Fewer California High School Football Players For 2nd Straight Year
SAN FRANCISCO (KCBS) -- More teens than ever are playing high school sports in California, but they aren't necessarily playing football.
The California Interscholastic Federation's latest numbers on student athlete participation found that more kids still play football than any other sport. But for the second year in a row, according to the survey, the actual number of kids playing the game fell.
Last year, 97,000 high school students played football, 3.12 percent fewer than the number that played the year before.
The 2016-2017 school year was the first time since the 2004-2005 school year that there were fewer than 100,000 students in California playing high school football.
The number of kids taking part in another contact sport, wrestling, has fallen as well.