Ranking The 10 Greatest High School Football Teams Of All Time

As we turn the calendar from October to November, that can mean just one thing at high schools all across the country. It’s playoff time for high school football.

Whether your alma mater is a perennial power or looking to go on a magic run, there are few things as exciting as watching on as local kids attempt to make themselves heroes.

While any championship season is special, there are some teams that will live on in the annals of history as the greatest of the great. We’re counting those teams down to try to figure out just who can lay claim to the greatest high school football team of all time.

Greatest High School Football Teams In History

There are, of course, many variables at play here.

The game of football today looks absolutely nothing like it did 100 years ago, or 50 years ago, or even 25 years. And none of these teams has ever lined up against one another.

So it’s near impossible to say with any real certainty how the teams on this list would stack up against one another. However, with a little help from ESPN numbers guru Bill Connelly, we’re giving it a shot!

10) Allen (TX) – 2014

There’s a reason that Eagle Stadium, in the suburbs of Dallas, is one of the largest high school football stadiums in the country.

The Eagles are a perennial powerhouse, and never have they been as powerful as they were in 2014 when Kyler Murray led one of the greatest offenses ever seen at the high school level.

Murray and fellow superstar recruits Bobby Evans and Greg Little led Allen to its third of three consecutive Texas state championships. Oh, and the now-Arizona Cardinals star went 40-of-62 for 645 yards, 10 touchdowns, and one pick in those games.

He also ran the ball 38 times for 394 yards. Murray alone made the 2014 Allen team unreal, but the other stars helped make the team historic.

9) Waco (TX) – 1927

You know you hopped in the wayback machine when we’re unable to come up with any videos or photos to add to this selection.

And hey, we know that the 1927 Waco football team probably gets absolutely destroyed by just about any modern high school team. But that’s besides the point.

Because when you put up scores of 124-0, 107-0 and 93-0, and average 56 points per game, with 11 shutouts in 14 games, you get to make our list of greatest high school football teams of all-time.

Legendary coach Paul Tyson won four state titles with Waco, but the 1927 team was the only one crowned national champions by the National Sports News Service.

8) St. Thomas Aquinas (FL) – 2010

St. Thomas Aquinas had some history prior to its current run of dominance, with three state titles in talent-laden Florida. But it kicked it into high gear in 2008, and by 2010, the Raiders were an absolute juggernaut.

They rolled over a national schedule, on the way to a 15-0 record, winning games by an average of 44-7.

Future Iowa and Michigan QB Jake Rudock let the way, as did future Miami WR and first-round NFL Draft pick Phillip Dorsett.

Oh, and on the other side the ball, Aquinas boasted not one, but two star pass rushers in Florida commit Bryan Cox Jr. and still emerging sophomore Joey Bosa, who has turned out to be a pretty decent football player.

7) Harrisburg Tech (PA) – 1919

Like Waco before them, Harrisburg Tech’s best team came in a year where the idea of Saquon Barkley hurdling over someone backward may have caused one of the players to have a stroke.

But as a Harrisburg native, I’m going to be a little bit biased here.

Harrisburg Tech no longer exists, but the Harrisburg High Cougars are currently, and have been for many years, among the best programs in Pennsylvania, particularly among public schools.

In 1919, Tech won its second of two consecutive national titles, and it’s hard to argue with the numbers. In 12 games, it outscored opponents 701-0! 701-0!!!

Superstar Carl Beck went on to play at West Virginia University before winning a disputed NFL championship for the legendary Pottsville Maroons in 1925. While tackle Hap Frank went on to play for Penn State and led the Nittany Lions to their first Rose Bowl.

In the “national championship game” against Portland (Maine), Tech destroyed their opponent to the tune of a 56-0 butt kicking.

6) Mater Dei (CA) – 2017

When your “Notable Alumni” subheading on Wikipedia has its own subheading for “Athletics,” you’re probably doing something right.

Mater Dei is a high school football superpower. It has been for many years, and likely will be for many more. Those alumni include Matt Leinart, Todd Marinovich, Bryce Young, and many more.

But perhaps no Monarchs team was as dominant as the 2017 team led by star QB JT Brown and current Detroit Lions superstar Amon-Ra St. Brown.

