Best High Schools for Sports in Every State

These high schools have the most successful athletic programs in the U.S.

Best High Schools for Sports in Every State

De La Salle football players celebrate after winning a CIF state championship in 2011.

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?

Alabama: Hoover High School

City: Hoover

Year opened: 1994

Type of school: Public

Enrollment: 2,950

Best sport: Football

Bottom Line: Hoover High School

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.

Alaska: Soldotna High School

City: Soldotna

Year opened: 1980

Type of school: Public

Enrollment: 563

Best sport: Football

Bottom Line: Soldotna High School

Soldotna football team — Soldotna dominates on the gridiron.

Yes, high school football is played in Alaska. And yes, the game is more than the six- or eight-man variety. While those forms of football are available throughout the state, Soldotna High School lines up 11 players to a side, and they dominate all competition in front of them.

The Soldotna Stars football team won eight straight state championships from 2012-2019. They also had a state-record win streak of 59 games that lasted until the first week of the 2018 season in which they stepped up in class and lost to an Alaska high school with three times the enrollment. But Soldotna rebounded to win the remainder of that season’s games to keep their state title streak alive.

After a few years off, the school one its 13th state championship in 2023.

Arizona: Canyon del Oro High School

City: Oro Valley

Year opened: 1964

Type of school: Public

Enrollment: 1,618

Best sport: Baseball

Bottom Line: Canyon del Oro High School

Due to Arizona's arid climate, the most popular sports in the desert state take place outdoors. Thus, it’s no surprise that Canyon del Oro High School in Tucson specializes in baseball and softball.

The baseball team has won 10 state titles, and the softball team has collected nine of its own.

The teams are stacked with players who not only excel at the high school level but also go on to play college and pro ball, including four-time All-Star Ian Kinsler.

Arkansas: Pine Bluff High School

City: Pine Bluff

Year opened: 1868

Type of school: Public

Enrollment: 1,248

Best sport: Football

Bottom Line: Pine Bluff High School

During the 2018 season, Pine Bluff High surpassed Central High School (Little Rock) as Arkansas’ winningest high school football program ever. Plus, Pine Bluff set many records nearly 100 years ago that still stand today.

In 1925, the school won its first national championship with a still unsurpassed 16-0 record. It also set the state record in total yards gained in a season and averaged a staggering 505 rushing yards per game.

Pine Bluff has won 23 state championships in total and sent numerous players into the NFL, including Hall of Famers Don Hutson and Willie Roaf.

California: De La Salle High School

City: Concord

Year opened: 1965

Type of school: Private

Tuition: $18,550

Enrollment: 1,039

Best sport: Football

Bottom Line: De La Salle High School

The fact that a high school team has been the subject of two books and one movie tells you just how impressive De La Salle’s football program is.

From 1992 to 2004, the school won a record 151 straight football games and claimed seven national championships. During that stretch, they also played in what’s considered the first-ever national championship high school football game and defeated Long Beach Poly in a nationally broadcast game.

De La Salle has become such a powerhouse that the school has received broadcast opportunities that would make some college teams envious. In 2018, the school partnered with CBS Sports Digital to have its entire football schedule streamed on collegesportslive.com.

Colorado: Cherry Creek High School

City: Greenwood Village

Year opened: 1965

Type of school: Public

Enrollment: 3,573

Best sport: Tennis

Bottom Line: Cherry Creek High School

Located just outside of Denver, Cherry Creek employed Broncos legend John Elway in 2007 as the football team’s quarterbacks coach when his son was under center. But while the football team has claimed nine state titles, it pales in comparison to the school’s tennis program for both boys and girls.

The boys' tennis team won 316 consecutive matches from 1972 to 2000, a national record for the sport. Over a 44-year stretch, the boys’ tennis team won 41 state titles while the girls’ tennis team claimed 30 state titles over a 37-year stretch.

Connecticut: Glastonbury High School

City: Glastonbury

Year opened: 1953

Type of school: Public

Enrollment: 1,991

Best sport: Soccer

Bottom Line: Glastonbury High School

Located in Hartford County, Glastonbury calls itself "a proud soccer town," and the sport is the heartbeat of the city. The city put its money where its mouth is. In 2017, they built a new $1.6 million artificial turf field to house Glastonbury High School’s soccer teams.

