High school softball participation rates down dramatically in Ohio

[Coach Tony]

I have often heard about the growth of softball, particularly the growth of softball in Ohio. Having been involved with the sport of softball since 2001, I felt this to be at odds with the trends I had witnessed and experienced over the years, at least from a participation stand point.

In researching for a graduate project I am working on recently, I stumbled upon some statistics concerning high school softball participation rates that reinforce my feeling that the sport of softball is not growing in Ohio but is in fact shrinking...and dramatically - at the very least at the older age levels (high school age).

Here is some of what I found: NOTE - I chose to research high school softball because the most readily and thoroughly documented statistics available were about female participation rates in high school sports (source = NFHS data).

In 2000, there were 19,355 girls participating in fastpitch softball in the state of Ohio. This was the number one female participation rate for a high school sport in the state that year, beating out track and field, volleyball, basketball and soccer in that order.

The total number of major spring sport participation by females in 2000 was 39,974, broken down as follows:
Softball - 19,355
Track and Field - 19,288
Lacrosse - 1,331

Fast forward to the spring of 2015. Participation in high school softball in Ohio had declined 22% - down to 15,116 girls, representing the largest decline of any female high school sport.

It's interesting to note that while the participation rate in softball declined during that time span, the TOTAL number of female participants in major spring sport participation had actually increased slightly to 40,273 females in 2015, broken down as follows:
Softball - 15,116
Track and Field - 21,861
Lacrosse - 3,296

The sport of softball was no longer the number one female participation sport in Ohio. Instead, softball had fell behind track, volleyball, and basketball, and will soon be supplanted by soccer as the fourth highest female participation level.

Basketball (-12.8%) and volleyball (-5.1%) also had seen decline during this periods, but didn't come close to the steady decline that softball had seen since 2000. Bear in mind also that during this time, lacrosse (+248%), soccer (+36.8%), cross country (+35.9%), and track and field (+13.3%) had each seen steady growth in Ohio.

On a national level, female participation in high school softball has actually increased by approximately 6% from 2000 to 2015. So that bears the question, why is high school softball participation growing in the country, but declining so rapidly in our state? Is it simply a matter of lacrosse getting our fringe/utility softball players? If so, why are schools without lacrosse programs losing their freshman and JV teams due to lack of participation? Even more troubling, if youth participation in softball in Ohio has actually been on the rise during this time frame (as many people seem to believe), what is making these players leave the sport by the time they are in high school? Do we get the false sense that the sport is growing in Ohio because there are many more travel softball teams in Ohio than before, yet forgetting that their are far less recreation softball leagues across the state?

Any thoughts? Observations? Ideas? And does it really matter in the end if the sport is declining or not at the high school level (playing devil's advocate here)?

 

[CARDS]

In our area there has been a drop in players/teams at the recreational level and at the HS level. 2009-2013 the HS had almost 70 ladies coming out but the past three years that number has dropped to 40 or less. 2014 not enough freshman to form a team so we had two JV and a varsity with only four pitchers. Mid season after injuries and ladies quitting the school finished with two teams.

Now some of the issues could be a decline in enrollment. Over the past 4 years in our area I seen a lot of schools numbers drop. Our District is flirting with the possibility of combining both HS. If this happens teams will get stronger but you loose a school/teams. With West Clermont schools Amelia and Glenn Este combining their sports should get better but again the number of teams drop. http://www.fox19.com/story/27766844/west-clermont-high-schools-merging

The local recreational league may only have two age groups next summer. Sad because the facilities or very good and set up for girls fast-pitch. Last year most of the games and practice played on them were boys D level baseball and T-Ball....

 

[SAmMaydayMalone]

Let's just take the money part of it.

Pay to Play...if you're a multi-sport athlete and play kickball or basketball, the money not might be there for a 2nd or 3rd sport. In addition to paying over $200, we're required to sell $100 worth of coupon books and collect $150 of hit-a-thon money. If you weren't able to sell those, you had to make up the difference.

