Prior to the coronavirus pandemic, real progress was being made to grow sports participation at the youngest levels. In 2019, nearly 61% of kids played team sports on at least a casual basis – the highest on record dating to 2012 and an 8% increase from 2018. The amount of kids participating in organized sports on a regular basis also ticked up, though at a much smaller rate (less than 1%). Still, 620,000 more kids at least tried sports once in 2019 compared to a year earlier after many years with this figure staying relatively flat. That’s real progress.

Sports & Fitness Industry Association CEO Tom Cove said it’s too early to draw absolute conclusions, but he views the uptick as a positive and attributes the progress to a couple factors. “There’s been multiyear national awareness in getting kids back to play and being active after the Great Recession (in 2008),” Cove said. “Clearly, Michelle Obama’s ‘Let’s Move’ campaign generally influenced a lot of organizations and people who supported and reinforced the message. Also, the professional leagues have embraced their role to drive grassroots participation.”

It’s easy to forget, but before the COVID-19 shutdown, many sports gained participants in 2019. Baseball was up 6% from 2018 with its highest rate since 2011. This is likely due in large part to MLB’s free, entry-level Fun At Bat program, which partners with schools and school districts to adopt an eight-week curriculum.

Soccer was up 3%, though still trailing where it used to be in the early 2010s. Despite the Larry Nassar and USA Gymnastics sexual abuse scandal involving elite athletes, gymnastics was up 6% with growth for the fourth straight year and its highest rate since 2011. It’s a testament to the appeal of gymnastics to girls at the community level – and the need for safety protections

Even tackle football, which had lost participation for years due to health concerns and changing demographics, increased by 5%. “I think teaching the right way to play the game has helped, starting with the NFL and flowing down,” said Izell Reese, NFL Flag executive director. Still, flag surpassed 1 million kids ages 6-12 in 2019 for the first time and continued growing at a faster rate than tackle at this age. Tackle had 251,000 more age 6-12 participants than flag in 2012.  “Flag has the opportunity to be a global game,” Reese said. “The sport itself, not taking anything away from tackle, has easier access from an economic standpoint. You’re not having to purchase a helmet and shoulder pads. All you need are a football, flag belt and jersey.”

Wrestling had the steepest participation decline (9%) among all sports in 2019. That’s a troubling sign for a high-contact sport that figures to struggle during COVID-19.

Low-income youth played sports on a regular basis slightly more in 2019, up from 21.6% to 22.7%. There was a 21.6-percentage point difference in 2019 between kids living in homes whose incomes were under $25,000 vs. kids from homes over $100,000. That gap was 15 points in 2012 and keeps growing.

LA84 Foundation President and CEO Renata Simril said increased participation for low-income youth was encouraging and due in part to five-year efforts by Project Play and its partners, along with LA84 and other leading non-profits, to highlight inequities. “But we’re going to lose those advantages coming out of COVID-19,” she said. “Compton, California just eliminated their entire parks and rec department. We’re seeing program fees in county parks at a higher cost. There are pay-to-play model teams looking for field space in highly constrained areas now renting fields at public parks for cities to generate revenue. Now your free play opportunities are being rented out. I think we’re going to see the gap widen (based on income).”

Prior to the pandemic, 40% of White kids ages 6-12 played sports – more than Hispanics (34%), Asians/Pacific Islanders (35%) and Blacks (35%). This gap has stayed fairly consistent for many years. Interestingly, when kids reach ages 13-17, the participation gap disappears or shrinks by race and ethnicity: Blacks (42%), Whites (42%), Hispanics (40%), Asians/Pacific Islanders (38%).

Cove said that’s because school teams are a much larger portion of the ages 13-17 sport cohort than 6-12. “Sport delivered by schools minimize the income and related factors that cause the gap in the first place,” he said. “There are relatively few elementary sport programs, and not that many in middle schools these days – so, to play sport as a 6- to 12-year-old, a child is usually outside the school system and paying for it. School sports are by definition almost always more affordable and accessible to the overall population than club sports.” Also, Cove added, school sports eliminate the transportation barrier that many kids face at ages 6-12.

In 2019, kids continued to move their bodies at slightly higher rates. The percentage of kids who were physically inactive declined for the fifth straight year.

More coaches were trained during 2019 in CPR/basic first aid, concussion management, general safety and injury prevention, physical conditioning, sports skills and tactics, and effective motivational techniques than in the previous year. While having about one-third of coaches being trained in the past year still leaves most coaches untrained, it does mark progress. “I think there’s been a concerted effort around training and new online tools, and that’s come from a lot of different circles,” said National Council of Youth Sports Executive Director Wayne Moss, who believes there’s been even more coaching education during the pandemic without games and practices to operate. “That’s made a huge difference in terms of free access for the fundamentals of coaching.”

Cove said he is surprised that the number of coaches trained in concussions still lags behind other categories. He believes that SFIA will need to add a future question about training in SafeSport related to sexual, physical and emotional abuse. Overall, Cove said, the coach training increase in 2019 is “a massive success” for Project Play and other organizations that are invested in coach education. What’s still unknown nationally is the quality of these training efforts for coaches.

Women continued to remain underrepresented as coaches. In 2019, only 24% of youth sports coaches were female, down from 28% in 2014, despite many initiatives to develop women into the coaching ranks.

“The figures remain remarkably stagnant,” said Nicole LaVoi, co-director of the Tucker Center for Research on Girls & Women in Sport. “If we weren’t doing the work, I really fear it would go in reverse. So, it’s not getting markedly better, but it’s not markedly in decline either, so that’s a tiny silver lining.”

LaVoi said females must not only be asked to coach, but also have the resources and support to provide a welcoming culture. “Often that is not the case and women might coach for a year and quit,” she said. “Also, we need to do a better job of selling and marketing coaching to young girls and women, so as they retire from their playing careers, they can still give back.”

National Federation of State High School Associations Executive Director Karissa Niehoff noted that dads typically want to volunteer at the youth level to bond with their child, and then men end up coaching female sports in high schools as well. “You just see more men interested,” she said. “I don’t know if it’s because women become moms and now are in the workplace. It’s kind of this mysteriously low number despite a lot of efforts to grow it.”

Niehoff said media exposure plays a role in this conversation, too. “What we show on TV is sort of what people tend to value is important,” she said. “I think if we were to feature women playing sport and coaching sport more, it would be an attraction for more young girls.”