The school’s teams are the primary occupants, but the field also hosts various youth soccer clubs and organizations. Glastonbury High’s soccer teams were successful before the new field, winning 14 state titles between the boys and girls teams, and they are sure to remain successful for years to come.

Delaware: Newark High School

City: Newark

Year opened: 1893

Type of school: Public

Enrollment: 1,150

Best sport: Football

Bottom Line: Newark High School

With about 40 state championships over 10 different sports, Newark High is the cream of the high school crop of "The First State."

Football leads the way for Newark, winning 10 state championships in the sport, the most of any Delaware high school.

Newark has sent six players to the NFL, and the sheer size of these future pros made University of Delaware Hall of Fame coach Tubby Raymond say, "I’m looking at your linemen, and they’re bigger than mine."

Florida: The Bolles School

City: Jacksonville

Year opened: 1933

Type of school: Private

Tuition: $55,630 (boarding), $27,240 (day)

Enrollment: 1,800 (preK-12)

Best sport: Swimming

Bottom Line: The Bolles School

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.

Georgia: Parkview High School

A scoreboard touts the accomplishments of the Parkview High School baseball team.

City: Lilburn

Year opened: 1976

Type of school: Public

Enrollment: 2,984

Best sport: Baseball

Bottom Line: Parkview High School

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.

Hawaii: Punahou School

City: Honolulu

Year opened: 1841

Type of school: Private

Tuition: $24,780

Enrollment: 3,750 (K-12)

Best sport: Basketball

Bottom Line: Punahou School

Punahou School is best known for being the alma mater of Barack Obama, and the former president won a basketball state title in 1979. That is one of the 500-plus state championships the school has won, which the school claims it is the most of any high school in the nation.

Student-athletes in Hawaii know they need to find a way to end up at Punahou if they want to be part of a top-notch athletics program.

For the 2016-17 academic year, the school finished second in the national MaxPreps Cup standings. The standings are determined by state titles and runner-up finishes, and Punahou finished in the top two in 17 of their 30 teams for that year.

Idaho: Boise High School

City: Boise

Year opened: 1902

Type of school: Public

Enrollment: 1,546

Best sport: Football

Bottom Line: Boise High School

A three-year high school (grades 10-12), Boise High has 17 sanctioned sports and has won more than 50 State Championship Banners between all of them.

The football team used to play on the famous blue "Smurf Turf" on Boise State’s campus and would attract upward of 30,000 fans. With Idaho neighboring Oregon, whose unofficial state sport is running, track and field plus cross country are also popular at Boise High.

Illinois: Mount Carmel High School

City: Chicago

Year opened: 1900

Type of school: Private

Tuition: $12,200

Enrollment: 850

Best sport: Football

Bottom Line: Mount Carmel High School

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.

Indiana: Pike High School

City: Indianapolis

Year opened: 1892

Type of school: Public

Enrollment: 3,306

Best sport: Basketball

Bottom Line: Pike High School

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.

Iowa: Washington High School

City: Cedar Rapids

Year opened: 1956

Type of school: Public

Enrollment: 1,333

Best sports: Swimming and diving

Bottom Line: Washington High School

Best known for being Ashton Kutcher’s high school, Washington High’s second billing goes to their dominant swimming and diving teams.

The school has won at least 27 state championships, with all of them coming since 1961. This success includes a stretch of 11 straight titles and two other streaks of at least four straight championship wins.

It’s not like it’s been all or nothing when it comes to the swimming and diving teams, either. They’ve finished runner-up at least 10 times in program history.

Kansas: Lawrence High School

City: Lawrence

Year opened: 1857

Type of school: Public

Enrollment: 1,609

Best sport: Football

Bottom Line: Lawrence High School

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.

Kentucky: St. Xavier High School

City: Louisville

Year opened: 1864

Type of school: Private

Tuition: $14,325

Enrollment: 1,334

Best sport: Football

Bottom Line: St. Xavier High School

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.

