Team Insight

13 • Team Insight ~ November/December 2023 teaminsightmag.com 7.8 million in the 2022-23 school year, reflecting a sharp increase from the previous year as the NFHS completed its High School Athletics Participation Survey for a second time aer the pandemic interrupted its collection of data. A total of 7.8 million partici- pants competed in high school sports in 2022-23, an increase of nearly 240,000 and up more than three percent from 2021-22. e total includes 4.5 million boys and 3.3 million girls, according to figures obtained from the 51 NFHS member state associations, which includes the District of Columbia. is year's total marks the first upward movement in participa- tion data since the all-time record of 7.98 million in 2017-18, which was followed by the first decline in 30 years in 2018-19 and the two-year halt in data collection related to the pandemic. Among the highlights: • e top 10 sports remained the same for both boys and girls, with boys' tennis leapfrogging boys' golf as the eighth-most popu- lar sport, while girls' basketball and girls' competitive spirit each moved up a spot. • On the boys' side, eight of the top 10 sports registered increases in participation, while nine of the top 10 sports for girls added participants. • Eleven-player football remained the most popular boys' sport, with the total climbing back over one million participants. e total of 1,028,761 marks an increase of 54,969 and 5.6 percent from the previous year. 3 Thirty Years and Counting is event is a bit personal for the editor, because when the cal- endar flipped to 2023 it marked the completion of 30 years of me covering the sporting goods and team sports industry for a variety of trade magazines, most of which don't exist any longer. When I attended my first NSGA Management Conference and Team Dealer Summit in Arizona in 1992 the world of sporting goods was vastly different than it is today. ere was no BSN Sports as it exists today, but there were many team dealers and sporting goods stores with family names above the doors – Oshman's, Chick's, Koenig's, Kesslers, Modell's – that no longer exist. And there was an upstart called e Sports Authority and a small chain in upstate New York called Dick's Sporting Goods that showed some promise. Many of the brands that dom- inated those two shows are long gone. It hurts to see Starter re- duced to a downstairs brand at Walmart. Nike was already the big dog, challenged by Reebok and Adidas in America. We know who won that game. In the magazine game we have evolved as well. Back in the early '90s there were six thriving weekly and monthly publications. Now, not so many. I have been fortunate to have played a role in the evolu- tion of the trade press from print to the world of digital publishing and social media. 2 Pickleball, Anyone? Everyone? We have said it before and we will say it again here: Pickleball is the fastest-growing sport in the U.S. and team dealers need to jump on board. All those picklers – and schools, recreation programs, town facilities and private clubs – need to buy their nets, balls, court markers and paddles from somewhere. Why not from team dealers? "e pickleball category 1000 percent has a place in the team market," Zach Meller, EVP and chief strategy officer at Champion Sports, told Team Insight. "e growth of the game has made it viable as a competitive, leisure and must-have for schools, camps and towns/municipalities." Need more convincing? How about this: • ere were 8.9 million partic- ipants in 2022, an 85.7 percent increase from 2021 and a 158 percent jump from 2019. • In 2022, the number of new pickleball participants exceeded the total number of participants in 2021. • Pickleball is a multi-genera- tional sport. e average age of a pickleball player is 35, while the age group with the most partic- ipants is 25-34, with the 18-24 and 65-plus age groups following closely behind. • ere are currently 51,937 pick- leball courts in the U.S. Sixty-five percent are outdoor (33,710), and 35 percent indoor (18,227). Plus this: To celebrate National Pickleball Day in August, the National Bobblehead Hall of Fame and Museum unveiled the first pickleball bobbleheads. And everyone knows that one true sign of making it is having your own bobblehead. 1 Team Sports Go For Gold e pickleball news above was about to be named the Top Team Sports Story in 2023 until word came just last month that the International Olympic Committee (IOC) officially approved base- ball/soball, cricket (T20), flag football, lacrosse (Sixes) and squash for inclusion in the 2028 Olympic Games in Los Angeles. at's huge news for the world of team sports and is bound to ramp up participation. "e choice of these five new sports is in line with the American sports culture and will showcase iconic American sports to the world while bringing interna- tional sports to the United States," IOC president omas Bach said. "eir inclusion will allow the Olympic Movement to engage with new athlete and fan com- munities in the U.S. and globally." Baseball/soball, cricket, and lacrosse return to the Games aer most recently being medal sports at Tokyo 2020, Paris 1900 and London 1908, respectively. Flag football and squash will be making their Olympic debuts. n TEAM TRENDS Photo: LPETTET/istock

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