MSHSL maintains spot in Top 10 in NFHS annual participation survey
Posted: Monday, August 18, 2025 - 7:08 PM
During the 2024-2025 school year, participation in Minnesota State High School League athletics grew by more than 8,000 students from the previous year. Minnesota ranks 10th nationally with 232,347 students participating in League athletics.
Participation in the Minnesota State High School League’s education-based activities increased by more than 8,000 students during the 2024-2025 school year according to data released Monday, Aug. 18 by the National Federation of State High School Associations.
In its annual participation survey of state associations, Minnesota maintained its rank in the Top 10 of all state high school associations with 232,347 students. Last school year, there were 224,179 students active in athletics in Minnesota.
Add the students participating in the Fine Arts activities of Debate, Music, One Act Play, Speech and Visual Arts, as well as Robotics, and Minnesota’s participation numbers climb to an all-time high of 277,773.
The League has continued its commitment toward increasing opportunities through the addition of Boys Volleyball last school year and the dramatic growth of Girls Wrestling. Boys Volleyball had 2,383 participants in its first season as a League-sanctioned activity. In the 2023-2024 school year, there were 1,004 participants in Girls Wrestling and that rose to 1,376 last school year.
The League also includes participation by seventh and eighth graders on high school teams which equates to more than 28,000 students.
“The experiences and values of participating with classmates under the leadership of qualified and committed coaches and directors are some of the most valued in a student’s high school career,” said Erich Martens, the League’s executive director. “Our member schools do an excellent job in providing a very diverse choice of activities and athletics for their students with the primary goal of having all students participate.”
Nationally, participation in education-based high school activities rose to 8.2 million, an increase of nearly 200,000 students from the 2024-2025 school year. It is the third consecutive school year since the global pandemic that a significant increase in participation was reported.
Girls Wrestling climbed to more than 74,000 participants nationally, an increase of 15 percent. Boys Wrestling increased by more than 8,000 participants to top the 300,000-mark for the first time.
Texas remained atop the survey with 879,403, followed by California at 852,575. Ohio (335,808) was third, followed by Pennsylvania (333,123), Illinois (328,362), New York (327,068) Florida (308,396), Michigan (298,246), New Jersey (281,971) and Minnesota (232,347).
The participation survey will be available soon at www.nfhs.org .