Louisiana: Jesuit High School

City: New Orleans

Year opened: 1849

Type of school: Private

Tuition: $9,150

Enrollment: 1,372

Best sport: Baseball

Bottom Line: Jesuit High School

Jesuit hitter — Jesuit High School won its first baseball state title in 1946.

Founded in 1847, Jesuit High School made its mark in Louisiana high school sports history 99 years later. In 1946, the Jesuit Blue Jays had four teams that won the state championship and went undefeated in their respective sports.

One of those sports was baseball, and the diamond is where Jesuit has had its most success. The school has won 26 baseball state championships.

Additionally, Jesuit has participated in American Legion Baseball a number of times and won several American League Baseball state championships.

Maine: Waynflete School

City: Portland

Year opened: 1897

Type of school: Private

Tuition: $32,820

Enrollment: 584 (preK-12)

Best sport: Lacrosse

Bottom Line: Waynflete School

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.

Maryland: Gilman School

Gilman High School — Gilman has a strong lacrosse program.

City: Baltimore

Year opened: 1897

Type of school: Private

Tuition: $30,550

Enrollment: 1,015

Best sport: Lacrosse

Bottom Line: Gilman School

Located just 3 miles from lacrosse powerhouse Johns Hopkins University, Gilman School is trying to become the high school version of JHU.

Gilman's prestigious lacrosse program has reached the No. 1 national ranking for multiple years. The Gilman Greyhounds have won 11 lacrosse state championships in addition to numerous MIAA conference titles.

Gilman also has experienced success in a number of other sports, winning at least 10 state titles in basketball, football, tennis and wrestling.

Massachusetts: Cushing Academy

City: Ashburnham

Year opened: 1865

Type of school: Private

Tuition: $61,500 (boarding), $41,800 (day)

Enrollment: 390

Best sport: Hockey

Bottom Line: Cushing Academy

With a tuition for boarding students that exceeds $60,000, Cushing is one of the most expensive schools in the country. Their students are supplied with world-class facilities, including a hockey rink that NHL players used during the lockout.

Cushing Academy’s boys' hockey team has produced dozens of professional players, won two New England Elite championships and 21 in-season tournaments.

Hall of Famer Ray Bourque was so impressed with the school and the hockey team that he served as a volunteer coach for the squad after hanging up his skates.

Michigan: Muskegon High School

Musekgon High School — The Muskegon football team won the state championship in 2017.

City: Muskegon

Year opened: 1872

Type of school: Public

Enrollment: 975

Best sport: Football

Bottom Line: Muskegon High School

Located a stone’s throw from Lake Michigan, Muskegon High School has the most successful high school football program in the state.

The school leads Michigan in state titles, and four of those have come since 2004. But Muskegon’s accomplishments also match up with any high school across the country, as its 800-plus all-time wins are in the top 10 most of any high school.

The school’s most notable alum is former NFL quarterback Earl Morrall, who was MVP of the league in 1968 and won three Super Bowls in his career.

Minnesota: Cretin-Derham Hall High School

Cretin-Durham Hall baseball team — The Cretin-Durham Hall baseball program has a tradition of success.

City: Saint Paul

Year opened: 1871

Type of school: Private

Tuition: $13,575

Enrollment: 1,030

Best sport: Baseball

Bottom Line: Cretin-Derham Hall High School

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.

Mississippi: Jackson Academy

City: Jackson

Year opened: 1959

Type of school: Private

Tuition: $15,900

Enrollment: 1,250 (K-12)

Best sport: Basketball

Bottom Line: Jackson Academy

As the largest independent school in Mississippi, Jackson Academy has a lot of student-athletes. But what makes its girls’ basketball program so special is head coach Jan Sojourner.

Sojourner has spent over 30 years leading the program and has racked up at least 11 state championships during her time.

Her teams have posted a winning record in all but one of her years there, and she’s been named the Clarion-Ledger State Coach of the Year at least twice.

