Every level of sports has made great strides over the years, but perhaps no level has made a bigger jump than high school sports.
The United States has over 37,000 high schools, and broadcast access to games and events for some high schools rivals that of collegiate programs. Just think: Forty years ago, the NBA Finals were aired on tape delay. Now, you can stream a live junior varsity archery contest between high school teams.
With this increased exposure to high school sports, a bigger spotlight has been placed on athletic programs that are a cut above the rest. Some schools have dominant teams in many different sports. Others specialize in just one or two sports.
We have compiled a list of the top high school sports programs by state, plus Washington, D.C. The sports they specialize in include everything from football to swimming to rugby to crew. The criteria emphasized state and national championships above all else, but it also took into account all-time wins, record streaks and collegiate/Olympic/professional athletes produced.
Did your high school make the cut?
Bottom Line: Hoover High School
Hoover High School has a tradition of excellence in football. mj_thomas10 / Twitter
Two-a-days are more than just having two practices in a single day. “Two-A-Days” also was the name of an MTV reality show that chronicled the Hoover High football team.
The show aired from August 2006 to March 2007 and was the high school version of HBO’s “Hard Knocks.” The reason why MTV chose Hoover High is because of its dominant football program, which had won four straight state titles when the show premiered.
Since then, the school has won six more championships for a total of 13 state titles, with 11 coming since 2000.
* Stats are current through March 2024. Enrollment numbers, however, are an estimate, as they can change month to month.
Bottom Line: The Bolles School
The Bolles has 11 state titles in football. JakePerper / Twitter
Whenever you throw “the” in front of your school name à la The Ohio State University, you better have the accolades to back it up, and The Bolles School does. Bolles’ athletic programs are so prestigious that their 11 football state championships don’t even get top billing.
That’s because Bolles’ swimming program can stand toe-to-toe with any other high school sports program in the country. The boys’ swim team has won 45 state championships, including 36 straight from 1988 to 2023, while the girls’ team has won 37 state titles, including 33 straight from 1991 to 2023.
The two teams also have combined for 18 national championships in swimming, and Bolles has had at least one student or alumni swimmer compete in every summer Olympics since 1972.
Bottom Line: Parkview High School
Parkview High School’s Isiah Gilliam represented the school on the national stage before being drafted by the New York Yankees. Lenny Ignelzi / AP Photo
Just outside of Atlanta, Parkview is one of the newest schools on this list, opening in 1976. However, over that time, Parkview has racked up 60 state championships with nine coming in baseball. The baseball team also claims three national championships with all of those coming in the 2010s decade.
Parkview also has had success in other sports as its 1997 state championship football team appeared on local Cheerios boxes.
Additionally, Parkview has won 16 state titles in soccer (seven in boys, nine in girls) and the boys’ team had a 57-game unbeaten streak in the 1990s.
Bottom Line: Mount Carmel High School
Mount Carmel High School is most well-known for its football program but has been dominant in sports across the board. Darron Cummings / AP Photo
It’s hard to pick just one standout program from Mount Carmel because it’s had unprecedented success in multiple sports.
The football team has won 15 state championships and sent such players as Donovan McNabb and Simeon Rice to the NFL. The hockey team won five state titles and sent Chris Chelios to the Hockey Hall of Fame. The baseball and basketball teams have each won championships and produced Denny McLain and Antoine Walker, respectively.
Overall, the alumni from Mount Carmel have won sports championships in all of the major sports (Super Bowl, Stanley Cup, World Series, NBA championship). Not too shabby.
Bottom Line: Pike High School
Pike High School has one of Indiana’s storied basketball programs. Darron Cummings / AP Photo
Dr. James Naismith, who invented the game of basketball, said that Indiana is where high school basketball was born. Thus, it comes as no surprise that basketball programs dominate the athletic landscape throughout the state.
One of those programs resides at Pike High School, which has sent countless players to the NBA and produced two winners of “Indiana Mr. Basketball.”
