Youth Sports Participation

[MU82]

Basketball remains the sport with by far the most youth (ages 6-12) participation, although its numbers have been essentially flat the last few years.



Biggest growth sports from 2019-22: Tennis 51%, golf 33% (perhaps meaningfully, tennis and golf numbers were provided by sport-specific associations, whereas all others came from Sports & Fitness Industry Association).

Biggest decliners 2019-22: swimming -27%, lacrosse -26%, wrestling -23%, cheerleading -23%, baseball -20%.

Basketball, which had 3.97 million participants in 2022, was down 0.4%. Baseball, second with 3.28M, was down 20%. Soccer, with 2.27M, was up 4%.

[tower912]

I quit coaching youth baseball, participation drops off 20%.   Coincidence?

[Hards Alumni]

Golf is a hobby, not a sport.

Let's do this.

[tower912]

Hmmmmm, did anything happen in, say, 2020, that might have led to the...
Cancelation of team sports seasons?
Increased golf rounds played?
Increased screen time among children?


Hmmmm.....


Oops, I forgot.    We're doomed.

[MU82]

Yes, of course COVID played a major role. Here's what Yahoo Sports wrote to accompany that report:

The pandemic brought youth sports in America to an abrupt halt. Years later, most team sports are still struggling to regain their footing.

‌State of play: Soccer is the only team sport that saw a significant participation increase from 2019 to 2022, according to Aspen Institute's annual State of Play report, published this morning.

By the numbers: Soccer participation among American youth ages 6-12 was up 4% in 2022 compared to 2019. The only other team sport that saw an uptick was flag football (+0.3%).

All the others saw participation declines, with swimming (-26.9%), lacrosse (-26.2%), baseball (-20.1%), ice hockey (-17.5%) and tackle football (-13.2%) among the steepest.

Basketball, which had the most participants ages 6-12 of any sport (3.9 million in 2022), saw participation rates stay relatively flat.

Individual sports on the rise: Tennis (+51.2%) and golf (+32.6%) saw substantial spikes in participation. Both sports experienced COVID booms and appear to have sustained some of that momentum.

More findings:

Girls up, boys down: Boys (40%) still regularly played sports at a higher rate than girls (35%) in 2022, but they're trending in opposite directions.

Top states: Massachusetts and Minnesota reached the federal government's goal of 63% sports participation in both 2020 and 2021. North Dakota, Vermont, Iowa, Nebraska, Kansas and New Hampshire came close.

Knee injuries on the rise: In high school sports, ACL tears increased 12% between 2007-08 and 2021-22. Girls soccer had the highest rates, followed by tackle football, girls basketball and girls lacrosse.

[Dr. Blackheart]

I quit coaching youth baseball, participation drops off 20%.   Coincidence?

The hot moms must have been disappointed.

[tower912]

Brilliant.

[MUBurrow]

One of the biggest drops looks to be in meet sports (golf notwithstanding).  I think both kids and parents just don't have the appetite for 5 hour competitions where each kid partcipates for 180 seconds.

[Coleman]

Ok, so which sports do I push my girls into for their best chance at a college scholarship?

[wadesworld]

Ok, so which sports do I push my girls into for their best chance at a college scholarship?

Bowling or golf.

Unless they're like 6'4" or taller and athletic.  Then volleyball.

[The Hippie Satan of Hyperbole]

Bowling or golf.

Unless they're like 6'4" or taller and athletic.  Then volleyball.

Actually, I would do cross country with rowing as a back-up plan.  Bowling isn't a bad choice because participation is low, but there aren't a lot of scholarships.

[wadesworld]

Actually, I would do cross country with rowing as a back-up plan.  Bowling isn't a bad choice because participation is low, but there aren't a lot of scholarships.

Yeah wasn't sure about the scholarship situation for bowling.  I guess because I absolutely despise both distance running and rowing I'd never want to torture my child with those things.

[Galway Eagle]

Ok, so which sports do I push my girls into for their best chance at a college scholarship?

Esports duh

[Galway Eagle]

Wow lacrosse really took a hit. Wasn't that "the" growth sport for a long time?

[lawdog77]

Ok, so which sports do I push my girls into for their best chance at a college scholarship?

Hopefully they get their athletic and academic talent from their mother j/k.

[The Hippie Satan of Hyperbole]

Yeah wasn't sure about the scholarship situation for bowling.  I guess because I absolutely despise both distance running and rowing I'd never want to torture my child with those things.

Everything requires sacrifice.

[Jay Bee]

Wtf is Pickleball??

[Sir Lawrence]

Ok, so which sports do I push my girls into for their best chance at a college scholarship?

Marching Band

[lawdog77]

Marching Band

Bragging on my daughter. She is a Freshman in the Band(Color Guard). She just won the National Championship this past weekend. No scholarship letters yet.

[TSmith34, Inc.]

Wtf is Pickleball??

Neither youth nor sport

[JWags85]

Bowling or golf.

Unless they're like 6'4" or taller and athletic.  Then volleyball.

Someone can correct me, but for a good decade in the 2010s, they were having trouble filling womens golf scholarships.

Anecdotally, YMMV, but I played regularly with a girl I grew up.  She was a solid player, played 1 or 2 on our HS golf team, which was decent.  We'd be pretty even, slight edge to her, when we played reds vs whites.  If we both played whites, I'd usually give her a couple of strokes a side.  I was a pretty good in HS, but hadn't hit a growth spurt and didn't have much distance, which was a main reason I didn't make a varsity team which spit out a D1 player every couple of years (not all that common for Wisconsin).  But she got a scholarship and played B10 golf for Penn State.  Its not a drag on her at all and it was awesome for her but the other girls I knew in HS that played major conference were heads and shoulders above their peers.

Another friend of mine (her older brother was a stud golfer who played at Marquette) was a pretty good golfer, didn't play HS golf until her junior year and then was never better than 4th position on the team, turned down 2 offers cause she wanted to go to Marquette Nursing.

Unrelated, if your daughter is a bowler, steer her away from Stephen F Austin 

[CreightonWarrior]

I'm guessing they're all holding out for better contracts.

[Galway Eagle]

Neither youth nor sport

I just tore my meniscus playing pickleball. Given that didn't happen playing Hurling, Boxing, soccer, lacrosse, running, or volleyball then I'm reasonably going to assume that means pickleballs more high impact!

[BrewCity83]

I just tore my meniscus playing pickleball. Given that didn't happen playing Hurling, Boxing, soccer, lacrosse, running, or volleyball then I'm reasonably going to assume that means pickleballs more high impact!

No, it means YOU OLD!

[warriorchick]

Ok, so which sports do I push my girls into for their best chance at a college scholarship?

Just tell them to study hard and get an academic scholarship.

Way easier to get, and not a massive time/effort suck once you arrive on campus.