10/01/24 – KHSAA Combined Participation Tops 115,000 for First Time in 2023-24

October 1, 2024 2024-2025 News Releases

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: OCT. 1, 2024

More than 115,000 participants occupied roster spots in KHSAA sports and sport-activities in the 2023-24 school year, marking an all-time record and an increase of more than 5% from the previous year.

A total of 115,608 participants were on rosters for Kentucky high school competition in 2023-24, which is up 5,792 from the previous record of 109,816 set in 2022-23. The latest total includes 63,694 boys and 51,914 girls, a record high for both genders and the first time that girls’ participation has exceeded 50,000.

The 115,608 roster spots were comprised of 86,357 individuals, including 46,635 boys and 39,722 girls.

The 2023-24 total marks a third consecutive increase across KHSAA member schools after numbers briefly declined during the COVID-19 pandemic. According to the NFHS High School Athletics Participation Survey, national participation eclipsed the 8-million mark for the first time last school year.

“We are extremely pleased with our compilation of roster data from last year, and certainly, interscholastic sports has roared back from a downturn right before and during the pandemic,” said KHSAA Commissioner Julian Tackett. “New offerings have helped some of those numbers, but clearly, there is an uptick in many of our more traditional sports, as well.

“An important piece to note is the number of total roster spots compared to individual participants, which demonstrates the value of participating in more than one sport or sport-activity to optimize the high school experience.”

A total of 1,905 rostered participants helped to debut the sport of indoor track & field in the Commonwealth during the winter, followed by a record 12,867 participants who competed in outdoor track & field during the spring.

Participation in outdoor track & field was surpassed only by football — which reached a record-high 13,366 participants last season — and soccer — which surpassed 13,000 participants for the first time with more than 7,000 boys and 6,000 girls.

Basketball was the only other sport to see five-figure participation numbers, totaling 11,659 roster spots behind 6,670 boys’ players and 4,989 girls’ players across all levels.

The most popular sport for girls’ participation was volleyball, which surpassed 7,000 participants for the first time. Softball trailed only volleyball, soccer and outdoor track & field in girls’ participation with a total of 5,247, while competitive cheer reached a record sum of 5,166, and archery surpassed 3,000 girls’ participants for the first time.

Overall Unified participation reached a record high since its introduction in both the sport of outdoor track & field and the sport-activity of bowling in 2016-17, totaling 489 participants in 2023-24.

Baseball (7,281) and tennis (5,343) rounded out the rest of the top 10 of combined rostered participation in Kentucky, followed closely by cross country (5,160).

Full details can be found on the 2023-24 KHSAA Participation Report.

– KHSAA –

About the Kentucky High School Athletic Association

The Kentucky High School Athletic Association was organized in 1917 and is the agency designated by the Kentucky Department of Education to manage high school athletics in the Commonwealth. The Association is a voluntary nonprofit 501(c)3 organization made up of 290 member schools, both public and non-public. The KHSAA awards 229 state championships to 59 teams and 178 individuals in 13 sports and six sport-activities, funds catastrophic insurance coverage for its more than 109,000 rostered member school student-athletes, provides coaching education and sports safety programs for more than 12,000 coaches and licenses and facilitates the distribution of training material for over 4,000 contest officials.