volleyball grew 11.5% to 6,313 participants, according to the CIF.
Football remains the most popular sport for boys with 87,718 participants but saw a 4% decrease in participation since last year. Track & field was second (59,768), a 2.2% increase, while soccer was third (57,794), a 1.6% increase. Basketball (46,303) and baseball (42,564) saw slight decreases in participation. Volleyball saw the biggest increase in participation for boys, with a 4.1% increase from last year to 28,881 participants.
