Interesting Discussion Topic: Top High School Athtletic Programs (By State)

[MylesKnight]

CNN/SI.com - The Top High School Athletic Programs in America



Here it is: the most selective ranking in all of sports. Of the more than 38,000 high schools in the U.S., fewer than one in a thousand made SI's list honoring schools with the nation's top athletic programs. Our criteria emphasized all-around excellence during the last 10 years and included state titles won and college athletes produced. Here are the the top schools from all 50 states plus the District of Columbia.

ALABAMA: Hoover
Since 2000, the Bucs have won 30 state Class 6A titles (including 38 during the last decade). Their nationally ranked football program has played in the last five Class 6A finals and won four state titles.

ALASKA: Service (Anchorage)
The school has won 14 boys' and girls' skiing titles and 44 state championships in 11 sports over the last decade.

ARIZONA: Mountain View (Mesa)
The Toros have won 21 state championships in 10 sports over the last decade, including four in football, four in boys' track, three in boys' basketball and three in girls' track.

ARKANSAS: Fayetteville
The girls' gymnastics team has won eight straight state titles. Overall the school has won a state-best 24 state championships since 1996.

CALIFORNIA: Poly (Long Beach)
The top-ranked Jackrabbits live up to their nickname with 14 state boys' and girls' track titles during the last decade. They've also sent four-dozen players to the NFL

COLORADO: Cherry Creek (Greenwood Village)
Dominant state tennis program (19 girls' and boys' titles during the last 10 years) has 50 titles in 15 sports.

CONNECTICUT: Daniel Hand (Madison)
Football, track and soccer are the most successful of the 10 sports programs that have won state titles during the last decade.

DELAWARE: St. Mark's (Wilmington)
Dominant soccer and girls' swimming programs are responsible for 18 of the school's 45 state crowns last decade.

DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA: St. John's
The Cadets' 18-sport program traditionally is the most successful one in D.C. and produces numerous college-bound athletes.

FLORIDA: Saint Thomas Aquinas (Fort Lauderdale)
No. 3-ranked national program's football stadium is named for alum Brian Piccolo. Twelve sports have won 49 state titles during the last decade, including 23 of 32 girls' titles in swimming, soccer and track.

GEORGIA: Parkview (Lilburn)
All-sports power has been the team to beat in Georgia over the last decade in football, baseball and soccer. Hometown Braves drafted Panther legend Jeff Francoeur at No. 1 in 2002.

HAWAII: Punahou (Honolulu)
The school has been dominant in in swimming, track, volleyball, tennis and soccer, with 70 state crowns over the past 10 years.

IDAHO: Bishop Kelly (Boise)
Tennis is the top sport at Bishop Kelly, which has won 24 state titles in 10 sports since 1996.

ILLINOIS: New Trier (Winnetka)
The Chicago-area school has won 23 state titles during the last decade and is dominant in tennis, golf, swimming, soccer and badminton.

INDIANA: Carmel
The best program in the Hoosier State has won 36 state titles in nine sports over the last decade, including 18 in girls' swimming and girls' soccer.

IOWA: Iowa City
With 22 state titles sicne 1996 in track and cross-country this school runs away from its competition in the Hawkeye State.
KANSAS: Bishop Miege (Shawnee Mission)
Kansas' top program boasts a dominant Class 5A girls basketball program. The school has 15 state crowns in the last 10 years.

KENTUCKY: St. Xavier (Louisville)
St. Xavier is the best in the Bluegrass State because of its 36 boys' titles in eight sports during the last decade. Swimming and tennis have won 18 crowns.

LOUISIANA: West Monroe
The Northern Louisiana school is best known for its football prowess the last decade but has also been a state champion, and contender, in several other sports, including softball and girls' basketball.

MAINE: Bangor
Maine's largest school is a power in boys basketball and swimming. Bangor has 20 state titles over the last decade.

MARYLAND: DeMatha (Hyattsville)
This all-boys Catholic school isn't eligible for state titles, but it has won 73 of 125 titles in 13 sports in the Washington D.C. metro conference. The Stags are best known for their nationally ranked basketball and football programs.

