NFHS survey: High school sports participation up overall; boys' participation falls

First the good news: More high school students are playing sports than ever before, according to annual participation date compiled by the National Federation of State High School Associations (NFHS).

Now the not-so-good news: According to the survey, boys' participation in high school athletics dropped for the first time in nearly two decades during the 2011-12 academic year.

In all, 9,419 fewer boys participated in high school sports last season according to the survey. That doesn't seem like that large a drop, considering the number of boys' athletes totaled 4,484,987 in 2011-12. Still, it's a trend in the wrong direction, and becomes perhaps more worrisome when you consider football -- which has taken a hit in the public perception department due to continued concerns about concussions and long-term player safety -- was one of the hardest-hit sports. Football saw a decrease of 12,239 athletes, while basketball (13,603 fewer) actually saw the largest dip among boys' sports.

You can check out the NFHS release here and the full participation report here.

Of course, the data represents too small a sample to draw any real conclusions from. Likewise, it's impossible to know the exact reason for the drop in participation -- whether it's driven more by economics, safety concerns (in the case of football) or some other combination of factors. The dip in boys' participation could simply be a aberration.

It's also worth nothing that girls' participation continued to surge to an all-time high of 3,207,533 athletes last year. That's obviously an encouraging sign.

What do you all think of the numbers? Evidence of a larger trend, or merely a one-year deviation?