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Health & Fitness

The Growth Of Girls Soccer

What sport is your daughter playing this spring? If she's playing soccer, she's part of a US explosion in girls youth soccer!

Soccer in the United States has traditionally lagged behind the other 4 major sports (Baseball, Basketball, Hockey and Football) in terms of popularity.  Just don't try to tell that to your daughters.  

You probably already know that youth soccer has seen an explosion over the last 10-15 years.  Driving my any area field on a spring weekend would confirm your suspicions.  In fact, from 1995 to 2011, the number of US Youth Soccer players increased over 26% to over 3m kids.  But did you also know that US Youth Soccer is the largest youth sports organization in the United States,  and that a whopping 48% of the players are girls?  That's not only a lot of kids playing soccer, but at 1.45m girls, it's more than 10x the number of girls playing lacrosse!     

Moreover, FIFA, the national governing body of soccer noted that in its last "Big Count" of soccer players, the number of global soccer participants increased from 242m to 265m, a healthy increase of 9.5%.  However, looking at just women participants, the increase was even more impressive with the number of female players jumping from from 22m in 2000 to 26m in 2007; an increase of 18%!  

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And closer to home, the US kids continue to enjoy high participation rates in soccer.  Accoring to the annual '11-'12 High School Athletics Participation Survey, girls soccer surpassed softball as the number 4 sport in terms of High School Girls total participants.  Gaining another 2.6% to reach nearly 371,000 kids, Girls High School Soccer is now behind Outdoor Track (468k) Basketball (435k) and Volleyball (418k).  

And it's really no wonder that more girls are playing soccer given the national attention and success in our US National Women's Team.  The women's US team is currently ranked number 1 globally in the FIFA Women's World Rankings  and has fared very well in the Women's World Cup with a first place finish in 1999, 3rd place finishes in 2003 and 2007 and a 2nd place finish in 2011.  In terms of the Olympics, the US Women's team has been dominant with the women winning gold in '96, '04, '08 and of course in '12.  The three straight Olympic Gold medals make the US Women's team the ONLY team since 1900, men's or women's, to win 3 gold medals in 3 consecutive Olympic games.  

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So while the snow is melting here in Lynnfield and the patches of grass are finally starting to show through, the Lynnfield Youth Soccer Club would like to remind all soccer enthusiasts, and especially the girls, that U6 & U8 Registration is now open.  To register, simply go to www.lynnfieldsoccer.com and go to Online Registration.  Opening Day for U6 & U8 is Sunday 4/14 and open registration ends on Sunday 3/17.  

 

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