Daniels threw for 4,123 yards and 52 touchdowns and Mater Dei waltzed to a 15-0 record, outscoring opponents by an average of 48-15. In the California state title game, they dominated  De La Salle 52-21, earning the school’s third national championship in the process.

5) Katy (TX) – 2015

This probably won’t sit well with the folks in Allen, but Katy, Texas, outside of Houston, claims the top spot as the best team in Texas football history on our list.

What’s more impressive? Katy does so with just one big-time college recruit on its roster: star running back Kyle Porter. But that didn’t stop the Tigers. Heck, it didn’t even slow them down.

The Tigers absolutely dominated Class 6A-2, led by an absolutely preposterous defense.

Katy posted a shutout 10 different times in its undefeated season and allowed just two teams to reach double figures. In six playoff games, the Tigers outscored opponents 309-44. That is an average of 51.5-7.3.

Katy was justly rewarded for its remarkable season, being crowned national champions for the second time.

4) Bishop Gorman (NV) – 2016

Y’all remember Tate Martell? The Ohio State-turned-Miami-turned-UNLV quarterback?

Yeah, well, before he was one of the biggest busts in college football history, Martell was the star quarterback of one of high school football’s greatest juggernauts in Bishop Gorman in Las Vegas.

Martell carved up the top programs not just in Nevada, but in the country. He threw for 2,362 yards and rushed for a further 1,257 against power programs such as Cedar Hill (Texas), Cocoa (Fla.), St. John Bosco, and St. Thomas Aquinas

Oh, and when they did finally play teams in their own state, they absolutely trounced them to the tune of an average score of 61-6.

In the state title game, Gorman absolutely routed Henderson Liberty, with a final score of 84-8. Yes, you read that correctly.

3) Massillon Washington (OH) – 1940

In nine seasons at the head coach of the Massillon Tigers, Paul Brown (yes, that Paul Brown) went 80-8–2 with six Ohio state titles and four national championships.

His last team might just have been his best.

In 1940, all 11 Massillon starters earned all-state status. The Tigers outscored their opponents 477-6, with the lone six points coming in a 24-6 state championship game win.

Superstar end Horace Gillom won two national titles for Brown in high school, one for Brown at Ohio State in 1942, and then six for Brown with the Cleveland Browns who are, yes, named after the coach!

Oh, and in a scrimmage against Kent State, y’know, the college, Massillon rolled to a 47-0(!!!) victory.

What. A. Team.

2) Hampton (VA) – 1996

While it’s a not much of a secret these days, Frank Beamer’s legendary Virginia Tech teams were built largely on the back of talent recruiting from the Hampton Roads region of Virginia.

The area has produced incredible talent such as Michael Vick and former NFL quarterback Aaron Brooks. But when it comes to the high school level, nobody tops Hampton High’s Ronald Curry.

Curry, who currently serves as the quarterbacks coach for the Buffalo Bills, led the Crabbers to three state titles, two national titles, and a basketball state title for kicks.

In 1996, led by head coach Mike Smith, Hampton put a jaw-dropping 58 points per game and allowed just 97  in total en route to a 14-0 record 14-0.

Even a darn near monsoon couldn’t slow the Crabbers, as they walloped Ashland Patrick Henry 51-0 in the state title game, securing their legacy as an all-time great high school football team.

1) De La Salle (CA) – 2001

Before Maurice Jones-Drew was terrorizing NFL and college football defenses, he was dominating the high school level for De La Salle, which produced a bevvy of NFL stars, including Jones-Drew, Amani Toomer, D.J. Williams, Austin Hooper.

But no De La Salle team has ever played quite at the level of the 2001 team.

They Spartans hammered teams to the tune of a 50-8 average score while Maurice Jones-Drew averaged almost 12 yards per carry running behind future NFL lineman Derek Landri.

This all came in the midst of a national record 151-game winning streak. Oh, and by the way, they thumped a number of other power programs, including Mater Dei, 34-6, and Long Beach Poly, 29-15.

That Poly team included five future NFL players, four future USC players, and future All-American Marcedes Lewis. But they were no match for the Spartans, the top team in high school football history.