NCHSAA sports see increase in student-athlete numbers

CHAPEL HILL, N.C. – The North Carolina High School Athletic Association saw nearly a five percent increase in overall participation during the 2023-2024 school year from the 2022-23 academic year. Across all sports, 208,722 student-athletes participated in NCHSAA sanctioned sports in 2023-2024, up from the 198,025 that participated in 2022-2023. This is based on information reported to the NCHSAA by its member schools.

Men’s and Women’s Indoor Track saw significant increases in participation as 21 schools added women’s programs and 14 schools added men’s programs. Women’s Golf participation had a 12 percent increase this year as 1,573 golfers were members of NCHSAA member school teams, up from 1,404 in 2022. In 2023, 282 schools fielded women’s golf teams compared to 270 in 2022.

The largest increase in reported participation was in Winter Spirit. There were 60 more reported teams in 2023-2024 leading to 1,628 more participating athletes.

Every sport, except for baseball, saw an increase in participation. During the spring of 2024, 10,574 student-athletes played baseball, down 153 (1.4 percent) from the prior year. Meanwhile, Men’s Golf and Men’s Lacrosse saw increases of seven and six percent, respectively.

There were 436 member schools in the NCHSAA for the 2023-24 school year, four more than there were in 2022-2023. 434 of those schools fielded a Men’s Basketball team while 432 fielded a volleyball team. There were 383 schools playing football in the association with 29,075 student-athletes participating on the gridiron last fall.

In Women’s Wrestling, the first year as a sanctioned sport, there were 248 schools that participated with a total of 1,432 student-athletes. The wrestling participation numbers from 2022-2023 were not separated by gender but there were 9,988 total wrestlers in 2022-2023 compared to 11,317 in 2023-2024.

The full breakdown of total participating student-athletes and schools with a program for each sport in both the 2022-23 and 2023-24 academic years can be found on the NCHSAA website.