Participation in high school sports has increased for the 21st consecutive school year, to a total of 7,628,377 participants, according to the 2009-10 High School Athletics Participation Survey conducted by the National Federation of State High School Associations Boys' participation increased by 33,078 and girls' by 58,546. The biggest increases were seen in outdoor track and field (25,561), soccer (19,597), and cross country (11,925). The top five participatory sports for boys remained the same as the previous year: football (1,109,278, outdoor track and field (572,123), basketball (540,207), baseball (472,644), and soccer (391,839). The top five sports for girls--outdoor track and field (469,177), basketball (439,550), volleyball (403,985), fast-pitch softball (378,211), and soccer (356,116)--were also the same as the previous year. The top 10 states (based on combined participation) also remained unchanged from the 2008-09 survey, namely Texas (780,721), California (771,465), New York (379,677), Illinois (344,257), Ohio (334,797), Pennsylvania (317,426), Michigan (313,818), New Jersey (253,097), Florida (247,428), and Minnesota (230,043). The complete survey is available at www.nfhs.org.
