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The N.C. High School Athletic Association released the participation numbers for the 2023-24 school year on July 22.
There was a 4.73 percent increase in participation overall from the 2022-23 school year. There were a total of 208,722 student-athletes across the state in NCHSAA-sanctioned sports, up from 198,025 the previous year.
The sports with the biggest increases were men’s and women’s indoor track and women’s golf. In women’s indoor track, 21 school added teams and for men’s indoor track, 14 schools added teams.
There was a 12 percent increase in women’s golf participation with 1,573 female golfers in the 2023 season. A total of 282 schools had women’s golf teams, which is 12 more than in 2022.
Every sports had an increase, except for baseball. There was a 1.4 percent decrease in baseball players across the state with 10,574 in the 2024 season, down 153 from 2023.
In its first year as a NCHSAA-sanction sport, 248 schools had women’s wrestling teams, a total of 1,432 female wrestlers.
For the fall 2023 season, there were 78,061 student-athletes. The biggest sports was football, with 29,075 athletes across 383 schools. In 2023, there was an increase of 1,266 football players, with one more school adding a team.
Despite having the most participants, more schools had volleyball teams. Only two sports had more than 400 schools with teams; volleyball with 432 and men’s soccer with 407. Only three sports had more than 10,000 participants; football, men’s soccer with 12,916 and volleyball with 10,303.
In the winter 2023-24 season, there were a total of 61,166 participants. Men’s basketball had the most participants, 11,409, and the most schools with the program with 434.
The next most popular sport in terms of participants was men’s wrestling with 9,885. Three winter sports had teams at more than 400 schools: men’s and women’s basketball, and spirit.
Spring sports in the 2023-24 school year saw 69,495 student-athletes. Four sports had more than 10,000 participants: men’s track, women’s track, baseball and women’s soccer.
Men’s track had the most participants with 15,932 at 408 schools. Four sports had more than 400 teams: baseball, men’s and women’s track and softball. 414 schools had a baseball program.
In terms of all three seasons, winter sports had the biggest increase with 5,202 more athletes from the 2022-23 season to the 2023-24 season. Fall sports had an increase of 4,282 athletes, while spring had an increase of 1,211.
These numbers show that N.C. high school sports are growing, especially even with women’s wrestling being added as an officially sanctioned high school sport. The NCHSAA hopes to continually grow sports in the state each year.