Boylan 35, Hononegah 34: Let The Tweets Tell The Story

Not since Week 9 of the 2004 season had the Boylan Titans lost a NIC-10 conference football game. Last week's 17-6 win over Auburn marked the Titans' 66th consecutive conference victory.

Much doubt about the survival of Boylan's streak was brought on by the strength of an improved Hononegah squad from a year before. The Titans faced the Indians at Kelsey Field on Friday night in a football game for the ages.

The hype surrounding the game brought many media types to the press box and sideline. Three televsion stations. Two newspaper reporters. Two radio stations, as well as a student-run station. And a publisher from some high school sports website.

Either way you look at it, the accounts of the most pivotal NIC-10 football game of the year are well-documented: By printed paper, television sports highlights, internet video, streaming audio, etc.

In an effort to provide a different presentation of the game, Northern Illinois Sports Beat offers over 60 Tweets about the game. The Tweets are presented in chronological order.

Because Twitter limits its characters to 140 for every Tweet, plenty (PLENTY) of shorthand was used. Actually, the character limit was 127 because of the automated inclusion of the hashtag #BoylanAtHono. Also, proper capitalization and punctuation wasn't utliized all that much because of the quickness of getting the Tweet out as fast as possible.

In an effort to clarify the Tweets, a explanation may be offered after the Tweet, noted by an *asterisk, italicized, and in (parentheses). Perhaps needing an immediate clarification is the fact that "Hono" is short for "Hononegah."

Leading off, the first Tweet marked the 1,000th Tweet by @CodyCutter35. Enjoy!

7:24 p.m. 1,000th Tweet ... But more importantly the Indian kick is up and we are underway at Kelsey Field at Hononegah!

7:26 Hononegah rec fumble on first Boylan play at Titan 25

7:29 Jake Wilson 11 run on rt side sweep. PAT good. 7-0 Hononegah 9:59 1st q. *(11 run = 11-yard touchdown run. Any future Tweets such as this indicate touchdown runs, unless otherwise tweeted)

7:32 Mac Nelson rec fumble at midfield. 2nd Boylan fumble in first 3 min

7:35 Ryan Sughroue with a nice reaching 1st down catch at the 39 ... Leads to an Alec Smith 39 run up middle. 7:28 1q. 14-0 Hono

7:40 Boylan rushes for1st 1st down of game. Throwing game not working, leads to punt

7:42 Adrian Marquez punt ret for TD negated by a block in the back at own 41

7:48 Two loss tackles by Boylan and delay of game penalty brings about Hononegah punt at midfield. Boylan takes over at own 10

7:52 End of one quarter: 14-0 Hononegah leads Boylan in football action

7:56 Boylan called a horsecollar. Hono into Titan red zone. Titans not tackling well tonite so far. *(called ON a horsecollar)

7:59 Boylans Graham Smolinski strips Adrian Marquez close to end zone. Coach Sughroue arguing that Marquez was in end zone.

8:00 Marquez hurt on play, went down hard on knee. Boylan ball at Hono 45.

8:01 Boylan qb change. Demry Croft replaces Brock Stull.

8:04 Hononegah DL Jacob "Dragon" Meyer carried off now. Ankle. Boylan hitting much harder now than earlier.

8:06 Boylan in Hono red zone for 1st time. 6:30 2nd q

8:08 5:30 2nd boylan going on 4th and 5 needing 15 for score. DOG penalty now moves to Hono 20 *(DOG = Delay of Game)

8:09 Seth Combs tackles Nick Pumila on short pass to force TO

8:12 Alec Smith 45 rush on rt end around into Boylan red zone. 3:33 left in 2q

8:14 Alex Martin 5 run up gut, short dive to score. 21-0 Hononegah 2:32 in 2q

8:16 Boylan had a 15 pi call to help Hono run. 2nd 15'er for Titans so far, this one cost them. *(pi call = pass interference; 15'er = 15-yard penalty)

8:20 Boylan punts at own 31 1:07 left in half. Hono needs another 89 to score 4

8:21 Knees to end half. 21-0 Hononegah leading Boylan

8:42 Boylan kicking off to start 2nd half against Hononegah

8:46 Ian Riggs tackles Smith for -3 on 3rd down to lead to Hono punt. titan ball at own 38

8:48 "0-0!" yells from Hononegah sideline to start 3rd

8:51 Stull back at qb for titans. 3rd down scramble falls short by Vincent Anderson tackle.

