National mark tops 7 million students

Football had the most participants and had the largest increase among boys sports.

INDIANAPOLIS -- California and New York continued cutting into Texas' huge lead in the number of high school students participating in sports.

Total student participation for all 50 states and the District of Columbia, meanwhile, rose 1.6 percent from 2003-04 to a record 7 million in 2004-05, according to an annual survey by the National Federation of State High School Associations. It was the 16th straight year the NFHS reported an increase in the number of high school athletes.

"The fact the numbers continue to rise confirm to us the interest in school-based athletic programs is still there," NFHS spokesman Bruce Howard said Tuesday. "Certainly, there are some emerging sports that help that, such as bowling and lacrosse, in certain parts of the country. A lot of the routine major sports continue to be pretty steady year to year."

Football again had the most participants and the largest increase among all boys sports. Basketball remained the leading sport for girls, but track and field showed the biggest gain. In terms of percentage increases, bowling and lacrosse had the biggest gains for both boys and girls.

Another emerging sport, mainly in California, Maine and Vermont, is snowboarding.

Texas, with 740,052 participants, is still the national leader but has dropped more than 39,000 since 2000-01, including almost 15,000 in just the past year, according to the NFHS figures. California remains second, with an increase of almost 26,000 to 678,019, and New York is still third at 350,349, an increase of almost 14,000.

Michigan's increase from 302,648 to 311,814 moved it from sixth to fourth. Illinois fell to fifth, Ohio dropped to sixth and Pennsylvania remained seventh. The only other position change among the top 10 states was by Minnesota, which moved ahead of New Jersey into eighth. Florida again was 10th.

Missouri ranked 13th with 167,481 participants, according to information provided by the Missouri State High School Activities Association.

Total participation for boys was 4.1 million, including just over 1 million in football and about 545,000 in basketball. The total for girls was a record 2.9 million, including some 456,000 in basketball and about 428,000 in outdoor track and field.

The Indianapolis-based NFHS represents about 18,000 U.S. high schools and some 13 million students. The participation survey is based on figures supplied by each member state association.

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State by state

High school participation in each state in 2004-05:

State Athletes

1. Texas 740,052

2. California 678,019

3. New York 350,349

4. Michigan 311,814

5. Illinois 310,791

6. Ohio 310,585

7. Pennsylvania 262,859

8. Minnesota 233,070

9. New Jersey 228,388

10. Florida 219,040

11. Massachusetts 205,181

12. Wisconsin 189,787

13. Missouri 167,481

14. Virginia 164,426

15. North Carolina 160,330

16. Indiana 159,496

17. Georgia 151,986

18. Iowa 140,333

19 Washington 137,888

20. Colorado 121,421

21. Arizona 102,579

22. Tennessee 101,768

23. Connecticut 100,715

24. Maryland 100,305

25. Kansas 99,111

26. Kentucky 93,967

27. Oregon 92,575

28. Louisiana 90,157

29. Alabama 86,036

30. Mississippi 84,877

31. Nebraska 80,228

32. South Carolina 79,777

33. Oklahoma 74,511

34. Maine 55,256

35. New Mexico 48,504

36. Utah 46,910

37. Arkansas 46,315

38. Idaho 44,512

39. New Hampshire 43,418

40. Nevada 38,096

41. Hawaii 34,758

42. West Virginia 34,571

43. Montana 33,338

44. South Dakota 28,541

45. North Dakota 26,768

46. Rhode Island 25,971

47. Vermont 24,472

48. Alaska 19,357

49. Wyoming 17,302

50. Delaware 16,631

51. District of Columbia 4,087

TOTAL 7,018,709