Missouri: Christian Brothers College High School

City: St. Louis

Year opened: 1850

Type of school: Private

Tuition: $14,700

Enrollment: 840

Best sport: Hockey

Bottom Line: Christian Brothers College High School

When you think of St. Louis, baseball usually is the first sport that comes to mind. Christian Brothers College High does have a successful program on the diamond — winning two state titles — but that pales in comparison to its hockey program.

The CBC ice hockey team has 17 state titles, including 13 since 2000. It has two separate three-peats over that stretch as well as a four-peat from 2014 to 2017.

The school also has sent two players to the NHL, Philip McRae and Joe Vitale, and both players have gone on to play or work for the hometown St. Louis Blues.

Montana: Butte High School

City: Butte

Year opened: 1896

Type of school: Public

Enrollment: 1,199

Best sport: Football

Bottom Line: Butte High School

Montana fields more six-man football teams than any other state besides Texas, but the normal 11-man variety earns Butte High its spot on this list.

The Butte Bulldogs have won 26 state titles in football. Most of those championships came before World War II, but Butte High also has had a sustained level of dominance by winning at least one championship in 10 different decades.

Nebraska: Creighton Prep

City: Omaha

Year opened: 1878

Type of school: Private

Tuition: $10,580

Enrollment: 1,020

Best sport: Swimming

Bottom Line: Creighton Prep

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.

Nevada: Bishop Gorman

City: Las Vegas

Year opened: 1954

Type of school: Private

Tuition: $14,000

Enrollment: 1,500

Best sport: Football

Bottom Line: Bishop Gorman

Bishop Gorman quarterback Tate Martell was one of the most highly recruited players in the country in 2017.

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.

New Hampshire: Phillips Exeter Academy

City: Exeter

Year opened: 1781

Type of school: Private

Tuition: $55,402 (boarding), $43,272 (day)

Enrollment: 1,079

Best sports: Water polo and swimming

Bottom Line: Phillips Exeter Academy

Phillips Exeter Academy has a tradition of winning in the water. The boys’ water polo team has won at least 22 New England prep school championships while the boys’ swimming team at one point went to 17 straight championships, winning 15 of them.

Exeter puts a strong emphasis on its water sports, and that’s evident by the school having two Olympic-sized swimming pools on campus.

Additionally, Phillips is one of the few high schools in the nation with a state-of-the-art sports science lab that rivals many Division I college programs.

New Jersey: Don Bosco Prep

City: Ramsey

Year opened: 1915

Type of school: Private

Tuition: $16,935

Enrollment: 850

Best sport: Football

Bottom Line: Don Bosco Prep

Football is the sport that powers Don Bosco’s athletics program. With four active NFL players, Bosco’s NFL alumni rival those of many collegiate programs.

The Bosco Ironmen have won 15 state championships and are the only New Jersey high school to win the national championship in football, and they’ve done it twice.

Bosco was one of the first high school programs to play a national schedule, and they traveled everywhere from California to Alabama to Florida and more to compile a 26-8 out-of-state record.

New Mexico: La Cueva High School

City: Albuquerque

Year opened: 1986

Type of school: Public

Enrollment: 1,784

Best sports: Soccer, tennis and baseball

Bottom Line: La Cueva High School

Some schools on this list have been around for over 100 years, but La Cueva is only a millennial — it opened in 1986.

Still, though, over that span, the school has won more than 115 state championships, which is already the second-most in New Mexico high school history.

La Cueva is a school of streaks as the boys’ tennis team won nine straight state titles, the girls’ soccer team won seven straight state titles and the baseball team set a national record by winning 70 straight games.

New York: Archbishop Molloy

City: New York City

Year opened: 1957

Type of school: Private

Tuition: $9,200

Enrollment: 1,490

Best sport: Basketball

Bottom Line: Archbishop Molloy

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.

North Carolina: Shelby High School

City: Shelby

Year opened: 1877

Type of school: Public

Enrollment: 849

Best sports: Football and basketball

Bottom Line: Shelby High School

North Carolina is known as a hotbed for amateur basketball, from UNC and Duke all the way down to the high school level. But the prestige of the state’s high school football programs shouldn’t be overlooked, and one of the most prominent football teams in the nation resides just outside of Charlotte.