MASSACHUSETTS: Brockton
The Boxers are the state's largest school and have the Bay State's all-time winningest football program. They also boast the top boys track program and are a perennial contender in multiple sports.

MICHIGAN: Marquette
School has 165 overall state titles in its trophy case. Nine boys' swimming crowns are among the 37 championships it has won during the last decade.

MINNESOTA: Edina
The biggest power in Minnesota, they have won 91 state crowns since 1950, including 31 in the last 10 years.

MISSISSIPPI: Tupelo
No school comes close to Tupelo, which has won the state All-Sports Award 13 of the last 16 years.

MISSOURI: St. Joseph's Academy (St. Louis)
The all-girls school has captured 18 state titles during the last decade in tennis, soccer, golf, volleyball and basketball.

MONTANA: Capital (Helena)
With 10 state soccer titles in its trophy case, Capital's 22 overall championships are Montana's best during the past decade.

NEBRASKA: Southeast (Lincoln)
This is an easy call. Southeast won or shared the state's Class A All-Sports award every year from 1992-2003.

NEVADA: Green Valley (Henderson)
A strong spring sports menu, topped by baseball, anchors a program that has won 35 state crowns in the last 10 years.

NEW HAMPSHIRE: Central (Manchester)
Football, girls track and cross country are the most successful programs for Central, which has won 31 state titles in the last 10 years.

NEW JERSEY: Bergen Catholic (Oradell)
The Crusaders are best known for their football program -- they've won six state crowns in the last decade -- but are also strong in wrestling, baseball and swimming.

NEW MEXICO: La Cueva (Albuquerque)
The Bears have won 47 state titles in 15 sports during the last decade and the state's all-sports Director's Cup for boys eight times and girls seven times. This spring, the baseball team set national record with 70 straight wins.

NEW YORK: St. Anthony's (South Huntington)
The Long Island school has won 18 league titles, plus several state championships, in the last 10 years. The most dominant programs are football, lacrosse, track, cross country and girls soccer.

NORTH CAROLINA: East Chapel Hill
Eight-year-old school has won 33 state championships and has earned the state's All-Sports award for Class 3-A five of last six years.

NORTH DAKOTA: Red River (Grand Forks)
Thirty-six state titles in the last decade include 14 in tennis -- eight boys', six girls'.

OHIO: St. Ignatius (Cleveland)
The Crusaders have one of the nation's top football programs -- they've won six state Division 1 titles since 1991 -- but also are state contenders in baseball, boys' basketball and boys' soccer.

OKLAHOMA: Jenks
The Trojans won 10 all-sport state titles in 2003-04 and have 62 over the last eight years. A nationally ranked football team won six straight state Class 6A crowns from 1996-01.

OREGON: Jesuit (Portland)
School has won 21 state titles -- 16 in soccer, cross country, tennis -- during the last 10 years.

PENNSYLVANIA: North Penn (Lansdale)
This suburban Philadelphia school, which has won 45 state championships over the last 10 years, is a power in football and is also dominant in boys' swimming.

RHODE ISLAND: LaSalle Academy (Providence)
Private school has won 208 overall state championships and isn't slowing down.

SOUTH CAROLINA: Bishop England (Charleston)
Boys' and girls' soccer and tennis teams have accounted for 17 of the school's 32 state titles over the last 10 years.

SOUTH DAKOTA: Stevens (Rapid City)
Patriots kicker Adam Vinatieri's alma mater has 28 titles in track or cross country. Overall, school has 45 state crowns in 10 years.

TENNESSEE: Baylor School (Chattanooga)
The private school has captured 51 state titles over the last decade, including 28 in boys' and girls' golf, wrestling and girls soccer.

TEXAS: Highland Park (Dallas)
The alma mater of Doak Walker has 30 state titles in nine sports the last 10 years, including six in girls' cross country.

UTAH: Mountain View (Orem)
The Bruins' strong girls program has won 28 of the school's 43 state crowns the last decade, including 10 track, eight in basketball and six in cross country.

VERMONT: Essex
The state's largest school also has the biggest trophy case, with 54 state titles in the last 10 years.

