Girls participation in California high school sports continues to rise, national survey says

NFHS survey also shows that football in California has had increased participation in each of past two years

Girls participation in California high school sports increased by 7.4% from the previous school year and 11-player tackle football had a modest gain for the second year in a row, according to results from a national survey that the California Interscholastic Federation announced on Monday. 

In its release about the National Federation of State High School Associations’ survey, the CIF noted that girls sports across the state rose from 324,973 participants during the 2022-23 school year to 349,169 in 23-24.

Participation in California boys sports jumped from 438,894 in 2022-23 to 457,810 this past school year, an increase of 4.3%.

Overall, high school sports in the state had a 5.6% increase in participation across the CIF’s 1,615-member schools as 806,979 athletes competed during the 2023-24 school year. 

“The CIF is motivated by the continued growth in education-based athletics as we provide more experiences and opportunities through our member schools,” CIF Executive Director Ron Nocetti said in the release. “We are optimistic that students will continue to become further involved in the coming years.”

Football participation in California had declined each year from 2016 to 2020. But it climbed from 84,626 in ’21-22 to 89,178 in ’22-23. This past year, 89,667 participated in 11-player tackle football — a 0.5% jump.

Soccer remained the most popular girls sport with 47,631 participants in 2023-24, a 4.6% increase from the previous year.

Volleyball (46,851) was second, with track and field (44,774), softball (29,930) and basketball (28,950) rounding out the top five girls sports. 

Girls flag football, which made its debut in much of the state in 2023-24, now ranks as the gender’s the 11th-most popular sport, with 10,832 participants.

Girls water polo declined for the second straight year, dropping from 12,821 participants in 2022-23 to 12,559 in ’23-24. 

Track and field (57,088) is the second-most popular boys sport, followed by soccer (56,124), basketball (46,833) and baseball (43,015). 

Wrestling had 26,327 boys participants this past school year, 4,345 more than in ’22-23 — a 19.8% increase.

Baseball had a slight decline from 43,367 participants in ’22-23 to 43,051 in ’23-24 – a 0.7% decrease from the previous year.