8:53 Matt Sciame strips ball and runs it in for first Boylan score from close range. 21-7 Hono 8:35 2nd q

8:53 Nearly a backfield facemask on Boylan on the fumble run in

8:56 Backfield miscommunication collision for Hono on 2nd and long. Hono 3rd and 9 on own 31, 7:16 in 3q

8:58 Hononegah pass inc, punts, boylan ball at own 40

9:01 Jacob Cremeens sack of Stull brings 4th and 11 for Boylan. Punt. Hono ball at own 39.

9:06 Alex Martin and Jake Wilson w b2b 10+ runs to Boylan red zone. *(b2b = back-to-back)

9:08 Hono fumbles away at Boylan 23. 2nd iffy fumble call in favor of Titans. *("iffy meaning Hononegah thought otherwise)

9:11 Jacob Cremeens with 2nd sack of Stull, leads to punt. Hono fumbles again back to Boylan at Indian 39

9:12 Croft 21 pass to Stull on left side. Hono leading 21-14 w 42.6 in 3rd q

9:15 End of 3. 21-14 hononegah leading boylan

9:19 Boylan facemask brings Hono into red zone. 3rd 15'er for Titans

9:20 Sam Ballano 8 run up middle for Hono. 10:36 left in game 28-14 Indians lead Titans. Penalties killing Boylan tonite

9:28 Boylan 4th and 1 short at midfield. Hono ball 8:39 left

9:32 Hono goes on 4th and 2, 6:32 left. Short. Boylan takes over at own 41

9:35 Croft qb'ing. Runs for 40 yd wind on right side for score. 28-21 Indians, 5:33 left.

9:37 Hono kick return short. At indian 13

9:39 Zack Matthews sack -3 on Smith. Hono fumbles again. Titan ball on indian 2

9:39 Was a Td. *(Quinn Smolinksi returned it for the score. "Titan ball on indian 2" was incorrectly assumed that the play was downed at the 2-yard line)

9:40 Crazy game. 28-28 4:33 left.

9:43 Jake Wilson 65 run on rt side on first Hono play from scrimmage. 34-28 hono 4:20 left

9:48 3 min left. Boylan 4th and 6 at hono 35. 34-28 hono leading.

9:49 Croft to Stull complete. Tough grab. Now at hono 2

9:50 DoG pushes boylan to 7 *(another delay-of-game)

9:52 Second flag waved off *(apparent penalty before snap happened right after the delay-of-game penalty)

9:55 Sam McGuire 3 run around left end. 1:06 left. Pat kick tipped but good. 35-34 Boylan.

9:57 Hono ball at 20, 1:06 in game

9:59 Passing. Make. Miss. Christian Esquivel sack for Titans, -7. 48.3 left. 3-16

10:00 Inc on 3rd down

10:02 Graham Smolinski cuts off pass to Sughroue, Smith pass tipped by Boylan's Jake Bergstrom. Boylan knees. Ballgame. 35-34 boylan

Boylan senior lineman Christian Esquival:

"When I was on the sidelines, I was thinking about to make a big play. I saw my opportunity there. I knew they were coming because I kept thinking about it and focusing on it. And when I had it, boom! That's what happened."

"We had a struggle there in the first half. But with a little inspirational talk with the team, we pulled it right up, and thanks to the twelfth man, which is Jesus up there, he had his eye on us. We give a big thanks to Him for that."