VIRGINIA: Brentsville District (Nokesville)
With 18 state titles, including 12 in girls' cross country and wrestling, this Group AA school is in a class of its own.

WASHINGTON: King's (Seattle)
The Seattle-area school has won 22 state titles over the last 10 years.

WEST VIRGINIA: Parkersburg
The Reds have won 23 state titles in 11 sports during the last decade to boost their all-time record to 125 crowns.

WISCONSIN: Arrowhead (Hartland)
This suburban Milwaukee school is dominant in swimming and football and has won 13 state titles over the last 10 years.

WYOMING: Campbell County (Gillette)
Campbell blew by the competition with 79 state titles in the last decade. Twenty-six of them are girls' sports, including cross-country, basketball and gymnastics.

[Ben E Lou]

I wonder how closely enrollment ties to these schools' excellence. In terms of average enrollment during the last 10 years, Parkview would have to be among the top 2 or 3 in Georgia--and my best guess is that the other 1 or 2 schools up there with them would also be the closest runners-up.

[wade moore]

Brenstville?! Give me a FREAKIN break...

Brensville was within 20 minutes of where I grew up.. notice it says it is AA... Virginia goes up to AAAAAA.... how the hell can you count a rinky-dink AA school as the best in the state?!

[Coffee Warlord]

I now take slightly more pride in saying my relay team kicked the shit out of New Trier's at the state swimming final back in the ole' HS days.

[digamma]

Originally Posted by SkyDog

I wonder how closely enrollment ties to these schools' excellence. In terms of average enrollment during the last 10 years, Parkview would have to be among the top 2 or 3 in Georgia--and my best guess is that the other 1 or 2 schools up there with them would also be the closest runners-up.

Parkview was 6th or 7th in their top 25 high schools. Marist was 15th.

[Ben E Lou]

Originally Posted by digamma

Parkview was 6th or 7th in their top 25 high schools. Marist was 15th.

I saw it. I was doing a good job of ignoring it. Thanks for bringing it up, jerk.

[Ben E Lou]

Dola:

Hmmmmmmmm.....I wonder how many copies of that SI I could get ahold of. I bet they'd make nice fodder for a post-game bonfire on September 16th.

[digamma]

Originally Posted by SkyDog

Dola:

Hmmmmmmmm.....I wonder how many copies of that SI I could get ahold of. I bet they'd make nice fodder for a post-game bonfire on September 16th.

I can send you one!

[Ben E Lou]

Originally Posted by digamma

I can send you one!

I haven't opened mine.





Seriously.

[Balldog]

Can't really argue with the Ohio selection, though I would have said Cincinnati Moeller.

[CHEMICAL SOLDIER]

NEVADA: Green Valley (Henderson)
A strong spring sports menu, topped by baseball, anchors a program that has won 35 state crowns in the last 10 years.
Bah! Thiose snooty Gators. they havent won the only title that matters (State Football crown) in a decade. They used to be a QB farm, producing toip flight qb's for UNLV and UNR. Mc Queen up in Reno has been dominant the past 18 years. I swear when we played them their OL were all 360 lbs. Hawaiian guys.

[Radii]

Originally Posted by wade moore

Brenstville?! Give me a FREAKIN break...

Brensville was within 20 minutes of where I grew up.. notice it says it is AA... Virginia goes up to AAAAAA.... how the hell can you count a rinky-dink AA school as the best in the state?!

Same thing in North Carolina... the #1 school is a 3A school, NC used to go up to 4A and may be 5A by now. That's like saying a dominant I-AA football team has a better program than USC or something.

[Young Drachma]

I want to see the whole list. Like the state breakdowns and all that. Might head to the store to read it.

[MylesKnight]

But keep in mind fellas, this is not a one or two sport based ranking.

I agree there are flaws.. Hell, it's basically impossible to do a ranking like this in the vast majority of cases.. But I feel like it's good to give some of the smaller schools out there some props for their achievements.

Bigger does not always equal better.

[JeeberD]

Originally Posted by Dark Cloud

I want to see the whole list. Like the state breakdowns and all that. Might head to the store to read it.

