50 best high school football schools of all time, ranked by wins

There are more than 16,000 high school football teams in the United States. But only one can be No. 1. So, which school is it?

The following Top 50 countdown is based on MaxPreps writer Kevin Askeland's updated look at the winningest high school football programs of all time. Schools are ranked by total wins through the 2020 season. 

Owensboro's squads have been competing on the gridiron since 1895. Standout alums include Justin Miller (Class of 2002), who went on to a Pro Bowl career in the NFL.    

Future NFL defensive tackle Rashard Lawrence helped lead Louisiana’s Neville High Tigers to a 2015 state championship.

In its 100-plus-years on the football field, the Plano High Wildcats have scored seven state titles and one national championship.

This Chicago high school saw its first football action in 1924. Mount Carmel has won 13 state championships. 

The namesake school from LaGrange, Ga., fielded its first football team in 1905. The Grangers are seen here in a 2011 contest under the direction of then-head coach Donnie Branch. 

Former NFL wide receiver Jerome Simpson is among the talents to emerge from North Carolina’s Reidsville High.

The Reidsville Rams claimed back-to-back-to-back state titles from 2018-2020. The school has won 23 in all.  

New Britain claimed the first of its 31 state championships back in 1892.  

Kentucky's St. Xavier High Tigers have captured 12 state championships since 1917; the most recent title came in 2009.  

Temple High has won two state titles. The Wildcats have been competing on the gridiron since 1905. 

The Gaffney Indians confer on the sidelines in a game from 2012. That same year, the school would go on to win its 16th (and most recent) state championship.   

The Lone Star State’s Mart High captured three straight state championships from 2017-2019. Overall, Mart owns eight state titles. 

Back in the day, Pro Bowl NFL kicker Billy Cundiff was a quarterback for Harlan High. The Class of 1998 grad played for Curt Bladt, the longtime and legendary Cyclones head coach.

Harlan is the only Iowa school found in this rundown. 

The Admirals from Kentucky’s Danville High prepare for a snap in a 2020 contest. The program most recently claimed a state championship in 2017. 

Fans are seen cheering on Leominster High to a 2011 state championship. The Blue Devils would go on to to claim the state title in 2012, too -- the program’s 12th overall.

Booker T. Washington High is the first of four Oklahoma schools in our rundown. According to Pro-Football-Reference.com, the school has produced more than a dozen NFL football players, including Pro Bowl wide receiver Tyler Lockett (Class of 2011). 

The football team from Pennsylvania’s Steelton-Highspire High is called the Steamrollers. Year after year, the squad lives up to its name. In 2020, the Steamrollers steamrolled their way to another state championship. 

The squad from Kentucky’s Paducah Tilghman High is known as the Blue Tornado. Over the years, the football team has stormed its way to three state titles; its most recent championship was claimed in 2009.   

East St. Louis High is the highest-ranked Illinois school in our countdown. Head coach Bob Shannon, seen here on the sidelines in 1990, led the Flyers to nearly 200 wins -- and six state titles -- during his storied 1976-1995 run. 

Texas’ Amarillo High played its first football season in 1908. From 1934-1940, the school won four state titles.   

This is the first California school in our rundown. Bakersfield High began playing football in 1896. 

Linebacker Nathan Gerry is a 2013 grad of South Dakota’s Washington High. The Sioux Falls native went on to become a fifth-round pick in the 2017 NFL Draft.

Gerry’s hometown alma mater is the only South Dakota high school on this list. The school has claimed 42 state titles to date. 

NFL Pro Bowl wide receiver JuJu Smith-Schuster graduated from Long Beach Poly in 2014. (That was back when we knew him as John Smith.)

Smith’s high school alma mater is the winningest high school football program in California.

Arkansas’ Nashville High is seen barreling toward its ninth state title in 2015. The school’s team is known as the Scrappers.

Kentucky’s Dobyns-Bennett Indians are seen competing in the 2019 state playoffs. The school has claimed six titles since embarking on its first season in 1921. 

Since its first season in 1897, Brockton High has captured 18 state championships. 