Boylan head coach John Cacciatore:

"One play at a time. One piece at a time. I've been doing this for a little while. Fenwick is in my mind, and how we had to chip our way back in that one. Last week was another tight game. I wouldn't say that it was the way we wanted to do it, it's winning ugly, but we'll take it at this point and on to Harlem."

"I tip my hat to Coach (Chris) Rozanski, our defensive coordinator; every single day their defensive circuit works on strips. Every single day. I think there's nothing else the Chicago Bears have shown us that how important it is. It's not just the luck of the draw, it's not just bad ball handling. It's a skill that you work on."


Boylan senior quarterback/wide reciever Brock Stull:

"This is probably the most happiest I've been in a while. They moved me to slot later in the game, and we needed some big plays. With (Chase) Ferger being gone (to injury), I had to step up I felt like, and I did. The whole game the media was talking before, we actually felt like we were the underdogs. Should have been the opposite way. We were playing like we had nothing to lose and we showed it out there."

"We were never down. We had two games actually like this last year: one in the playoffs against Fenwick, and against Harlem last year. Same story as this. We knew that we weren't done, and had to play harder. And we did."


This account is by all means incomplete. What more do you have to add about one of the most memorable high school football games ever in northern Illinois? Add in your accounts in the "Boylan @ Hononegah" topic on our NISB Football Forum. Not a member of the Message Boards? Register today!

Football: Beating The Elements

Football is a game that is made of many physical challenges.

Feats of strength executed by those on the gridiron will make a difference between a sack and a touchdown. Hands, hips and feet twist and twirl around in and effort to subdue the opposing team.

Like a car's parts underneath the hood, many pieces all work together to make sure all is running smoothly.

However, on an afternoon where the sun shined bright and temperatures reached the triple digits, the individual parts of the vehicle that is the football team could break down at any given moment.

This is where the cooling system comes into play.

In practice, each player knows the schematics of what's being run, as well as what's run against them. However, the chances of knowing what to expect on the gridiron makes the game situations tougher. All of the thought processes being bottled up within a helmet can produce a bit of wear in the mind.

Temperatures ran high during the first week of the high school football season. As the sunlight sped its way down to the Earth at 5:15 p.m. on this Friday afternoon at Sterling High School, the sophomore Braves were about to do battle with Metamora's underclassmen.

With a game-day air temperature of 98 degrees as a high, the gridirons at Fulton, Rock Falls and Sterling tied for the hottest home games in northern Illinois. Sterling felt hotter, however.

Crisp Countdown

Two years ago, the playing field at Sterling's Roscoe Eades Stadium was considered to be in bad shape due to heavy rains and extra use over the years. Through fund raising and donations, field turf was installed in time for the 2012 season. This prevented the use of needing to water down the field and cause more harm to the playing surface.

Spraying was needed once more at the newly-named Sterling Chevrolet Field. Realizing the intense conditions of the opening football game of the 2013 season, Sterling High School called upon the city's fire department to hose down the football field at 2 p.m.

Playing on field turf increases the temperature by about 10 degrees from the air temperature. Still, after the fire department did its job, the mercury read a stifling 115 degrees on the turf along the Sterling sideline at 4:15.

About a couple of hours before kickoff, Sterling senior lineman Blake Hall and his varsity friends stood at the mouth of the stadium's tunnel talking about the heat, among other things.

They had been through it before and wouldn't let it bother them later in the night.

“We've been practicing on it for a long time,” Hall said. “We should be alright.”

At the steel table on the Metamora sideline were six water cooler jugs – three on top and three underneath. Sterling had just a single cooler on its table. However, modern technology controlled the cooling process for the Sterling sideline: A three-foot-high plastic piping cube pushes out water from several holes along the top to create a multi-fountain device. This is Sterling's newest hydration technique, having come in favor of the dolly-like water bucket, which uses a motor to spit out water from several handle-like fountains. This machine has been in the Sterling arsenal for the past couple of years, after an older system had numerous battery problems.

