The Jersey City (N.J.) Board of Education athletics committee is looking into a recent decrease in participation that has forced Ferris High School to suspend its girls' soccer program, Lincoln High to suspend girls' tennis and Dickinson High School to drop football. "We want to find out why this is happening," committee chair Sean Connors told The Jersey Journal. "It is a priority. Athletics and participation in sports goes [a] long way in life."
New Jersey ranks eighth in overall high school sports participation, according to the National Federation of State High School Associations, with more than 253,000 student-athletes suiting up during the 2009-10 school year - 106,468 of them girls.
The elimination of middle school sports programs around the country could further impact participation at the high school level. Fewer (or no) elite athletes who opt to play on club teams instead of for their schools.
