Wrestling fastest growing sport in the U.S.

The National Federation of State High School Associations (NFHS) has released its 2010-11 High School Athletics Participation Survey, and the sport of wrestling has grown in all five categories identified.

The statistics for boys and girls wrestling grew during the 2010-11 season concerning the number of athletes participating.

In 2010-11, there were 273,732 boys competing in wrestling, an increase of 842 wrestlers from the previous year (a 0.3 percent increase)

The number of girl wrestlers in high schools grew to 7,351 athletes, an increase of 1,217 wrestlers from the previous year (an impressive 19.8 percent increase). This made girls wrestling the fastest growing sport for high school girls in terms of percentage increase.

The number of girl high school wrestlers has gained every year since 1990, a streak of 22 straight years of growth in participation

Wrestling remained the No. 6 most popular boys sport in terms of number of participants and the No. 8 most popular sport in terms of number of teams.

When combining the number of boys and girls involved in wrestling in 2010-11, the total number grew to 281,083, which increased 2,059 for the year. This amounts to a 0.7 percent increase in total wrestlers for the year.

There was an increase in the number of high schools which fielded boys wrestling teams. In the 2010-11 season, there were 10,407 boys wrestling teams, an increase of 44 teams, for a percentage gain of 0.4 percent.

There were 1,215 girls wrestling teams this season, an increase of 206 teams, for a percentage gain of 20.4 percent.

For the 22nd consecutive year, the number of student participants in high school athletics increased overall.

There was a total of 7,667,955 participants in 2010-11 in all sports, an increase of 39,578 for the year.

The top 10 states for boys wrestling participation were: 1. California (27,833); 2. Illinois (17,133); 3. New York (14,367); 4. Ohio (11,693); 5. Michigan (11,195); 6. North Carolina (10,724); 7. Pennsylvania (9,900); 8. New Jersey (9,718); 9. Georgia (8,490); 10. Florida (8,412)