All resources were put to use on this oven of an evening.

Sterling athletic director Greg King chatted with the group of varsity players in the tunnel; kids whom he had been in charge of in the football program until a couple of years ago. Having turned over the head coaching reigns to Jonathan Schlemmer, King's duty on this particular evening of preparing the stadium for the game becomes more abundant.

After recollecting about a hot evening in Edwardsville many years ago while serving as a Rock Island assistant coach, King called on a couple of varsity players to bring over a large fan from the school's Fieldhouse to the Sterling sideline.

Metamora's fan had already been placed on their sideline.

“One of the first things you got to do is you have to make sure your kids are smart throughout the day and get a lot of water throughout the day,” King said. “You want the kids to play, and they've worked so hard, but at the same time you want to make sure it's smart.”

King served on a committee with the IHSA to look at the heat-related changes in off-season and preseason practices. The IHSA made substantial changes to the first couple of weeks of practice this year to limit excessive heat exposure.

“Listening to the doctors from the Korey Stringer Institute, it's some pretty serious stuff,” King recalled. “You want the kids to have fun, but be safe at the same time.”

Several Metamora players went through pre-game warmups shirtless, minus the black-colored pads and the black-colored helmets.

“When we got here today, we went a little less with shoulder pads and helmets,” Metamora team doctor Timothy Kaufman said. “We emphasized a lot with water every time they come out, and lots of ice bags on their neck to keep them cool.”


Sweltering Sidelines

The increased awareness on this scorching evening also increases the concentration for Sterling athletic trainer Andi Sumerfelt.

“I have the ice baths in case of any heat illness,” Sumerfelt said. “The best way to recover is to cool their body temperature down with cold water immersion. So I make sure I have the tank ready for that. We have fans on both sides. I have Gatorade for both teams, as well as plenty of water.”

In addition to focusing on injuries and soreness to the football players, coordinating a hydration routine was a big part of Sumerfelt's afternoon. Water was not only being provided for hydration in the bodies, but also being provided for the surface of the bodies. She set up a pair of stations along the sideline where players would be soaked with water. At each station, one of her assistants would soak a large yellow sponge into a water jug and ring it out over the top of a player's head.

“It has ammonia spirits in them and it helps open the pores so they can breathe better, as well as cool them down because it's ice and water together,” Sumerfelt said.

Her other assistants, a select group of kids from Sterling's junior tackle program, were in charge of the green Gatorade bottles that were placed in the orange racks. The kids had to be alert for timeouts, stoppages in the game, and for certain players coming on from the field.

This being the season's first game, Sumerfelt taught the kids on how and when to deliver the water to the sophomore players. Eventually, one of the water boys had to be helped to the cooling station at halftime.

Breaks became few, as Sumerfelt describes such a night as having one thing happen after another before finding a break at the half.

“When it's hot like this, I always make make sure – any time of the day, whether it's practice or a game – I have an ice bath ready and ...”

Things were cut off all of a sudden when Sumerfelt received a motion from the Metamora sideline about someone with an asthma attack. As she raced across the field, a stretcher from the CGH ambulance also flew by. After a few minutes, all help needed was completed.

“The coaches made sure that they drank plenty of water throughout the day, as well as sodium,” Sumerfelt said. “It is depleted in the sweat, so they made sure they got a little extra sodium today to help prevent any cramps.”

And if there's not enough sodium, help can be found in a pickle jar.

“Pickle juice is very high in sodium,” Sumerfelt added. “We have one guy that cramps all of the time and he brings his own pickle juice and drinks it. It really helps prevent them because of the sodium that's in it.”

The water boys served not only the sophomore players, but also to the game officials.

“Hey, get some for the officials, guys!” King asked a couple of the kids from an open area on the sideline during a a timeout.

Veteran area referee Don Cook's squad was working both the sophomore and varsity contests. This particular sophomore game featured officials' time outs during changes in possession and longer quarter breaks. The lengths of the quarters were shortened on this evening from ten minutes each to eight.

