The California Interscholastic Federation (CIF) will crown champions in three sports next month. State champions will be determined in wrestling, and boys and girls basketball. Boys and girls soccer competition will conclude with regional champions. According to the 2006-07 CIF Participation survey, those three sports combined -- boys and girls -- occupied over one-quarter (26%) of the 735,503 kids who play interscholastic sports in California.
The boys sport with the most participants was, not surprisingly, football (11-player) with 107,916 athletes. For girls, it was the other football (i.e. soccer), which saw 40,895 athletes hitting the pitch. Any guesses out there what the second-most popular sport was for boys and girls? Try track and field for both, which saw 49,911 boys and 38,817 girls participate.
And the fastest growing sport for both genders? Lacrosse, which saw a 47.5% increase for boys and 38% for girls.
For a table of the top 10 boys and girls sports click here: http://www.cifstate.org/about/participation/partsurvey07.pdf
Look for a new participation survey from the CIF some time this summer.
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