Softball is an expensive game...Bats $350, Glove $100, most HS programs do not have hitting or pitching coaches so there's that expense. Track costs a pair of shoes.

Scholarship...softball is a tough one here. Even if you do get money there are few scholarships to go around. BB. VB, LAX, Golf, Rowing, etc...big money in these sports

Both my girls have chosen softball and we, like many of us on here, have made sacrifices so they can take lessons, play on great club teams, travel to play in tournaments, and chase their dream. I wouldn't do anything different.

 

[Stedman00]

I would guess that softball is still increasing at the High school age levels, but fewer are playing in high school. Playing on their travel teams only and foregoing all the politics and bologna that can come from HS sports. The time frame of the data seems to directly relate to the increase of travel teams in recent years. No data or research to support my estimation, just my opinion.

 

[Fairman]

I would like to add that being out of the Olympics since 2008 has not helped either.
Most high school players have never seen softball played on that stage while the other sports are featured with their international events leading up to the Olympics. That platform is critical for th growth and sustainability of our sport.

 

[coachjwb]

Tony ... good post as always ... give me a call sometime ... I'd love to catch up!

While I was not surprised to see that total high school participation was down, I was surprised to see how much. My viewpoint is probably biased by the corner of the state where I live in and the fact that fastpitch came here last, and grew crazily in the mid 2000's. I have seen the numbers decline in recent years (I think quality is up though), and I attribute it partially to the year-round opportunities in the game that exist today, and that many of the girls who don't play it year round have a hard time keeping up with those who do. Does anyone buy that?

 

[cobb_of_fury]

... and I attribute it partially to the year-round opportunities in the game that exist today, and that many of the girls who don't play it year round have a hard time keeping up with those who do. Does anyone buy that?

I have said this many times - Softball is a tough sport to just pick up. It is so much easier for a novice girl to go to track or soccer or even lacrosse and make the team than have to work hard to keep up with the Travel girls who play year round. It used to be you could play three sports and never pick up a bat or glove till you show up at open gym in Jan or Feb.

I think there is a direct correlation between the increase in the popularity of travel ball (and the increase in the quality of play that comes with it) and the decrease in participation at the high school level.
It is now a lot harder for non travel girls (even if they are good athletes and they play rec) to compete with the year round girls and they tend to either find the sports they can participate in or they are not bothering to go out for sports at all -

I fear with the advent of specialization the days of walking on to any high school team are about over - Softball is probably the bellwether of a trend - since it is the hardest to master but with volleyball, lacrosse and basketball all growing as club sports outside of school I expect the trend to continue across all sports.

My DD's high school has approx. 3,000 kids in grades 9-12 there may be a handful of girls who play two or more sports and they tend to be the absolute studs.

 

[Heavy Hitter]

There are a few reason for the decline. Pay to play, the decline of multi sport athletes or specialization in 1 sport. Another major factor is there about 100 less high schools fielding softball teams than 5 years ago.

 

[wpaguy]

2 possible explanations. Has the overall population in Ohio increased or decreased in 15 years . Also has mentioned above , I would assume the level of play in HS has increased so much that is near impossible to get playing time unless your also play travel. Can't just show up in March and expect to play.

 

[jelli9764]

Here is my take on the issue for what it is worth.

1. PAY-to-Participate - girls/parents will not pay $250-$700 for girls to play Freshman/JV or be a role player on the Varsity team when they can pay the same price and be a Varsity starter in a different sport. This also forces girls to choose to play less sports due to the cost of playing multiple sports. At the school I am at, I haven't had this problem yet and have been able to field 3 teams at the HS level each of my three season's so far, but I have friends of mine that will not pay $450 for MS softball that is only 17 games if they get to play them all. For $450 she can play 100+ games with her club team.
2. Specialization - With girls playing softball year round and spending $3,000 - $5,000/year to do so (including fees, travel, lessons, etc), they are just going to be better than the girls that only played March - May for the school team. These girls are not coming out to play anymore. There is also AAU Basketball/Club Soccer during the softball season, and this eliminates some from playing during the High School season.

