Wrestling Talk Forums supported
USA Wrestling Kansas KWCA
Wrestling Talk Forums supported & maintained by USA Wrestling-Kansas
USAW USA Wrestling Kansas
Previous Thread
Next Thread
Print Thread
Joined: Mar 2002
Posts: 2,459
H
Member
Member
H Offline
Joined: Mar 2002
Posts: 2,459
The National Federation of High School Associations (NFHS) does an annual survey of high school athletic participation. It has shown some recent years of steady wrestling growth in schools and participants:

Year 89-90 Schools 8,416 Participants 233,856
Year 94-95 Schools 8,559 Participants 216,453
Year 99-00 Schools 9,046 Participants 239,105
Year 04-05 Schools 9,562 Participants 243,009
Year 05-06 Schools 9,744 Participants 251,534

That is good news but it appears though that there was a peak hit about thirty years ago in participants:

Year 75-76 Schools 9,772 Participants 355,160
Year 77-78 Schools 9,653 Participants 338,328
Year 78-79 Schools 8,683 Participants 281,704
Year 79-80 Schools 8,751 Participants 273,326
Year 80-81 Schools 8,512 Participants 245,029
Year 81-82 Schools 8,869 Participants 256,107

Does anyone know if these numbers from thirty years ago that can be found on the NFHS website are really accurate? It seems like a pretty significant drop over five years from the 75-76 season to the 80-81 season. If they are accurate does anyone know the reason for that significant of a five year drop in both schools and participants?

Also if we really did have 355,160 participants in the 75-76 season why are the numbers for the 05-06 season at 251,534 so much lower than they were 30 years ago (103,626 or over 41% more participants in 75-76 than the 05-06 season)?



Vince Nowak
Kansas College Wrestling Fund Supporter
Please join the fight with your contributions

Joined: Jan 2002
Posts: 5,262
A
Member
Member
A Offline
Joined: Jan 2002
Posts: 5,262
Maybe I'm crazy but where would the "Baby Boomer kids" fit into this picture?

I bet a lot of them got the heck out of Kansas when no jobs were available.


Yours in wrestling,

The Swayz
swayz.wrestling@gmail.com recruiting help, promoting the sport& more!
Joined: Jul 2001
Posts: 8,595
Member
Member
Joined: Jul 2001
Posts: 8,595
... I would say perhaps you need to look at Title IX


Are you making a POSITIVE difference in the life of kids?

Randy Hinderliter
USAW Kansas
KWCA Rep/Coaches Liaison
Ottawa University Volunteer Assistant
Joined: Mar 2002
Posts: 2,459
H
Member
Member
H Offline
Joined: Mar 2002
Posts: 2,459
Randy:

Did high schools actually drop wrestling teams in the mid to late seventies due to Title IX or are you suggesting that high school participation started to drop as college's dropped programs and kids did not see enough college opportunities in wrestling?


Vince Nowak
Kansas College Wrestling Fund Supporter
Please join the fight with your contributions

Joined: Mar 2002
Posts: 2,459
H
Member
Member
H Offline
Joined: Mar 2002
Posts: 2,459
 Originally Posted By: Aaron Sweazy
Maybe I'm crazy but where would the "Baby Boomer kids" fit into this picture?

I bet a lot of them got the heck out of Kansas when no jobs were available.


Aaron:

You may be correct about the Baby Boom effect. I have seen that it went from 1946 to 1964 but I have also read that it peeked around 1960 so those kids would have been about 15 to 16 in the 1975-1976 season and it would make sense that a decline in numbers could have occurred after that year since the birth rate started declining after 1960.


Vince Nowak
Kansas College Wrestling Fund Supporter
Please join the fight with your contributions

Joined: Mar 2002
Posts: 2,459
H
Member
Member
H Offline
Joined: Mar 2002
Posts: 2,459
I did notice that the number of schools with programs was about the same in the 75-76 season at 9,744 as the 05-06 season with 9,772. The average per team in 1975-1976 was a little over 36 wrestlers per school but it has dropped to just under 26 per school in the 2005-2006 season.


Vince Nowak
Kansas College Wrestling Fund Supporter
Please join the fight with your contributions

Joined: Nov 2002
Posts: 588
Member
Member
Joined: Nov 2002
Posts: 588
Part of the problem was that all who were there can't remember what was going on in 75-76. So when they took the survey of student and asked... did you wrestle in high school? most said "I don't know!"


I’m not very smart… but I can lift heavy things!

Moderated by  Nate Naasz, RedStorm 

Link Copied to Clipboard
Who's Online Now
0 members (), 9 guests, and 0 robots.
Key: Admin, Global Mod, Mod
Newest Members
Super Admin, bvswwrestling, CoachFitzOS, Dluce, Shawn Russell
12,303 Registered Users
Forum Statistics
Forums11
Topics36,091
Posts250,722
Members12,303
Most Online1,305
Mar 13th, 2025
Top Posters
usawks1 8,595
smokeycabin 6,248
Aaron Sweazy 5,262
Powered by UBB.threads™ PHP Forum Software 8.0.0
(Release build 20240826)
Responsive Width:

PHP: 8.3.23 Page Time: 0.027s Queries: 28 (0.018s) Memory: 3.0342 MB (Peak: 3.5912 MB) Data Comp: Off Server Time: 2025-08-01 23:53:51 UTC
Valid HTML 5 and Valid CSS