“Tonight there's all kinds of water,” King said. “We got some fans here. We're going to shorten the sophomore game by quarters from ten minutes to eight minutes with a lot of water breaks in between.”

Fighting the heat and each other, the Redbird sophomores scored the game's first touchdown against the Braves on its opening drive. The Redbirds would cruise to a 21-8 halftime lead under the calling of quarterback Jacob Mitchell.

Also a member of the varsity roster, Mitchell was only scheduled to play the opening half. With his sophomore game done, Mitchell made his way to the bench where he relaxed with his pads off, with an ice bag wrapped in a towel hanging over his neck.

“You just got to keep your head up and stay focused to block out the heat as best as possible,” Mitchell said. “It's not a big factor once you're playing. You don't really think about it too much. You just got to block it off and stay hydrated all week. That's what everyone did. Our coaches told us to stay hydrated and we did.”

Mitchell was examined in this process by Dr. Kaufman. The evening was a busy one for him in between keeping the Redbirds hydrated and coordinating the efforts by the team's two water boys in freshman uniforms.

Metamora's cooling setup involved plastic cups of water placed on wood trays with holes in them, with the water boys carrying them out waist-high whenever time was called.

“We really emphasized hydrating the whole week,” Kaufman said. “You can't hydrate just today, you got to hydrate three or four days prior. So we really talked about having good meals, good rest, and to hydrate this week. That's the key thing.”

Just don't take in too much water at the wrong time, as was the case for Mitchell.

“He drank a little too much water there in the end and felt like he was going to throw up for a few minutes,” Kaufman said.


More Than Enough Water

Metamora's sophomore team would put the Braves at 0-1 with a 28-14 win. The elements improved as the game came to a close with large clouds looming over the stadium.

“Thankfully the clouds came out and cooled it off pretty quick to help,” Kaufman said.

Halfway through the first quarter of a scoreless varsity game, the hot weather had finally transitioned into one with a large draft of cool air. As the quarter drew to a close, the drafts became more prevalent. That meant the arrival of the second weather-related concern for the evening: a thunderstorm.

Small droplets of rain spat every few seconds during the four-minute mark of the first quarter. After that, the drops got larger and eventually cascaded over the turf in round, shiny chunks reflected by the lighting system.

Touchdowns by Sterling's Draque Peneflor-Heier and Metatmora's Zach Rohrback made for a 7-7 game that lasted until the 8:32 mark of the second quarter.

Lightning had been spotted from the stadium at 8:10 p.m. to enact a 30-minute postponement.

The postponement lasted longer than 30 minutes.

And it's ongoing.

On an evening when water was badly needed for the football players, the water ended up winning. No major heat-related incidents were reported from Sterling's sideline, and other than the asthma attack on the Metamora sideline, no other heat-related incidents were reported there.

The water ended up winning in the varsity game also, to the point where the game couldn't be resumed at any point during the night and had to be pushed back to 7 p.m. the next evening. Too much lightning scattered the sky to cause scheduling crunches for Metamora, whose caravan drove about 75 miles to get to Sterling.

Crunches were also made to the stadium schedule for Saturday. Roscoe Eades Stadium's other tenant, the Newman Comets, were scheduled to have a 7 p.m. varsity kickoff against Rockridge. Since the stadium's main tenant had no choice but to reserve its priority, this put Sterling's two high school athletic directors on the phone with each other.

King, Newman athletic director and football coach Mike Papoccia, and the administration from Rockridge worked out a deal where Newman's varsity kickoff would take place at 3 p.m.

So ended a rough evening for both varsity programs, whose game now has this gaping interruption. So ended a rough evening for Sterling's sophomores, given a season-opening loss to think about before suiting up once more to take on Mendota next Saturday. So ended a rough evening for Metamora's sophomores also, whose bus broke down in the heat not too far from Sterling.

