Michigan 7th on Nat'l Participation List
August 20, 2013
By Geoff Kimmerly
Second Half editor
For the fifth straight year, Michigan ranked seventh nationally in high school sports participation, according to statistics for the 2012-13 school year released recently by the National Federation of State High School Associations. That level of participation continued to best Michigan’s national ranking for total number of residents of high school age, which fell one spot to ninth nationally in 2012.
Michigan’s participation ranking was based on a number of 304,438, with 130,009 girls and 174,429 boys taking part, and included sports in which the Michigan High School Athletic Association does not conduct postseason tournaments. The totals count students once for each sport in which he or she participates, meaning students who are multiple-sport athletes are counted more than once.
Michigan girls participation remained seventh nationally for the second consecutive year, while the boys participation figure continued to rank sixth. According to the latest U.S. Census Bureau figures from 2012, Michigan ranks ninth in both females and males ages 14 through 17 after ranking eighth in both in 2011.
Eight sports – including seven played by boys – moved up in their respective rankings, while seven sports moved down their lists. Total, Michigan ranked ninth or higher nationally in participation in 26 of the 28 sports in which the MHSAA conducts a postseason tournament (not counting separately 8-player football).
Basketball and boys swimming and diving led the improvement among boys sports, both moving up two spots – boys basketball to fourth-most participants nationally and swimming and diving up to seventh. Improving one position in national rank were boys bowling to second, boys cross country to eighth, boys ice hockey to third, boys lacrosse to seventh and boys soccer to eighth. Only one boys sport moved down in national rank – wrestling from fifth to sixth-most participants. Baseball (seventh), 11-player football (fifth), 8-player football (14th), boys golf (sixth), boys skiing (fourth), boys tennis (fifth) and boys track and field (sixth) held constant with 2011-12 rankings.
Girls cross country also jumped up two spots on its national ranking list, from seventh to fifth in 2012-13. However, six girls sports moved down their respective lists: girls basketball from sixth to seventh, girls golf from fifth to sixth, girls lacrosse from 12th to 13th, girls soccer from eighth to ninth, girls swimming and diving also eighth to ninth and girls tennis from third to fourth. Girls bowling (fourth), competitive cheer (fifth), gymnastics (12th), girls skiing (fourth), softball (seventh), girls track and field (seventh) and volleyball (fourth) repeated their 2011-12 national rankings.
National participation in high school sports in 2012-13 set a new record for the 24th consecutive year with 7,713,577 students – an increase of 21,057 – taking part. Girls participation also set a record for the 24th straight year, increasing this time 15,190 participants to 3,222,723 total. Boys participation bounced back from year’s first decrease in two decades, increasing by 5,867 participants from 2011-12 for a total of 4,490,854 – the second-highest total on record for boys national participation.
The MHSAA is a private, not-for-profit corporation of voluntary membership by more than 1,500 public and private senior high schools and junior high/middle schools which exists to develop common rules for athletic eligibility and competition. No government funds or tax dollars support the MHSAA, which was the first such association nationally to not accept membership dues or tournament entry fees from schools. Member schools which enforce these rules are permitted to participate in MHSAA tournaments, which attract approximately 1.6 million spectators each year.
MHSAA Survey Reveals Participation Fee Usage Remains at Lower Post-Pandemic Level
By
Geoff Kimmerly
MHSAA.com senior editor
August 6, 2025
The annual Michigan High School Athletic Association participation fee survey saw record response for the 2024-25 school year and revealed good news as the percentage of member high schools charging student-athletes to play sports remained consistent with lowered post-pandemic levels.
Of the 720 schools (95 percent of membership) which responded to the most recent survey, only 40 percent of MHSAA member high schools (286) charged participation fees in 2024-25 – consistent with the rates between 40-41 percent revealed annually by the survey the previous four school years after the COVID-19 pandemic struck during the late winter and spring of 2020. Prior to the pandemic, a high of 57 percent of member schools charged participation fees in 2013-14, and 48 percent of high schools required pay-to-play in 2019-20.
The MHSAA began conducting the participation fee survey with the 2003-04 school year. For the purposes of the survey, a participation fee is anything $20 or more regardless of what the school called the charge – registration fee, athletic fee, etc.
Class A schools, as has been the trend, made up the largest group charging fees in 2024-25, with 53 percent of respondents doing so. Class B schools followed, with 40 percent charging fees, while 34 percent of Class C schools and 32 percent of Class D schools also charged for participation.
A standardized fee for each team on which a student-athlete participates – regardless of the number of teams – has remained the norm over the history of the MHSAA’s survey, and 43 percent of schools charging a fee during 2024-25 did so in this way. That was followed by 34 percent of responding schools charging a one-time standardized fee and 17 percent assessing fees based on tiers of the number of sports a student-athlete plays (for example, charging a larger fee for the first team and less for additional sports).
For 2024-25, the median maximum amount a school charged per student-athlete for the school year was $150, and the median annual maximum charged per family was $370. For schools charging student-athletes a one-time fee to cover all sports played, the median was $125. For schools charging a fee per sport, the median was $100 for each team.
The survey for 2024-25 and surveys from previous years can be found on the Pay-To-Play Survey page.