Oklahoma’s Lawton High has been piling up yards and wins since the school played its first down back in 1902. 

Jeremy Shockey went from Oklahoma’s Ada High to Miami to, eventually, the NFL. The tight end’s 10-year pro career included Pro Bowl honors and two Super Bowl rings. 

Since its first season in 1904, Central has run away with two national titles and 32 state championships.

The winning tradition is strong at Arkansas’ Pine Bluff High: The football program has two national titles to go along with its 22 state championships. The squad competes as the Zebras. 

The Shelby High Golden Lions have captured 17 state championships. So far. The school claimed its most recent title in 2019. It is the highest-ranked North Carolina program in this countdown.  

Massachusetts’ Everett High is the winningest school in its state. In the team's 100-plus years on the gridiron, the Crimson Tide has captured two national championships and 28 state titles. 

Since 1971, the Hampton High Crabbers have been led by Mike Smith. The coach has notched nearly 500 wins for the school. 

This is the top Tennessee school in our rundown. Maryvale High has been separating itself from the football competition since its first season in 1926.

No Oklahoma high school team on this list has more wins than the Clinton Red Tornadoes. 

Bo Orlando logged nine seasons in the NFL. The defensive back is one of three alums of Pennsylvania’s Berwick High Bulldogs to play for the shield, per ProFootballReference.com. 

Steubenville High’s football team is known as the Big Red. Certainly, the school’s been a big player in Ohio sports. 

Iowa and NFL alum Ryan Terry starred at running back for Steubenville in the 1980s.

The late John McKissick led the Summerville High squad for 63 seasons, from 1952-2014. His tenure produced 620 victories for the Green Wave.

Summerville is South Carolina’s winningest high school football program of all time, and McKissick is the winningest football coach anywhere, at any level, ever.     

The COVID-19 pandemic is about the only thing that has stopped Ansonia High from adding to its Connecticut-best football win total. The school has claimed 20 state titles since it began competing in 1890.

In the 1990s, Demetric Evans helped Louisiana’s Haynesville High win multiple state championships. The defensive end would go onto a nine-year NFL career.

Haynesville is the No. 1 Louisiana school on this list.

There’s only one West Virginia high school football program in this rundown, and it’s a big one: The Big Reds of Parkersburg High.

The school, which began fielding a football team in 1900, has won 17 state titles. 

The McKinley High Bulldogs have been battling it out on the gridiron since 1894. Along the way, the program has claimed two national titles and 12 state championships. 

Highland Park is the top Texas school on this list. The Dallas-based Scots have been pursuing wins on the football field since 1923. The school owns six state titles. 

Its football alums include NFL quarterback Matthew Stafford.  

Red Rovers fans have been cheering on Easton Area’s gridiron feats since 1895. The school is on the hunt for its first state title of Pennsylvania’s high school football playoff era. 

This is the first and only Michigan school on this list. Muskegon is a powerhouse that’s claimed 18 state titles. 

The No. 1 Pennsylvania high school in all-time wins, Mount Carmel has been competing on the football field since 1893. To date, the Red Tornadoes have stormed their way to 12 state titles.  

Kentucky’s Highlands High has run off with 23 state championships since mounting its first season in 1915. 

Highlands is the first of three Kentucky schools in the top five. 

Mayfield High head football coach Joe Morris has led the Cardinals to more than 250 wins since he assumed a position once held by his father, Jack Morris. The elder Morris was a Mayfield legend himself, scoring 254 wins at the school from 1969-1992.

Once led on the field by football great Paul Brown, Washington High is the No. 1 Ohio school in all-time wins -- and an institution in its Massillon hometown.

During the 2020 season, the Tigers recorded their historic 900th all-time win. 

The Male Bulldogs are top dog in all-time football wins among Kentucky high schools. In 2020, their pursuit of a ninth state title ended with a loss in the championship game to Louisville’s Trinity High.  

To date, no U.S. high school has recorded more football wins than Georgia’s Valdosta.

The Wildcats embarked on their first football season in 1913. Along the way, they've recorded six national titles and 24 state championships.