Precipitous drops trending
in youth sports participation
Youth sports are in decline, according to a Wall Street Journal article headlined “Why Children Are Abandoning Baseball.”
Softball participation is down 41% since 2000! Baseball slid 40%, basketball and soccer lost 25%, while football is up 17% – however, football has drop 9% since it hit a high of 5.4M in 2006.
The article blames: “A pervasive emphasis on performance over mere fun and exercise has driven many children to focus exclusively on one sport from an early age, making it harder for all sports to attract casual participants.”
There are so many maturing and life lessons to learn from youth athletics, whether from the winning or losing side, that local sports supporters should redouble efforts now to draw more youngsters into community sports programs. (See also “What's the Value of Youth Sports?”)
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| Wesley Wolverine junior #12 P Lindsay Siok (Milford, DE) |
