List of Prep Sports

There's a lot to choose from when getting to high school as an athlete and the list just keeps growing. We have some of the tried and true traditional ones that fill our head when we generally think of prep sports. Don't stop there though because some up and comers are rocketing up in popularity and some sports that should have been big all along, keep gaining speed. Let's take a look at the ever expanding list of high school sports to choose from.

First, we'll start with the big three that are pretty ubiquitous across the U.S. First, there's football, a mainstay of high school athletics on any Friday Night. Football is a celebration of speed, strength, and agility but the defining factor seems to be whether a high school athlete likes or dislikes hitting. There's no getting around that aside from the kicker. Next, you have basketball. Basketball is extremely skill based as it requires years upon years to get the basics down. Let's face it...dribbling is tough. You can't be very athletic and just jump into basketball. Finally, in big three, there's baseball, another skilled sport. Baseball celebrates not only tradition (there's plenty of it in the U.S.) but brief bursts of skilled talent punctuating long stretches of relative quiet. So that rounds out the top part of our prep sports list.

Let's look at the next part of our list with the steady next group. First, we have to start with soccer. Soccer is by far the most popular sport in the world and it's incredibly popular for younger kids. This drops off a little bit through high school but in general, it keeps gaining popularity across the spectrum. Our next member is somewhat geographically specific in that we need cold (ideally). Ice Hockey in some Northern parts of the U.S. dominates the high school sport landscape. Yea, they still play football in Minnesota but don't mess with the ice hockey players...they've been on skates since they could walk. In our second group, following the team aspect, let's not forget Volleyball. Volleyball is strong with high school boys but it is huge with girls. There's probably a south by southwest geographic impact on this sport's popularity as well owing to the beach volleyball's effect. Another sport that might get a kiss from the sun is water polo. It's probably easier to play in Newport Beach than in Detroit.

Next, let's look at the part of our list that are more individual sports. You have some with long histories such as tennis and golf. Both sports have enjoyed ups and downs in popularity piggy-backing off of emerging stars (translate as Andre Agassi and Tiger Woods). Currently, tennis is in bit of a lull while golf is flying high. Swimming and Diving are strong indivdual sports with a fair representation across the U.S. Wrestling also fares well in any geographic area and generally works to complement football as you'll see a lot of wrestlers on the football team come fall season. Let's not forget Track and Field which is broad in its scope to cover everything from short distance sprints to discus throws. That rounds out the traditionally offered high school sports but were not done.

La Cross is making a huge surge in popularity as a team sport from it's perceived private school beginnings. There are plenty of other sports which may not be formally offered at High School but for which, club sponsorship has sprung up everywhere. This runs the gamut from karate to surfing. These days, there's something for everyone at the high school sport level and we say, the more...the merrier.

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