International

Emerging Sports Outpace Traditional Team Sports

By David J. Hoff — February 21, 2006 1 min read
  • Save to favorites
  • Print

High school athletes in Ontario are trading baseball bats for rock-climbing ropes.

A recent survey of interscholastic sports in the Canadian province found rapid growth in participation in emerging sports—such as mountain biking, archery, and ultimate Frisbee—compared with slower growth in traditional team sports, such as football, baseball, and basketball.

The shift has been happening slowly in the past decade but is starting to accelerate, according to Steve D. Sevor, an assistant director of the Ontario Federation of School Athletic Associations, the Concord, Ontario-based governing body representing regional interscholastic associations.

“Nowadays, we have such a wide variety of different sports and interests,” he said.

In the 1990s, schools starting adding new sports such as cricket, rock climbing, and snowboarding, Mr. Sevor said. The student-athletes who took part in those sports at their start are now old enough to be high school coaches and promote the activities, he said.

The federation’s survey in the 2004-05 school year showed that participation in interscholastic sports increased by 23 percent over the previous school year. A total of 266,470 students—about 39 percent of the province’s high school enrollment—played on a high school team.

Some of the biggest increases in participation among boys were in indoor soccer, archery, and rock climbing. Among girls, the federation found dramatic gains in indoor soccer, synchronized swimming, and snowboarding.

While traditional sports—such as football, basketball, hockey, and baseball for boys, and basketball, golf, gymnastics, and hockey for girls—showed increases in the number of students taking part, those boosts were at or below the overall average increases in participation.

A version of this article appeared in the February 22, 2006 edition of Education Week

Events

Ed-Tech Policy Webinar Artificial Intelligence in Practice: Building a Roadmap for AI Use in Schools
AI in education: game-changer or classroom chaos? Join our webinar & learn how to navigate this evolving tech responsibly.
Education Webinar Developing and Executing Impactful Research Campaigns to Fuel Your Ed Marketing Strategy 
Develop impactful research campaigns to fuel your marketing. Join the EdWeek Research Center for a webinar with actionable take-aways for companies who sell to K-12 districts.
This content is provided by our sponsor. It is not written by and does not necessarily reflect the views of Education Week's editorial staff.
Sponsor
Privacy & Security Webinar
Navigating Cybersecurity: Securing District Documents and Data
Learn how K-12 districts are addressing the challenges of maintaining a secure tech environment, managing documents and data, automating critical processes, and doing it all with limited resources.
Content provided by Softdocs

EdWeek Top School Jobs

Teacher Jobs
Search over ten thousand teaching jobs nationwide — elementary, middle, high school and more.
View Jobs
Principal Jobs
Find hundreds of jobs for principals, assistant principals, and other school leadership roles.
View Jobs
Administrator Jobs
Over a thousand district-level jobs: superintendents, directors, more.
View Jobs
Support Staff Jobs
Search thousands of jobs, from paraprofessionals to counselors and more.
View Jobs

Read Next

International England Pushes for Cellphone Bans in Schools. Could the U.S. Be Next?
England is the latest country seeking to keep cellphones out of class.
3 min read
Tight crop photo of a student looking at their cellphone during class. The background is blurred, but shows students wearing uniforms.
E+
International Photos PHOTOS: Take a Round-the-World Tour of the Return to School
Here's what back to school looks like in classrooms around the globe.
1 min read
A teacher gives a lesson on the first day of school at a cadet lyceum in Kyiv, Ukraine on Sept. 4, 2023.
Young cadets sing the national anthem during a ceremony on the first day of school at a cadet lyceum in Kyiv, Ukraine, on Sept. 4, 2023.
Efrem Lukatsky/AP
International Opinion School Reform Is Tough All Over, Not Just in the U.S.
Even though some reforms produce evidence of student success, that often isn't enough to overcome political hurdles.
6 min read
Image shows a multi-tailed arrow hitting the bullseye of a target.
DigitalVision Vectors/Getty
International In Their Own Words What a Teachers' Union Leader Saw in Ukraine
American Federation of Teachers President Randi Weingarten was in the country just after widespread air strikes from Russia.
4 min read
American Federation of Teachers President Randi Weingarten prepares to cross the border into Ukraine on Oct. 10.
Randi Weingarten visited Ukraine on Oct. 10—the day Russian missiles slammed into Lviv, Kyiv, and other cities.
Courtesy of AFT