Don't waste your money. It only lists their top 25 schools overall and then the top school by state...the same list that MK posted.

[MylesKnight]

Originally Posted by SkyDog

I saw it. I was doing a good job of ignoring it. Thanks for bringing it up, jerk.

You guys must be members of SI Elite. Must be nice..

I would like to see that listing, and pictures, of the nicest High School Facilities though. I remember seeing a picture somewhere of a High School Stadium that sits right next to a lake and is actually built into a hillside (thinking Washington State maybe). It was very cool indeed.

[Ben E Lou]

Originally Posted by MylesKnight

You guys must be members of SI Elite. Must be nice..

Although I've been accused of being a #$%&^*( elitist, I am not a member of that particular elite. It has been in the newspapers here, and brought up on both the UGA message boards and the Georgia high school football message boards.

[VPI97]

Originally Posted by wade moore

Brenstville?! Give me a FREAKIN break...

Brensville was within 20 minutes of where I grew up.. notice it says it is AA... Virginia goes up to AAAAAA.... how the hell can you count a rinky-dink AA school as the best in the state?!

I have never even heard of Brentsville.

Also, when did Virginia start going up to AAAAAA? AAA was the max when I went to high school.

[Wolfpack]

Originally Posted by Radii

Same thing in North Carolina... the #1 school is a 3A school, NC used to go up to 4A and may be 5A by now. That's like saying a dominant I-AA football team has a better program than USC or something.

Actually, it's still 4-A but more complicated than that. At least for football (maybe other sports), there are actually 8 separate winners now instead of four, two for each class. Basically, a few years back, NCHSAA decided it would be fairer to the smaller schools in each class if they got their own tournament to compete in. The upshot is that the number of teams to qualify doubled from 128 to 256 (I think), which means just about anyone who fields a team and gets maybe 4 or 5 wins in a season in NC makes the postseason. Once all qualifiers are determined for each class, they're broken down into the largest and smallest schools in each class, so now instead of a 4-A title, it's a 4-AA and a 4-A title for schools at the 4-A level. (Which makes silly sense because I've seen titles at my high school that read "AAA champions", which would mean 4-AA is literally AAAAAAAA, or four "double A"s, or 8-A, actually, and that a 1-AA is equal to a 2-A, but I'm massively digressing....) At least they smartened up and spread all eight title games to each of the Big Four stadiums to play.

[MrBug708]

Long Beach Poly is a heck of a school Of course, being a fan of a local college, LBP football players have a rep of being thugs. The rest of the school is rather nice however and damn good at most sports

[wade moore]

Originally Posted by VPI97

I have never even heard of Brentsville.

Also, when did Virginia start going up to AAAAAA? AAA was the max when I went to high school.

I was in HS from 93-97 and we were in 6A... i know when we won state championship football in '90 we were 6A also.. seems weird.. guessing if you graduated from VPI in 97, you were in high school in '90....

FWIW, I went to Gar-Field HS.

[VPI97]

Originally Posted by wade moore

I was in HS from 93-97 and we were in 6A... i know when we won state championship football in '90 we were 6A also.. seems weird.. guessing if you graduated from VPI in 97, you were in high school in '90....

FWIW, I went to Gar-Field HS.

Maybe it's just different terminology...in football, teams were split up into six classifications that we referred as Big-A, Small-A, etc. For instance, we won the '89 State Championship in Small-AA...which would be AAA by your terminology. But when it came to wrestling and baseball, we competed against all the other AA schools in the state tournaments with no split.

Was it like that when you were in school? Six classifications for football and three for every other sport?

I'm Graham High class of '92

[wade moore]

Umm ... I don't think so...

Here is another possibility though...

I have NO idea where Graham is.. but you were talkinga bout competing in AA, AAA, etc... is it possibly that you just did not have any 6A schools where you were? I think most of them are located in Northern Virginia with some in Richmond and Virginia Beach...

.....

just searched vhsl.org.... maybe i'm just insane..