Even though the actual numbers of girls playing HS ball might be down in Ohio, the overall quality of the product is significantly better than what it was in early 2000's. Just my thoughts.

 

[cobb_of_fury]

$250 ~ $400 !!! I did not realize participation fee's were that high - Holy Crap !!!
Ours are I think $75 and there is a cap per family no where near that kind of number.

Yes that that would greatly limit participation...

 

[spartansd]

2 possible explanations. Has the overall population in Ohio increased or decreased in 15 years . Also has mentioned above , I would assume the level of play in HS has increased so much that is near impossible to get playing time unless your also play travel. Can't just show up in March and expect to play.

I think travel is part of the reason but I am not sure it is for the reasons you state.

Many players that tryout in HS seem to have this attitude that as Freshman it is their birth right to make varsity. And also that with all the travel teams with 10-11 players the girls are not used to being on an actual team. They all think that they should be playing all the time regardless.

So you have an increase in skill for the players that play year around, easier sports to just pick up on, and unrealistic expectations on how how much you will play.

And I agree softball is not a sport you can just pick up and run with. It takes a fair amount of skill building to become safe.


And you also need to overlay this stuff with overall population. But with the general increase in participation that number or change does not seem to relevant.

 

[Practice?]

This is an interesting topic. While the numbers may not support the growth in Ohio, perhaps the growth is in the quality of the players who do play.

 

[coachjwb]

Lots of good potential reasons here why overall participation might be down, but it seems like some are saying that girls who are playing travel in HS are not playing HS because there isn't as much value and/or pay to play. I would assume that most of the families making the commitment to play travel once the players get to high school age are serious ball players who are going to play in high school despite pay to play, and who probably still have a goal to play in college. Every year there is discussion here about the value of playing HS ball, but I have yet to hear of more than a handful of girls playing travel at 16-U and 18-U who aren't playing HS ball. I may just be uninformed, but my premise would be that the girls not playing HS ball aren't playing travel either anymore for the most part.

 

[raidian70]

I think alot of the reasons stated are good, but have we considered burnout on the players part? There are a ton of teams at 10u, 12u, and 14u, but when you start looking 16s, I think the numbers are starting to fall off, and by 18s they have fallen off alot. When my daughter started playing at 8u, the parents in our community thought it was nuts. And truth be told, there were very few teams to play. We played the same teams over and over (and it was coaches' pitch). Now kids are starting to play as young as 6, which I think is way too young, but to each their own I guess.

I have coached both travel and high school and the high school players who are multi-sport feel like they are behind those who play travel. I argue that if you are an athlete you can play period. I also will say play successfully. I have had players who didn't play travel walk on and make division 2 schools who only played high school. (All within the last 5-10 years). So it still can be done.

But, by the time kids are freshmen, some of they kids have been pulled, tugged, and sometimes drug out to the field to the point where they either love it or want to quit. I have seen some of my players who have played travel for 5-6 years decide they were done by the time they got to high school, because it had been their way of life for too many summers. Most were eventually coaxed into it and enjoyed it. But if you start at 6 or 7, by the time you are 14 and have played year round for 7-8 years, I can see why some may want to step away and move to a different sport, or be done playing sports altogether. It is a huge time commitment to play softball.

 

[coachjwb]

FYI, Ohio population was essentially flat from 2000 to 2015 ... actually up about 2% total over those 15 years.

 

[manitoudan]

Prob not a main factor but the politics ( sadly I did my share and then some) , level of coaching , and low level of play compared to travel just makes it unattractive . It has its positives for sure . But the goofy stuff that goes on here in SEO just turns lots of potential players off. I've said it here a few times , as one example , my DD's Jr year with a top 5 state ranked team turned a district tourney game into Senior day because Sr day got rained out . We ran out two Sr's that hadnt started all year in a tourney game . Lost 1-0 on our home field that day to the lowest seed in the district . But we did have a cookout . Not to turn this into " bash HS ball" but I wanted to include an example of the goofy stuff I complain about . We actually didnt play our normal starting 9 in a tourney game because it was " senior day"