The heat was a factor in having King giving out a freshman-level rarity: an air-conditioned charter bus to be used for the drive to Metamora this morning for a 10 a.m. kickoff, where the sun will shine directly over Malone Field.

“I told my son, who's a freshman, to take a water bottle with him for all his classes,” King said.

Still Football In Pecatonica This Year

Pecatonica head coach Eric Bergin instructs players during a
special teams drill during practice on Aug. 19.

Contrary to reports, there is still a football program at Pecatonica.

When news of the cancellation of this season's varsity schedule came out in March, the Rockford Register Star offered the ominous phrase, “the Indians will not exist.”

So much for that.

Declining numbers forced a switch to a junior varsity schedule for this season for the Indians, who did not have enough players to play the last three weeks of a winless season in 2012. Nearly 10 months later, the practice field just to the south of the school is being used once more.

On Aug. 19, the first Monday of practice, 16 freshmen, sophomores and juniors suited up for first-year head coach Eric Bergin. That evening, the players worked on running plays and kickoff returns, afterward splitting up so that Bergin could work alone with five linemen.

The practice concluded with sprints across the practice field to and from, with Bergin counting down the seconds until the next whistle for the next sprint. There, the fastest runners always finished first and the slowest runners were encouraged by the rest of the finished teammates. All of which survived to make it to the practice-ending huddle.

With 16 players, most will be seeing duty on both a new-look offense and defense. Obviously all would like to play, but they cannot be overworked. Thus, the never-ending concern for Bergin and his coaching staff.

“We've been practicing hard,” Bergin said. “It's a new process for them, a new offense and a new defense is being installed. We're working on that, and we'll go from there. Hopefully we stay healthy and don't have any dings and stuff like that to avoid the situation we had last year. We'll line up with our 16 kids and we'll play. That's what we'll do and try to build it from here.”

The Indians will open the season on Friday evening at Lena-Winslow against the Panther JV squad. Kickoff is scheduled for 7 p.m. The game will mark the first time since September 28 that Pecatonica purple and gold donned the gridiron.

Be it junior varsity or varsity, Collin Viel, one of three juniors on the Indian team, is just happy to play.

“We're very excited because we're getting to play,” Viel said. “We're juniors and we're supposed to be playing varsity this season, but since the numbers and all those problems, we just get to play now. That's a good thing for us.”

“Everyone says that it sucks that we're playing JV, but I'm just excited to be playing games,” junior Alex Thayer added. “I'm glad to have a season.”

Under the junior varsity scheduling arrangement, the Indians will suit up against the junior varsity squads of its Northwest Division foes of the Northwest Upstate Illini Conference. Included in the schedule are two Saturday dates with Ashton-Franklin Center (the team's lone NUIC crossover game, as well as the Homecoming game) in Week 5 and archrival Durand in Week 6; as well as a Monday night tilt with South Beloit in Week 3.

Numbers and size may be small, but speed is plenty for the Indians. They will look to use that to their advantage in the nine-week grind.

“We have some kids that can run, so we'll use that to our advantage,” Bergin said. “We have a little bit of speed we can use and we'll try to get them out in the open and do some things off of that.”

Despite an abrupt end to last year's season, the remaining players have worked hard toward erasing the adversity, whether it is putting in the effort physically in the offseason, or trying to recruit more bodies to join the program.

“The tempo has picked up a lot,” Viel said. “We've had harder practices and had more running and lifting a lot. It's just a lot more up tempo now.”

While dropouts have run rampant, additions have been made. One of which is the Indians' third junior, Skyler Alongi.

Having lived in Orangeville at the start of high school, grades were an issue for Alongi until they were finally good enough to earn a spot on the team.

“I'm excited because this is my first year playing football, ever,” Alongi said. “We've been getting in shape the whole offseason, so hopefully we'll be good.”

Asked what would make a great sell to get more bodies out for the program, the three juniors offered their own bit of persuasion.

