How about this for why bother: there is only one school under each male and female offering pentathlon with four participants listed for each gender. They must have a real tough time making up a schedule each year. Can anyone say private school?
Coming from the UK, I found this quite difficult. Almost every sport I thought of seemed to be particular to Britain. Netball - nope. Cricket and rounders - replaced by baseball. Etc.
Cricket is boring. Just a lot of sitting around. What kind of a sport match lasts for several days? Great to watch if all you want is to hang out with your friends in the sun and get drunk, but then why not just go to the park. It's just not cricket.
My biggest thing about most schools not taking marching band as a sport is that the teachers may not get paid for their extra time. Sports coaches get paid for their time going to competitions and practices, while most band teachers would be lucky to get a small bonus
I agree! I'm in marching band and it's annoying to hear people say. All you do is walk and blow into a horn. It's literally so stupid because they have no idea what they are talking about.
So Eurovision is a sporting competition, then? And I guess all those singing competition shows like American Idol are as well. Even if it's just singing, there' s still physical exertion. Which apparently is all it takes to be considered a sport, according to some.
Enough that friggin cheerleading is there, no need to compound on the ridiculousness.
Prediction for 2050: Soccer will be #1 for both genders. Ultimate frisbee will be in the top 10. Wrestling and softball/baseball will fall by over 50%.
You may be right but I doubt soccer will pass football just because of the numbers and that we are only 30 years from that date. Most high schools over 150 per class already have multiple levels of soccer (Varsity, JV, freshman). With 20 kids per squad that's only 60 to 80 per high school. A high school of that size will usually have 50 kids just on the varsity football team. Throw in the other levels and you'll get 120 or so kids. I don't think there is enough time for it to catch up given it's huge lead. Especially when you consider that it probably won't grow as aggressively in the past 20 years as it has reached it's theoretical maximum participant size in many schools. To get soccer past football lost of schools will have to drop the sport entirely.
Don't forget competitive video gaming. If it's accepted into the Olympics a lot of previous arguments about whether this or that qualifies as a sport will be shot to heck.
I think Track & Field should encompass Cross Country and they shouldn't be separate. Otherwise you should break out the track events like high jump, long jump, 100-yd dash, etc...???
I graduated in 1994 and I just mentally tried to remember what sports were listed in my yearbook. We had most of them..no swim team but did have golf. Field hockey and lacrosse were huge in my school.
Ask the Brits. They used the word soccer first as a short form of Association Football to distinguish it from "rugger" or Rugby Football. Americans got the word from them, and we kept using it since we were already calling another game football. https://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2014/06/why-we-call-soccer-soccer/372771/
In my (Canadian) high school there was a pretty large distinction between rugby and Canadian Football (the American version with slightly different rules). Teams from the school even went overseas to play rugby in Argentina and New Zealand in the 1990's. It was a big deal.
Good question. Why is any form of rugby ever called football when the ball is mostly kept in one's hands. Surely there can be no argument that football is soccer, it's the only logical conclusion.
At least for my old high school, I can confirm this. We had a really passionate, rather sizeable Ultimate team, and they often traveled for tournaments and scrimmages
You should include fastball for softball. This is commonly used to distinguish "slow pitch" baseball from windmill style pitching which is the common sport for female baseball players.
Lacross doesn't work for lacrosse? Running doesn't work for cross country? Gymnastics, acrobatics, nor dancing work for competitive spirit squads? I either have the wrong perception or the quiz is too strict.
As a Minnesotan I put Hockey down first, i forgot that we aren't normal. Also for the Cheer debate, my school had both a cheerleading squad and a competitive dance squad. the cheerleaders were not athletes, however the dance team were definately athletes, then again they did win state my senior year
So then. How is 'Competitive Spirit Squads' in this list? In all seriousness and as a non-US citizen, I had never heard of that term, let alone known it could be a sport. Looking it up, I see it's cheerleading and drill - that's all dancing, which isn't usually considered a sport, though it is certainly more energetic than some other 'proper' sports. Next thing you know, chess and darts will be on the list.
This is a very good quiz. You definitely had a good source. In my high school, 13 of these sports were played and the only one we play that wasn't on here is bowling, which was literally added this year.
Track and field and Cross Country are the same in a lot of schools...I know it was in mine. It didn't even cross my mind that these would be separate. I don't know, that's iffy for me.
No they aren't. Track and Field encompasses everything from high jump to triple jump to pole vault and discus/shot put AND sprinting events with a few long distance runs (usually 1 mile, 2 mile, 1/4 mile 4 person relay). They usually only compete/meet in the spring into summer and can train off-season.
Cross country is strictly long-distancing running. 5k and above. much more about endurance and trains most of the year (cold allowing).
Good quiz! I think it's rather interesting how football is losing participants, overall, yet it's still by far the most popular sport for high schoolers to play
A shame you don't have caber tossing and curling in the US. Being Scottish, I'm afraid competitive spirit squads are a step too far. Here, rival sports teams generally just give each other a Glasgow kiss ;)
For the same reason baseball and lacrosse are separate. Read the comments before you throw one down of your own, it might help you learn something new and also keep people from needing to answer the same question 10 times over.
They're different sports with different teams, different rules, different stats, and different seasons.
As someone remembering hours at school (failing to) climb ropes, jump vaults and do handstands: do American school not do gymnastics much or is it called something different? (Surely the home nation of Simone Biles does gym at least a bit?!)
I think that gymnastics was cut from a lot of schools because of the insurance and liability. Most schools don't have gyms big enough, either. If people want to really do gymnastics, they have to go to a private gym.
Swim should be accepted for swimming! Everyone at my school just called it swim. I ended up getting it eventually but it's the same thing. Unlike the hockey one which is a moot point because this is US and ice hockey and field hockey are different and when someone says "hockey" they obviously mean ice hockey!
Track takes place in individual heats on a track, and includes short distance as well as longer distances, but those distance will typically only reach 3200 meters, or 2 miles.
Cross Country consists of all runners on each team (Divided into boys and girls, Varsity and JV), and takes place on any available designated course, across almost any surface. Cross Country is exclusively long distance, with the standard meet being a 5k, or roughly 3.1 miles
Apparently Minnesota is home to 1/5 of all the ice hockey high school athletes in the country. It really is the "state of hockey" as appears on one of its new specialty license plates.
Enough that friggin cheerleading is there, no need to compound on the ridiculousness.
Cross country is strictly long-distancing running. 5k and above. much more about endurance and trains most of the year (cold allowing).
- swimming specifically should be an answer for "swimming & diving".
- Ice Hockey needs to be on here. Half of schools have an associated Hockey team. I can't believe that is not on here, but golf is.
They're different sports with different teams, different rules, different stats, and different seasons.
Track takes place in individual heats on a track, and includes short distance as well as longer distances, but those distance will typically only reach 3200 meters, or 2 miles.
Cross Country consists of all runners on each team (Divided into boys and girls, Varsity and JV), and takes place on any available designated course, across almost any surface. Cross Country is exclusively long distance, with the standard meet being a 5k, or roughly 3.1 miles