Pike basketball’s most recent state title came in 2003, when it finished 29-0 and second in the national rankings, trailing only St. Vincent-St. Mary of Ohio, which had one LeBron James.
Bottom Line: Lawrence High School
Lawrence High dominated the state of Kansas in football until its student body was split into two high schools. KevinRomary / Twitter
Located in the shadow of the University of Kansas, the Lawrence High Chesty Lions have won nearly as many state championships as KU has conference championships. While basketball is king around this part of town, hoops takes a back seat to two other notable Lawrence High teams.
Lawrence High dominated boys gymnastics before the sport was cut from Kansas high schools. Lawrence won 21 state titles in the sport between 1960 and 1988, but that total is no match for the football team, which has won 28 state titles.
Maybe even more impressive than that number is the fact that the school has posted 31 undefeated seasons, a national record, according to the National Federation of State High School Associations record book.
Bottom Line: St. Xavier High School
St. Xavier High School fans are used to seeing pictures like this. Joe Imel / AP Photo
Founded in 1864, St. Xavier is the oldest all-boys high school in Kentucky, and all of that history has lent itself to many championships — 196 of them to be exact. In fact, the school has won at least three state titles in every sport offered.
St. Xavier’s swimming and diving team has racked up 59 titles, but the St. Xavier Tigers football team gets the most recognition. That’s because they play in what’s called “the most attended regular-season high school football game in the country.”
St. Xavier and its rival, Trinity High, routinely have nearly 40,000 fans in attendance at the University of Louisville’s Cardinal Stadium to watch their annual matchup. The crowd is just a few thousand short of what Louisville football averages for its home attendance.
Bottom Line: Waynflete School
Girls lacrosse sits at the top of the sports pyramid for Waynflete School. forresports / Twitter
According to Sports Business Daily, lacrosse is the fastest-growing sport in America, but it’s been around for decades in the Northeast. You can’t get more northeast in the United States than Maine, and high schools in the state have competed in the sport for over 20 years.
Since Maine’s governing body for high school sports started sponsoring lacrosse in 1998, Waynflete School has won 11 state championships in girls’ lacrosse — even though just 245 students make up the entire high school portion of the school, and half of those are boys.
Speaking of the boys, their lacrosse team also started competing in 1998 and won its first state title in 2018.
Bottom Line: Cretin-Derham Hall High School
Hockey is the most popular sport in Minnesota. Cretin-Derham Hall High dominates in that, too. Paul Battaglia / AP Photo
Minnesota nicknames itself “The State of Hockey,” but the ice takes a backseat to the diamond at Cretin-Derham Hall. Eleven of the school’s 24 state championships have come in baseball, and two all-time greats are proud to CDH alums.
Paul Molitor and Joe Mauer both graduated from Cretin-Derham and, coincidentally, spent at least part of their major league careers with the hometown Twins.
The CDH Raiders won two state titles in baseball during Mauer’s time there, and the future American League MVP struck out just once during his four-year high school career.
Bottom Line: Creighton Prep
Creighton Prep won three consecutive state titles in baseball from 2016 to 2018. CPrepBaseball / Twitter
To sports fans, Omaha is best known for hosting the College World Series and the USA Swimming Olympic trials. So baseball and swimming are two of the most popular and prestigious sports programs at Creighton Prep.
The baseball team has won 15 state championships, including a three-peat from 2016 to 2018.
The swimming team has done even better with 25 state titles, including a Michael Phelps-like 14 straight from 2007 to 2020.
Overall, Creighton Prep has won 169 state championships across all sports since opening in 1878.
Bottom Line: Bishop Gorman
Bishop Gorman quarterback Tate Martell was one of the most highly recruited players in the country in 2017. Isaac Brekken / AP Photo
Who says you have to be 21 to have fun in Las Vegas? The high school kids at Bishop Gorman have had lots of fun over the years thanks to the powerhouse athletic program built there.