Shelby High School is one of 22 high schools in the country that have won at least 800 games. The school ranked 12th all-time in wins entering the 2020 season, with 826 victories. The school also has won at least 17 state championships.

North Dakota: Red River High School

City: Grand Forks

Year opened: 1967

Type of school: Public

Enrollment: 1,121

Best sport: Tennis

Bottom Line: Red River High School

Since Red River High School was established in 1967, they have pretty much had a stranglehold on tennis for both boys and girls.

Over the last 50 years, Red River High has won 50 total state titles in tennis. The boys’ team has claimed 28 championships while the girls have won 22 championships. The two teams also won 13 straight from 2002-14.

Ohio: Archbishop Moeller High School

City: Cincinnati

Year opened: 1960

Type of school: Private

Tuition: $13,850

Enrollment: 880

Best sports: Football and baseball

Bottom Line: Archbishop Moeller High School

Pick out the standout sport for most schools is easy. But that’s not the case with Archbishop Moeller due to its success in both football and baseball.

The gridiron gang racked up nine state titles and five national championships in the 1970s and 1980s. Only three other high school in the country have claimed more national titles in football than Moeller’s five.

The baseball team has also won nine state titles, with the most recent being in 2023, and the alumni to come from the diamond are unrivaled. Barry Larkin is a local product who went from Moeller to the Reds to the Hall of Fame. But he's not even the best player from the school. Ken Griffey Jr. succeeded Larkin at Moeller and was named the high school baseball player of the year in 1987.

Oklahoma: Broken Arrow High School

City: Broken Arrow

Year opened: 1904

Type of school: Public

Enrollment: 3,853

Best sport: Wrestling

Bottom Line: Broken Arrow High School

Oklahoma State dominates the amateur wrestling scene and has won 30-plus NCAA championships, so it's no surprise that Broken Arrow, about an hour’s drive from OSU, dominates the high school wrestling scene.

Broken Arrow High School has won at least 16 team state championships and 61 individual state championships in high school wrestling. The school's practice facility has more than 9,000 square feet of wrestling mats, rivaling that of Penn State, which has won at least eight NCAA wrestling championships.

Oregon: Central Catholic High School

City: Portland

Year opened: 1939

Type of school: Private

Tuition: $18,200

Enrollment: 921

Best sport: Cross country

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.

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.

Pennsylvania: St. Joseph’s Preparatory School

City: Philadelphia

Year opened: 1851

Type of school: Private

Tuition: $23,900

Enrollment: 890

Best sport: Crew

Bottom Line: St. Joseph's Preparatory School

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.

Rhode Island: La Salle Academy

City: Providence

Year opened: 1871

Type of school: Private

Tuition: $15,400

Enrollment: 1,560 (6-12)

Best sport: Football, gymnastics, lacrosse

Bottom Line: La Salle Academy

Rhode Island — La Salle Academy's boys lacrosse team won seven straight state titles from 2012 to 2018.

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.

South Carolina: Bishop England

Bishop England High School — The 2018 Bishop England girls volleyball team.

City: Charleston

Year opened: 1915

Type of school: Private

Tuition: $9,900

Enrollment: 730

Best sport: Volleyball

Bottom Line: Bishop England

High school seniors are 17 to 18 years old. So, when Bishop England’s run of 18 straight volleyball state titles came to an end in 2018, most players weren’t born when the streak began. Still, the Bishop England Battling Bishops held the national record of 28 state championships in volleyball.

The school has about 150 titles in all, and it has won 17 straight South Carolina Director’s Cups. Being the football-crazed state that South Carolina is, the football team also won two state titles back-to-back in 2011 and 2012.

South Dakota: Washington High School

City: Sioux Falls

Year opened: 1908

Type of school: Public

Enrollment: 1,949

Best sport: Football

Bottom Line: Washington High School

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.

Tennessee: Baylor School

City: Chattanooga

Year opened: 1893

Type of school: Private

Tuition: $50,300 (boarding), $24,700 (day)

Enrollment: 1,040 (6-12)

Best sport: Golf

Bottom Line: Baylor School

Baylor golf — Baylor had a tradition of golf champions.

