11-Player High School Football Hits Highest Mark Since 2016-17; Girls' Flag Football Continues to Boom

Eleven-player high school football continues to grow, posting its strongest participation total in nearly a decade, while girls' flag football delivered another massive jump during the 2025-26 sports season.

The NFHS High School Athletics Participation Survey showed 1,043,716 boys played 11-player football last year — up 14,128, or 1.4 percent, and the highest figure since the 2016-17 season. It remains by far the most popular high school sport in America.

Add 33,191 boys in 6-, 8- and 9-player football and 4,334 girls across all four versions of tackle football, and overall high school football participation reached 1,081,241, an increase of 11,597 from the previous year.

“We are pleased to see the number of students involved in high school sports continuing to rise every year,” said Davis Whitfield, NFHS executive director. “Education-based sports within our nation’s schools is a privilege not available in most other countries, and we are thankful these opportunities continue to expand.

“We salute the coaches, athletic directors and school administrators for making these experiences happen, especially with some of the recent growth in several emerging sports. It is great to see new sport opportunities created to involve as many students as possible in high school sports.” 

Girls’ flag football keeps booming. Participation rose from 68,847 to 102,360 — a 48.7 percent increase that pushed the sport into the top 10 for girls. Since 2021-22, when 15,716 girls played flag football nationally, the sport has added more than 87,000 participants.

Girls flag football is on the rise. Learn how to get involved.

Schools offering girls’ flag football climbed from 2,736 to 3,990. By next year, 37 states will either sanction the sport or run independent or pilot programs.

Thanks to a big assist from the NFL, 24 states, plus the District of Columbia, currently have sanctioned girls’ flag football as an official varsity sport.

Overall high school sports participation set another record at 8,415,684, up 149,440. Boys reached 4,761,095 and girls reached 3,654,589, both all-time highs.