In 2009, Bishop Gorman became the first Nevada school in over 40 years to win state championships in football, basketball and baseball in the same year. They have since accomplished that feat at least two more times.
The cornerstone of its athletics program is the football team, which won three straight national championships from 2014 to 2016. The success of the football team led to a rarity in sports as its coach, Tony Sanchez, used the success at Gorman to land a head coaching job at UNLV in 2015.
Sanchez became just the fourth-ever high school coach to be hired as the head coach of an FBS school.
Bottom Line: Archbishop Molloy
Former Archbishop Molloy point guard Cole Anthony is a projected lottery pick in the 2020 NBA draft. Gregory Payan / AP Photo
Located in Queens, Archbishop Molloy’s athletics programs begin and end with one name: Jack Curran. The New York City native was the longtime coach for both the basketball and baseball teams, and he won more games as a coach than any other high school coach in the United States.
Curran, who coached at the school for 55 years (from 1958 until his death in 2013), is the only person to be named national coach of the year in two different sports and was named local coach of the year an astounding 47 times total.
He was equally adept as a coach in both sports, sending six players to the NBA and coaching Molloy’s baseball team to a 68-game win streak, the longest of all time, until La Cueva broke it.
Bottom Line: Central Catholic High School
The debate around the greatest long-distance runner in Oregon history comes down to Galen Rupp and Steve Prefontaine. CatholicSentnl / Twitter
Running is the unofficial state sport of Oregon, with its distinguished history in track and field, and Nike headquartered in Beaverton. In recent years, Central Catholic has surged to the top of the list when it comes to cross-country programs, and two-time Olympic medalist Galen Rupp deserves much of that credit.
Rupp helped Central Catholic win its first ever cross-country state championship in 2003, and the school has won at least nine more since then.
While in high school, Rupp broke the U.S. high school record for the 3000 meters race, and Central Catholic benefitted from the increased exposure. Since 2003, the school has won about as many cross-country state titles as it has won in every other sport combined.
Bottom Line: St. Joseph’s Preparatory School
Crew is not a traditional high school sport, but that hasn’t stopped St. Joseph’s Prep from winning all the time. SJ Prep Crew / Facebook
Crew, or rowing, isn’t a national sport in the high school system, but it is popular in the Northeast. At St. Joseph’s Prep, crew is almost a year-round sport as the boys’ crew team practices for 10 months a year.
That practice has paid off as the team has won the Stotesbury Cup 10-plus times. The Cup is the world’s oldest and largest high school rowing competition and has competing crews from across North America.
St. Joseph’s also isn’t too shabby in football, as that program has won at least 15 titles in the Philadelphia Catholic League, which comprises 18 Catholic high schools in the Philadelphia area.
Bottom Line: La Salle Academy
La Salle Academy’s boys lacrosse team won seven straight state titles from 2012 to 2018. RIIIL_sports / Twitter
Whenever the La Salle Rams reach the mountaintop, they usually stay there a while. They are renowned for their three-peats, four-peats and 17-peats. They won 17 straight football state titles in the 1930s and ’40s and have won 30-plus state championships in all.
Their gymnastics team also multi-peated to the tune of 10 consecutive state titles from 2003 to 2012. The boys’ lacrosse team won seven straight state titles from 2012 to 2018 while the boys’ and girls’ soccer teams won every state title from 2001 to 2005.
La Salle may be the big fish in the small pond of Rhode Island, but they’ve also won several New England Championships, which came against the top schools from the six most northeastern U.S. states.
Bottom Line: Washington High School
Washington High School won at least one state title in football in every decade from the 1890s through the 1980s. Dave Eggen / AP Photo
The high school football program that has won the most state championships of all time doesn’t reside in Texas. Or California. Or Florida. It resides in Sioux Falls, South Dakota.