Not to be confused with Baylor University, Baylor School is located about halfway between Nashville and Atlanta.

The athletic facilities at Baylor School rival those at its university namesake as well as many other Division I programs. On the Baylor School campus is a tennis center that has 19 courts, an aquatic center with an Olympic-sized swimming pool and even a six-hole short course for the golf team.

That course has propelled the boys' and girls' golf teams to 35-plus combined state championships over the last 30 years.

Texas: Allen High School

City: Allen

Year opened: 1910

Type of school: Public

Enrollment: 5,100

Best sport: Football

Bottom Line: Allen High School

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.

Utah: Highland High School

City: Salt Lake City

Year opened: 1956

Type of school: Public

Enrollment: 1,682

Best sport: Rugby

Bottom Line: Highland High School

Highland High School rugby coach Larry Gelwix and his teams were the subject of a movie.

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.

Vermont: Arlington Memorial High School

City: Arlington

Year opened: 1941

Type of school: Public

Enrollment: 220 (6-12)

Best sport: Soccer

Bottom Line: Arlington Memorial High School

When it comes to heavyweight sports such as football and basketball, Vermont is the least-represented state in the major sports leagues. It has produced just seven NFL players and one NBA player, all-time, and both of those are the fewest of any sport.

But soccer is a popular and thriving sport in "The Green Mountain State," and the Arlington Eagles have developed highly successful boys and girls soccer programs. Both teams have been competing neck-and-neck for supremacy as they each have won at least eight state championships, including dual titles in 2018. It was the boys’ first title since 1995 while the girls repeated after also winning in 2017.

Virginia: Hampton High School

City: Hampton

Year opened: 1875

Type of school: Public

Enrollment: 1,479

Best sport: Football

Bottom Line: Hampton High School

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.

Washington: James A. Garfield High School

City: Seattle

Year opened: 1920

Type of school: Public

Enrollment: 1,712

Best sport: Basketball

Bottom Line: James A. Garfield High School

With its rainy climate, the most popular sports in Washington are those that take place indoors, and the state has become a hotbed for pro basketball players.

Garfield High has emerged as the cream of the crop when it comes to prep basketball. Look at their about 15 state championships, the most in Washington history.

Garfield has produced many standout athletes, including former NBA star Brandon Roy and women’s basketball star Joyce Walker, who became the third woman to play for the Harlem Globetrotters.

Washington, D.C.: Jackson-Reed High School

Woodrow Wilson High School — The Wilson Tigers baseball team.

City: Washington D.C.

Year opened: 1935

Type of school: Public

Enrollment: 1,829

Best sport: Baseball

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."

West Virginia: Parkersburg High School

City: Parkersburg

Year opened: 1867

Type of school: Public

Enrollment: 1,783

Best sport: Football

Bottom Line: Parkersburg High School

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.

Wisconsin: Marquette University High School

City: Milwaukee

Year opened: 1857

Type of school: Private

Tuition: $13,525

Enrollment: 1,028

Best sport: Soccer

Bottom Line: Marquette University High School

On the outskirts of Marquette University’s campus, Marquette University High School has won over 130 state championships since opening in 1857. The school's success has spanned multiple sports — winning state titles in lacrosse, volleyball and track and field.

But its most successful program is soccer as the boys have won at least 24 state championships. That includes a decade of utter dominance, winning 10 straight from 1994 to 2003.

The MUHS Hilltoppers soccer team also was ranked the No. 1 team in the country twice by the National Soccer Coaches Association of America.

Wyoming: Sheridan High School

City: Sheridan

Year opened: 1892

Type of school: Public

Enrollment: 973

Best sport: Football

Bottom Line: Sheridan High School

Wyoming is one of the 11 states which fields six-man football teams, but the Sheridan High School squad is your typical 11-man football team.

Sheridan has had two eras of dominance on the way to its 25-plus state titles, which is the most in Wyoming. The school won 14 titles from 1921 to 1958 and then had a 23-year drought without any championships.

But it regained its winning form in 1982 and has won several more since then.