 

[tjsmize3]

I think alot of the reasons stated are good, but have we considered burnout on the players part?...
But, by the time kids are freshmen, some of they kids have been pulled, tugged, and sometimes drug out to the field to the point where they either love it or want to quit. I have seen some of my players who have played travel for 5-6 years decide they were done by the time they got to high school, because it had been their way of life for too many summers. Most were eventually coaxed into it and enjoyed it. But if you start at 6 or 7, by the time you are 14 and have played year round for 7-8 years, I can see why some may want to step away and move to a different sport, or be done playing sports altogether. It is a huge time commitment to play softball.

Raidian, I thought you made a great argument so I started to think about it for a while and I am going to play the Devil's advocate here for a minute. (1) If burnout is truly the problem why would it only be affecting softball and not other sports that have experienced an increase in participation. I think the idea of working harder on your sport and at an earlier age is certainly not unique to softball. (2) The number of girls playing spring sports over the past 15 years has remained essentially unchanged, so the athletes are not ending their commitment to sports, just to playing softball. (3) If you are correct that girls are getting burned out with softball more than they are in other sports and are choosing to just go play another sport (i.e. track or lacrosse) why would that be an attractive option? If you are burned out why would it be fun to switch sports just to get your butt kicked even worse?

Here is my best guess as to the phenomenon the OP is seeing:
(1) Lacrosse is simply becoming MORE interesting to the lower end/middle of the pack softball players. This sport has become increasingly more popular over the past 15 years and so you would expect to see it compete and take away athletes that otherwise may have gone to softball in the past.
(2) Softball is becoming MORE highly technical (pointed out numerous times in this thread) and so the entry level skill set required to experience even a small level of success at the high school level is now higher than ever.
(3) If you're a great pure athlete like Raidian mentions, maybe with the insane increase in travel softball teams in Ohio you have a lot more players opting to get a broader experience (i.e play summer travel softball, play high school track/lacrosse). Remember, the rapid increase in travel teams has not been at the top of the heap, but rather the middle to bottom which would attract more of those types of players.

Certainly whatever it is that's causing the shift, it's a shift in perception about playing softball in high school. You would have to send out a bunch of questionnaires to current high school athletes and also to past high school athletes to see what they were thinking at the time they made their choices.

 

[brownsfan]

I’m on my seventh year of HS ball. The past couple of years, we’ve seen an major uptick in participation in the MS ranks through freshman year. Last season we had the largest JV team ever and could have been two JV teams.

Anyway, what I think is helping out our cause is our HS fall and winter clinics that are given. We’ve had anywhere from 40-100 girls participate. It used to never be that way. When oldest dd was in HS, our HS program didn’t have much involvement in our rec program and the numbers suffered. She was home for a break wishing they had some of program but glad they do now.

So a remedy to compete against the other sports is get the HS softball program involved with the rec leagues. Have them give clinics and have girls attend their games. As I told my dd, remember when you attend college camps/clinics and how you felt talking to your favorite players; to thee 6-10 year olds, you’re that college person to them. She loved helping in camps prior, but telling her that; gave her of a more personal touch. Now when she sees the girls play in their games, the players are ecstatic.

This year’s freshman class has approximately 20+ girls trying out. Most of them I remember at 11-12 year olds at the first clinics our HS started. Get the HS softball team involved, it pays dividends down the road.

 

[spartansd]

I will say that since my wife took over the HS VArsity job we have seen a huge increase in players....so definitely coaching can have an effect.

With that said, my daughter who plays softball in college and the one still in HS who has already verbally committed to play in college both would have not played HS softball and played Lax if the girls game was played with the same rules as the boys game. They love the sport and would love to be able to whack someone with a stick. My HS junior is an absolute aggravating type of player and would be a blast to watch.

So pressure from other sports definitely hurts.

Track and soccer both can work in more players and make kids feel more a part of the team. While softball has all of these perceived status type things (position, place in order....ect).

Softball is a tough sell