Between the 1999/2000 and 2014/2015 academic years the number of Colorado boys high school tennis programs ranged from 110 to 144, with the peak coming in 2007/2008. Since that time, there has been a decline in the number of programs. The range of the number of boys and girls programs was similar during these 15 years.
For this period, there has been a wide range of participation in boys programs. Interestingly, the number of participants has a low level of correlations with the number of programs. At its peak, there were 3,707 participants, although that number appears to be an aberration. With the exception of this value, the number of participants ranged from 2,059 to 3,061. The number of participants has trended downward since 2010/2011. Over this period the annualized rate of growth in participation is 2.2%.
Between 1999 and 2015 the Colorado population increased from 4.2 million to 5.4 million. This is a gain 1.2 million people, at an annualized rate of 1.7%.
The number of males between the ages of 15 and 19 increased from 156,330 to 185,377. This is a gain of 29,047 males, at an annualized rate of 1.1%.
On average there were 23 participants per team over the past three years.
There are a number of factors that are responsible for Colorado boys high school tennis not growing at a faster rate, including inadequate funding, facilities, and the lack of quality coaches. As well, U.S. tennis is growing at a long-term annualized rate less than the rate of growth in the U.S. population, (less than 1.0%). Probably the most important reason why the sport is not showing stronger growth is stiff competition from other fall sports. Football is the dominant fall sport, but cross country, soccer, golf and lacrosse are popular sports.
Overall, Colorado boys high school tennis is on solid footing, despite recent challenges.
Source: NFHS.