Students flocking to fringe sports: OFSAA reportDavid Grossman
The annual participation report of the Ontario Federation of Schools Athletic Association shows that archery, ultimate Frisbee and mountain bike racing are gaining in popularity.
Traditional sports like football and boys' basketball, meanwhile, are in decline, while wrestling and track and field are in deep trouble.
Soccer, with more than 31,000 competitors, has taken over as the most popular sport. It's No. 1 among boys and a close second to volleyball for girls.
But one provincial official says information from 709 of 850 schools completing the survey clearly shows that teenagers are moving to the fringe sports.
"For years, the traditional sports of basketball and football were the classics," said OFSAA assistant director Steve Sevor, who was responsible for gathering and interpreting the data.
"Now, there are so many options and coaches ... are creating opportunities to compete in sports that some 20 years ago you'd only read about in books."
The numbers also show a dramatic increase in participation among girls.
Sevor says young women are flocking to rugby, ice hockey, softball, lacrosse, fencing and curling. For boys, mainstream sports are being abandoned in favour of cricket, weightlifting, golf and dragonboat racing.
OFSAA, which stages provincial championships in 30 sports, is now concerned about the future of some of its playoffs, with numbers of athletes, the availability of volunteer coaches and financial support being the determining factors.
The irony is that even though student participation is up, annual provincial government grants to OFSAA have hit an all-time low of just $70,000. The body has had to scratch for funding, relying more and more on corporate sponsorships, fundraising and student fees to make ends meet.
The Ministry of Health Promotion offered an additional $50,000 recently, which OFSAA divvied up for 60 special projects that paved the way for season-long, seasonal or one-time school events in beach volleyball, scuba diving and boxing.
"I'm sure there will be a point when we have too many (Ontario) championships and some sports might not survive," said Sevor.
Tracey Parrish, principal of Toronto's Francis Libermann High, heads a 10-member committee looking at the future direction of Ontario school sports.
"The goal is to get young people involved, get a sense of what the public wants and to be responsive," she said. "Wrestling has almost disappeared in our league, boys' gymnastics used to be around but it died because of a lack of qualified coaches, and there was a time when I coached synchronized swimming."
Parrish, who is considering starting a football team at her school, said there's huge interest in cricket.
Surprisingly, boys' basketball suffered a slam dunk in the numbers game, a development that stunned Roy Rana, coach of the four-time defending provincial champions from Eastern Commerce and OFSAA's basketball chairman.
"I'm very surprised by that but I don't have a doomsday vision for this sport and maybe we'll be able to find out why it shouldn't be flourishing," he said.
The annual participation report of the Ontario Federation of Schools Athletic Association shows that archery, ultimate Frisbee and mountain bike racing are gaining in popularity.
Traditional sports like football and boys' basketball, meanwhile, are in decline, while wrestling and track and field are in deep trouble.
Soccer, with more than 31,000 competitors, has taken over as the most popular sport. It's No. 1 among boys and a close second to volleyball for girls.
But one provincial official says information from 709 of 850 schools completing the survey clearly shows that teenagers are moving to the fringe sports.
"For years, the traditional sports of basketball and football were the classics," said OFSAA assistant director Steve Sevor, who was responsible for gathering and interpreting the data.
"Now, there are so many options and coaches ... are creating opportunities to compete in sports that some 20 years ago you'd only read about in books."
The numbers also show a dramatic increase in participation among girls.
Sevor says young women are flocking to rugby, ice hockey, softball, lacrosse, fencing and curling. For boys, mainstream sports are being abandoned in favour of cricket, weightlifting, golf and dragonboat racing.
OFSAA, which stages provincial championships in 30 sports, is now concerned about the future of some of its playoffs, with numbers of athletes, the availability of volunteer coaches and financial support being the determining factors.
The irony is that even though student participation is up, annual provincial government grants to OFSAA have hit an all-time low of just $70,000. The body has had to scratch for funding, relying more and more on corporate sponsorships, fundraising and student fees to make ends meet.
The Ministry of Health Promotion offered an additional $50,000 recently, which OFSAA divvied up for 60 special projects that paved the way for season-long, seasonal or one-time school events in beach volleyball, scuba diving and boxing.
"I'm sure there will be a point when we have too many (Ontario) championships and some sports might not survive," said Sevor.
Tracey Parrish, principal of Toronto's Francis Libermann High, heads a 10-member committee looking at the future direction of Ontario school sports.
"The goal is to get young people involved, get a sense of what the public wants and to be responsive," she said. "Wrestling has almost disappeared in our league, boys' gymnastics used to be around but it died because of a lack of qualified coaches, and there was a time when I coached synchronized swimming."
Parrish, who is considering starting a football team at her school, said there's huge interest in cricket.
Surprisingly, boys' basketball suffered a slam dunk in the numbers game, a development that stunned Roy Rana, coach of the four-time defending provincial champions from Eastern Commerce and OFSAA's basketball chairman.
"I'm very surprised by that but I don't have a doomsday vision for this sport and maybe we'll be able to find out why it shouldn't be flourishing," he said.
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