For the second year in a row, high school football participation numbers are up. That’s according to the National Federation of State High School Associations’ (NFHS) 2023-24 participation survey.
According to an NFHS news release:
Eleven-player football remained the most popular boys sport and registered an increase for the second consecutive year from 1,028,761 to 1,031,508. There also was an increase in 8-player football participation from 23,812 to 26,420.
The biggest gains in football, however, came on the girls side, particularly with the emerging sport of flag football. The number of participants in girls flag football more than doubled from 2022-23 to 2023-24. A total of 42,955 girls participated in flag football in 2023-24 compared to 20,875 the previous year – a 105 percent increase. And from the 15,716 participants in 2021-22, there has been an increase of 173 percent. There also was an increase in the number of girls competing on 11-player football teams from 3,654 to 4,094.
Including boys and girls competitors in 6-, 8-, 9- and 11-player football, and girls and boys participants in flag football, the overall football total for 2023-24 was 1,118,705 – an increase of 28,825 from 2022-23.
