You've already heard that high school sports participation continues to climb, with tennis in the top 10 for yet another year for both boys and girls, according to the National Federation for State High School Associations (NFHS).
Here's some other good news: NCAA is also seeing record numbers of participation. For the ninth consecutive year, data from the NCAA Sports Sponsorship and Participation Rates Report shows a marked increase in athletics opportunities in sports for which the NCAA sponsors championships, with more than 444,000 student-athletes competing on more than 18,000 teams.
That’s almost 15,000 more student-athletes than in the 2009-10 report (the largest single-year jump since 1984-85) and about 1,200 additional teams. In the last decade, the number of student-athletes has more than doubled (from 209,890 to 444,077), and the number of teams (men and women) in championship sports has grown from 16,829 to 18,314.
For the ninth consecutive year, data from the NCAA Sports Sponsorship and Participation Rates Report show a marked increase in athletics opportunities in sports for which the NCAA sponsors championships, with more than 444,000 student-athletes competing on more than 18,000 teams.
That’s almost 15,000 more student-athletes than in the 2009-10 report (the largest single-year jump since 1984-85) and about 1,200 additional teams. In the last decade, the number of student-athletes has more than doubled (from 209,890 to 444,077), and the number of teams (men and women) in championship sports has grown from 16,829 to 18,314.
According to the most recent reports, basketball is the most frequently sponsored women’s sport, followed by volleyball, cross country, soccer, softball, tennis, and track and field. Basketball also leads the way in men’s sport sponsorship, followed by cross country, baseball, golf, soccer, tennis, track and field, and football.
While tennis does not rank highly in population of college men participating (football took top honors, followed by track and field, soccer basketball and cross country), it is popular with woman (along with outdoor track and field, soccer, indoor track and field, softball, basketball, volleyball, cross country, swimming and diving).
The academic year 2010-2011 brought notable gains in women's tennis programs, with a number of teams added.
But there's bad news too. With so many colleges desperately looking for ways to keep their budgets in the black, it's not surprising that sports programs are being sliced, or that tennis isn't being protected.
According to the report, for example, one men's sports with a notable loss of teams since the academic year 1988-1989 was tennis, posting a net team loss of 69. And in the academic year 2010-2011, women's tennis had the second highest number of teams dropped.
Source: http://www.ncaa.org/
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