The number of boys participating in high school volleyball increased 3.6% in the past twelve months according to the National Federation of High Schools (NFHS) survey.  There were 47,878 boys playing boys volleyball at some level during the 2007-2008 school year compared to 46,224 during the previous year.

The NFHS released its 2007-2008 High School Sports Participation survey results on September 4th.  In that initial release, certain state boy’s volleyball information appeared either missing (Missouri) or needed clarification (California).  Middle Hitter recently communicated with NFHS regarding this information and received a prompt response and clarification.  The NFHS results are based on figures from the 50 state high school athletic/activity associations, plus the District of Columbia that are members of the NFHS.

The fastest growing states were Ohio, New York and Wisconsin.  California reported the same exact number of boys participants as there were in the 2006-2007 school year.  NFHS indicated that some states only calculate the participants every two years versus every year but could not confirm if this were the case for the 2007-2008 California figures.

The top three states in number of participants were California, Illinois and New York.  California doubles second place Illinois in total number of participants (see table).  New York displaced Pennsylvania (3,636) for third place.  One of the more interesting statistics is the average number of participants per school.  Illinois clearly outranks other states with a 36.7 number of participants per school program.  California which ranks number one in participants and schools falls to ninth place in average per school (23.48). 

A top ten list of the above statistics plus an 18 year history of boy’s high school volleyball participation can be found on the web site version of this article “High School Program Growth”.