Washington High has at least 41 state titles to its name. When you think of football in South Dakota, you may think we are referring to six-man, eight-man or nine-man football, but these championships came in 11-man football. Just three other schools in the country have won at least 30 state titles.
Since its debut in 1899, Washington High won football titles in every decade through the 1970s. After winning in 1976, they then had a 23-year drought before regaining their status as the best football program in the state. The Washington Warriors have won six state titles since 2009.
Bottom Line: Allen High School
Allen High quarterback Kyler Murray went on to win a Heisman Trophy and was the No. 1 overall pick in the 2019 NFL draft. L.M. Otero / AP Photo
Kyler Murray won the 2018 Heisman Trophy at Oklahoma, but prior to that, many considered Murray the greatest Texas high school football player ever. He earned that title at Allen High School, which is just outside of Dallas.
Murray was a perfect 42-0 as a starter at Allen, and the team won three straight state championships, making them the first 6A school in the state to accomplish that feat.
Showing just how much the football team means to the city of Allen, the Allen Independent School District constructed a $60 million stadium for the sole purpose of hosting Allen football games.
Eagle Stadium seats 18,000 and is the largest high school stadium in Texas that is designed for the use of a single team.
Bottom Line: Highland High School
Highland High School rugby coach Larry Gelwix and his teams were the subject of a movie. HerrimanRFC / Twitter
According to the National Federation of State High School Associations, just five states fielded rugby teams during the 2017-18 school year. One of those is Utah, which sponsors a competitive rugby union league that Highland High dominated.
Actually, “dominated” is an understatement as the Highland Rams won the national high school championship 20 times between 1985 and 2011. They were so great that they were the only high school team in the Western Hemisphere invited to play in the World Schools Rugby Championship in Zimbabwe in 1998. They won the bronze medal and even had a film, “Forever Strong,” based on the accomplishments of the team.
After its legendary coach, Larry Gelwix, retired in 2011, the rugby team became a rugby club and foundation that no longer competes competitively.
Bottom Line: Hampton High School
Hampton High won a pair of national titles in football in 1996 and 1997. jackclue1 / Twitter
Virginia is the most populous state without a major sports team, but football is the most popular sport.
Hampton High has become a football powerhouse over the years, both within the state and nationally. Entering the 2020 season, it had won 843 games, tied with Highland Park in Texas for the sixth-most of any high school, and claimed two national championships during the 1990s.
Hampton also has at least 10 state titles, and outside of the military academies in Virginia, no other high school has produced more NFL players than Hampton High with 12 players.
Bottom Line: Jackson-Reed High School
Of all of the major sports, by far the hardest one to go undefeated in is baseball. There’s just so many games that you are bound to slip up once or twice — unless you are Jackson-Reed High School (formerly Woodrow Wilson High) in the nation’s capital.
The team win 30 straight D.C. championships as of 2023. The school plays by the rules, but the school doesn’t look like many others in the area in terms of demographics. It also benefits from great athletic facilities.
“They’ve got a cage and a machine,” John Capozzi, the parent of a player from a rival school, told Deadspin. “McKinley [High] doesn’t even have a baseball field. Wilson players can practice hitting whenever they want. [McKinley] didn’t have one batting practice session before the season started. I swear there’s people on our team that have never been to a batting cage.”
Bottom Line: Parkersburg High School
Parkersburg High has won twice as many state titles as any other school in West Virginia. dsnid21 / Twitter
A decade ago, ESPN ran a summer special searching for the unofficial Titletown in the United States. Valdosta, Georgia, won the poll, but Parkersburg, West Virginia, was the runner-up based on the strength of their namesake high school.
The Parkersburg Big Reds have won twice as many state titles as any other high school in West Virginia.
The state of West Virginia is known for its affinity to wrestling, but the crown jewel of Parkersburg High is its football program. The football team has won at least 17 state titles, the most in the state, and was the eighth-winningest high school football program of all time through the 2019 season.
