The WIAA announced this past week that according to the 2014-15 High School Athletics Participation Survey conducted by the National Federation of State High School Associations, the number of high school student-athletes in Washington state is up to 160,245.
The number is up nearly 800 from the survey conducted in 2013-14 and keeps Washington in 17th place out of the 51 State Associations in total participants.
Participants in boys athletics (92,160) is up 600 from last year. Track and Field saw the biggest increase, while baseball, football and basketball all increased as well.
Girls sports saw a smaller growth, but a growth nonetheless. With 68,085 participants, girls sports are up 187 student-athletes from a year ago. Softball saw the biggest increase followed by track and field and tennis.
Nationally, girls sports have more participants than ever before with 3,287,735. Boys sports had 4,519,312 participants at the national level.
Boys soccer grew the most nationally this past year with 15,150 more participants than last year. Competitive spirit squads and cross country had the biggest growth nationally in girls athletics.
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