“It's a lifetime experience,” Viel said. “You don't get to play football again. We're a small school, so a lot of us won't be going to these high-end colleges and playing D-I football. So it's just this experience. You come out, you play as a family, you play with your friends, you get to experience it, love it.”

“Last year everyone didn't want to go out because we were bad,” Alongi said. “It's not going to change your football team around by not going out.”

“I think if you don't play now, this is a part of your life that you're going to regret for the rest of it,” Thayer said.

The plan is to try to field a varsity team once more in 2014. But before that, all will hinge on what happens this season.

“We got 16 kids out here that want to play football,” Bergin said. “We're starting ground zero right here, and these kids are a part of it. After this year, hopefully we'll be a team of sophomores and juniors, and hope to keep building from there.”

2013 Pecatonica Indians Football Schedule
Friday, Aug. 30 - @ Lena-Winslow (7 p.m.)
Friday, Sept. 6 – vs. Eastland/Pearl City (7 p.m.)
Monday, Sept. 16 - @ South Beloit (5:30 p.m.)
Friday, Sept. 20 - @ Dakota (7 p.m.)
Saturday, Sept. 28 – vs. Ashton-Franklin Center (12 p.m.)
Saturday, Oct. 5 - @ Durand (11:30 a.m.)
Friday, Oct. 11 – vs. West Carroll (5:30 p.m.)
Friday, Oct. 18 - @ Forreston (5:30 p.m.)
Friday, Oct. 25 - @ Galena (5 p.m.)

Four Illinois Sports See Participation Increases

Boys cross country was one of four high school sports in
Illinois to see an increase in the number of participants,
according to the National Federation of High School's
 participation survey.

Whatever the high school sport may be, Illinois has its usual collection of them. Typically, those sports attract the biggest crowds and have the largest number of participants.

The National Federation of High Schools on Monday released data for its 2012-13 high school athletics participation survey. High school athletic participation in Illinois decreased for the second year in a row, falling from 346,896 students in the 2011-12 school year to 339,944. The fall continued from a high of 350,114 students in 2010-11.

All but four sports registered decreases in participation last year. Increasing numbers were boys cross country, girls soccer, boys swimming and diving, and girls track and field.

Participation in boys cross country has increased each year for the past five years. In 2012, 11,319 Illinois high school boys ran cross country, while 10,129 ran in 2008. Two years ago, 10,762 kids ran cross country, marking an increase of 2.76 percent.

Boys swimming and diving saw the largest percentage of increase among high school students in Illinois. In 2012, 6,744 Illinois high school boys participated in swimming and diving programs, an increase from 6,484 from the prior year.

Track and field numbers for girls in Illinois also rose last year. In 2012, 19,283 Illinois high school girls participated in track and field programs, an increase from 19,283 from the prior year.

Girls soccer numbers increased slightly from a year ago, increasing to 16,144 from 16,107 in Illinois.

Participation numbers for girls soccer, boys swimming and diving, and girls track and field were increases last year after decreases from 2010.

Football continues to be the most popular high school sport in Illinois in terms of participation, with 46,889 kids suiting up last year. However, the overall number has decreased in each of the past five years, with 51,334 kids out for the sport in 2008. Volleyball ranks second in terms of participation in Illinois high schools with 22,492 participants, down from 22,329 a year ago.

Among sports in Illinois with over 5,000 participants, boys tennis numbers went down significantly from a year ago. Numbers in boys tennis fell from 7,712 kids in 2011 to 6,670 in 2012.

Illinois ranks fourth in the nation in the number of high school sport participants behind Texas (798,333), California (777,545) and New York (389,475). Ohio is fifth in the nation with 327,919 students, with Pennsylvania (315,492), Michigan (304,438), New Jersey (270,423), Florida (243,397) and Minnesota (230,421) rounding out the top 10.

Of the top 10, only New Jersey had an increase in participants. Thirty of the 51 state high school associations reported increases.