Q. Are League schools organized into smaller groupings based on geography and size?
A. Yes. To equalize opportunities, schools are classified by enrollment into one of three divisions -- Group A (smallest), Group AA (middle) or Group AAA (largest). Each group is subdivided into four geographical regions, each consisting normally of three districts, with an average of seven schools per district.

[wade moore]

Yup... looks like i'm crazy...

http://www.vhsl.org/0507RRPLAN.doc

Wow.. see something interesting out of this.. unless I'm missing something, my school is THE largest school in the state (2724 students) ... looks like a whopping 481 at Graham?

[VPI97]

Originally Posted by wade moore

I have NO idea where Graham is.. but you were talkinga bout competing in AA, AAA, etc... is it possibly that you just did not have any 6A schools where you were? I think most of them are located in Northern Virginia with some in Richmond and Virginia Beach...

I grew up in the western part of the state...and yeah, there were no AAA schools west of Roanoke when I was in school. I think Salem High is AAA now, though, and they're just outside of Roanoke.

Yes. To equalize opportunities, schools are classified by enrollment into one of three divisions -- Group A (smallest), Group AA (middle) or Group AAA (largest).

This is how I remember it, so I agree that you are insane. We had the split to six championships for football, but every other sport competed in one of those three classifications.

[VPI97]

Originally Posted by wade moore

Wow.. see something interesting out of this.. unless I'm missing something, my school is THE largest school in the state (2724 students) ... looks like a whopping 481 at Graham?

That sounds about right...although I don't know if we even had 400 when I was in school. We should have been classified as single A and, as a result, would have racked up three state championships while I was on the team.

[judicial clerk]

I like how they tout Long Beach Poly's track program and then kind of toss in the four dozen nfl players the school has produced. Just so you know that they aren't all about track.

I would like to see this list but just for football.

[wade moore]

Originally Posted by VPI97

That sounds about right...although I don't know if we even had 400 when I was in school. We should have been classified as single A and, as a result, would have racked up three state championships while I was on the team.

We did well in sports, but not quite good enough to be 'best in the state' probably..

I must be thinking of football, because I keep picturing the state championship banner on the football scoreboard..

[mtolson]

Originally Posted by MylesKnight

CNN/SI.com - The Top High School Athletic Programs in America



DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA: St. John's
The Cadets' 18-sport program traditionally is the most successful one in D.C. and produces numerous college-bound athletes.

MARYLAND: DeMatha (Hyattsville)
This all-boys Catholic school isn't eligible for state titles, but it has won 73 of 125 titles in 13 sports in the Washington D.C. metro conference. The Stags are best known for their nationally ranked basketball and football programs.

DC is kind of hard given they have a very small number of high schools. Selecting St. Johns is kind of odd though being the St. Johns and DeMatha are in the same conference and DeMatha wins 73 out of 125 titles. That leaves St. Johns with how many ??? Seems like they just picked a name out of a hat for DC. I always thought of St. Johns as the place to go if you couldn't cut it at DeMatha.

I would have gone with gone with Spingarn for DC. They have produced Elgin Baylor, Dave Bing and Sherman Douglas.

DeMatha '85

[TroyF]

The Colorado and Oklahoma selections hit it perfectly IMO. I had them before I looked them up.

Cherry Creek in Colorado is a "rich kid" school. They excel in tennis, golf, soccer, etc. and also always put up a strong football team. They are being overtaken in football a bit, but they are always a threat to win the state title.

Jenks is a powerhouse. Solid up and down the line, nearly every sport. Their football team is terrific to watch if you like HS football.

[wade moore]

Originally Posted by mtolson

DC is kind of hard given they have a very small number of high schools. Selecting St. Johns is kind of odd though being the St. Johns and DeMatha are in the same conference and DeMatha wins 73 out of 125 titles. That leaves St. Johns with how many ??? Seems like they just picked a name out of a hat for DC. I always thought of St. Johns as the place to go if you couldn't cut it at DeMatha.

I would have gone with gone with Spingarn for DC. They have produced Elgin Baylor, Dave Bing and Sherman Douglas.

DeMatha '85

I was SHOCKED not to see DeMatha here...

We used to (maybe still do?) play DeMatha every year in football and man was that a battle...