By 
Boys water polo in California could not sustain the torrid 4.4% rate of growth it achieved in the 2012-13 school year, the highest among all boys’ prep sports. That figure reversed by 0.7% last season according to the California Interscholastic Federation’s 2014 Participation Census released on August 7th. There were 114 fewer boys participating in 2013-14 while the sport added nearly 900 new athletes the year prior. It is the first decline in participation since the first Census was released in 2001. Water polo remains the 10th most popular sport among high school boys in California with 16,263 athletes.
The girls too experienced a decline with a net loss of 25 athletes, a -0.17% change. The loss was the sport’s first according to CIF Census data since 2003. It remains the ninth most popular high school sport among California high school girls with a total of 14,393 players.
Football remained the most popular boys’ sport in the state with over 100,000 athletes. It grew by 0.93%, it’s first gain since 2009. Soccer grew by the largest margin among boys by 1.47%. Girls’ cross country grew by an impressive +3.41%, two percentage points clear of the next fastest growing sport, soccer.
