Yea college sports are huge and some of them are really more popular than their pro sport counterparts. It's also the kind of popular that pro sports would dream of. My university which you have probably never heard of had 35,000 students, our basketball stadium held about 20,000 and every single game was a sell out. You start talking about the Oregon Ducks, Duke, Michigan, UNC's of the college sports world and they sell out stadiums in the 75,000 to 100,000 range every single week.
Our very own Calgary Tiger? I played as a kid from 7 or 8 until I was around 14, just scratch stuff with the lads on the streets as I was never allowed to play in competitive games. Absolutely loved it. Never played again until 20 odd years later when I came to the States and found they actually allowed women to play competitively here. Have been playing co-ed and women's regularly for the last 22 years. It would have been great to have been born 30 years later but as it is I am happy that my daughters have the opportunity to play without any stigma attached to it.
When I was a kid of that age, no girl would ever be considered to take part in a street/field kick around with the lads. Not the same for my wife,however, as after receiving aged 7 in 1949, a complete cowgirl outfit with 2 six guns that fired caps sent by one of her USA aunts, she was invited to play in all games the lads played!
Have to correct you on that one Kellen but youth "soccer" in the US overtook American football in participation levels years ago and is massively increasing compared to the plunging enrolments in football. Same for basketball. Only Little League baseball has similar rates of participation, since they have different seasons with soccer kids seasons ending before Little League tryouts. Youth hockey and American football are plunging because of the physical risks (concussions, broken limbs etc) and the significant costs of equipment for players. Girls soccer is also hugely popular and there is no real competition with softball being the summer alternative.
Your just not correct. I'm on an iPad I can't link. The most current end of year %s of youth sports by gender. (End of 2013 %s) Boys Football 40% Basketball 40% Baseball 24% Soccer 20% Girls Basketball 25% Volleyball 23% Softball/baseball 17% Soccer 17% Participation in 8 to 17 age bracket. Boys participation 75% Girls participation 69% Total youth participation 21.5 million per year. Where it starts to look different is in qty of partcipants and not %. The reason is one person playing on multiple teams. For example I played on 3 teams as well as my high school baseball team for the 4 years of high school so I would count as 4 people participating instead of one person per year. My sister played on 2 teams and her high school soccer team so she would get counted as 3. That's why % are more important than the qtys reported by the various leagues because things like soccer and baseball are easily manipulated by the fact that almost everyone plays on a whole bunch of teams where a football player can only play on one team so the qty reported for football looks low when the % of individuals playing it is actually twice as high. What you have been looking at are reported qtys and not true reflections about the participation by youth in each sport. This time I really am correct although it's easy to understand why you thought I was wrong.
Sorry but we're talking about two entirely different categories. You're giving stats for 8-17 which includes High School. I'm talking 6-14 which is the real "young participants" category where soccer and Little League totally dominate. Even when I was coaching through the late 1980s registrations for soccer were already far exceeding American football for the reasons I stated. Today with the disastrous publicity being given to American football the disparity in the 6-14 pre HS age group has widened massively. As for playing "on a whole bunch of teams" you obviously don't know much about the registration process which strictly forbids anything of the sort on pain of disqualification as I know from being President of one of the largest youth soccer (CYSA) leagues in Southern California for many years.
Well done Ladies - pulled themselves back up and gave everything which is always great to see - especiallly Laura Bassett.
Just gone one in the morning and just got home from parting with the girls, had a great night. ThNks to the whole England team for a fantastic night
No the % are for the 6-17 year bracket. And the multiple people being counted is correct. You are completely wrong about soccer being higher in the 1980s for god sakes most high schools in the 1980s didn't even have boys soccer, he'll mine didn't and I went to school in the late 1990s. California is not the U.S and the %s I gave are 100% correct. Your registration thing is completely nonsense as I played in Babe Ruth, Legion, high school a traveling team and this other league I forget it's name at the same time. My sister played in some girl soccer league, high school and a traveling team all in the same time. The articles online specifically say that the reason the numbers are off in regards to qty is for that reason.
Got to speak to Eniola Aluko last night, great down to earth girl, did not realize how small she is. She said her brother was out here but left on Friday and that he is looking forward to next season with City
We have almost converted you Quill. You will be living in LA driving a Ford F-150 watching the NFL while drinking a bud in no time.
