Minnesota’s High School Activities See A Surge In Participation

UNDATED (WJON News) -- Student participation in extracurricular activities continues to grow in Minnesota.

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 more than 232,000 students participating in league activities. The data was released this week from the National Federation of State High School Associations.

When you add students participating in the Fine Arts activities of Debate, Music, One Act Play, Speech and Visual Arts, as well as Robotics, Minnesota's participation numbers climb to an all-time high of nearly 278,000.

The Minnesota State High School League added boys volleyball last school year with nearly 2,400 participants in its first season as a league-sanctioned activity.

Girls wrestling also continues to grow with nearly 1,400 participants last year.

Nationally, participation in high school activities rose to 8.2 million, an increase of nearly 200,000 students from the previous school year. It is the third consecutive school year since the global pandemic that a significant increase in participation has been reported.

Girls wrestling climbed to more than 74,000 athletes 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.

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Texas remains on top of the survey, followed by California, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Illinois, New York, Florida, Michigan, New Jersey, and Minnesota.