High school sports: 20 stories that moved the needle in 2024

High school sports in 2024 had it all – incredible moments, indelible images and unforgettable superstars.

Incarnate Word Academy's win streak

The Incarnate Word Academy (St. Louis, Mo.) girls basketball team tied the national record for consecutive wins at the end of the year. The Red Knights haven't lost since Feb. 8, 2020 and last season looked to add its seventh straight Class 6 title to the trophy case. But head coach Dan Rolfes suffered a near-fatal heart attack following the semifinal win and spent nearly a month in ICU. The team won the state title the next day and Rolfes worked to get back on the bench for the start of the 2024-25 season. The Missouri powerhouse could notch a record 139th straight win on Jan. 7.

A week after leading Northwestern (Miami, Fla.) to the 3A title, head coach Teddy Bridgewater announced he was returning to the NFL to make a run at a Super Bowl. He signed with the Detroit Lions as a backup. Bridgewater played for Northwestern from 2008-10 before heading to Louisville and becoming a first-round draft pick in 2014 for Minnesota.

The Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame coach died in June. Smith led I.M. Terrell (Fort Worth, Texas), an all-Black school in the days of segregation, as well as Dunbar (Fort Worth, Texas) during his 47-year tenure. He won five state titles, 35 district titles and compiled a 1,333-265 record. His win total sit above Gary McKnight of Mater Dei (Santa Ana, Calif.) and DeMatha (Hyattsville, Md.) legend Morgan Wootten.

Frank McManus took over as head coach of the Mater Dei (Santa Ana, Calif.) football program before the 2023 season and led the Monarchs to their fourth state championship since 2017. But he was dismissed after going 13-1 with the only loss coming in the regular season against rival St. John Bosco (Bellflower, Calif.). McManus played at Mater Dei and coached at the school for 16 years.

Charlie Woods, son of PGA legend Tiger Woods, helped Benjamin (Palm Beach Gardens, Fla.) to a Division 1 runner-up finish a year after winning a state title. Tiger was on hand as Charlie fired a 7-over 151 in the two-day event. He also qualified for the U.S. Junior Amateur, a tournament his father won three times.

Storied De La Salle (Concord, Calif.) beat NFL Academy 31-9 in October at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium in London, the same field where the Minnesota Vikings beat the New York Jets two days earlier. As the NFL expands into foreign markets, the league sought to bring an international flair to the prep game and what better ambassadors than the program that owns a seemingly unbreakable record with a 151-game win streak? It was NFL Academy's the third game against an American high school team this season but easily the most high-profile.

A New Jersey playoff basketball game in March had it all — a buzzer-beating finish that was eventually overturned, lawsuits and appeals and an eventual state title for Camden. Manasquan seemingly beat Camden on Griffin Linstra's last-second shot. But the referees ruled it was after the buzzer and Camden advanced 46-45 in the New Jersey Group 2 semifinal. Days of appeals and lawsuits were denied and Camden, with Manasquan players watching, won the state title four days later.

It was a tumultuous season off the field for the Monarchs, who saw first-year coach Frank McManus fired and replaced by Raul Lara as detailed above. But on the field, Mater Dei showed again it's head and shoulders above any other high school football program. The 13-0 Monarchs started and ended as the No. 1 team in the country, won their second straight Open Division state title and became the first three-time national champion since MaxPreps started its rankings 20 years ago.

Archbishop Mitty (San Jose, Calif.) junior girls basketball star McKenna Woliczko led the Monarchs to a second straight Nike Tournament of Champions title before Christmas with a dismantling of previous No. 1 Ontario Christian (Ontario, Calif.). The five-star forward set the tone early with eight first-quarter points on her way to 25 while joining Katie Lou Samuelson of Mater Dei (Santa Ana, Calif.) as the only two-time MVPs in the prestigious event's 27-year history.

One week after being banned from postseason play and having its coaches suspended by the Texas high school sports governing body, Oak Cliff Faith Family Academy (Dallas, Texas) announced it was leaving the University Interscholastic League (UIL) to play a national schedule. The UIL banned Oak Cliff Faith Family Academy coaches for two years and prohibited the school from postseason play for this season and the 2025-26 season. At issue for the UIL was 18 transfers, many four- and five-star players.

The longest losing streak in high school football history will continue into next season as Columbia (Huntsville, Ala.) fell in its final game of 2024 to Hazel Green. The Eagles will head into 2025 with 91 consecutive setbacks. Columbia last won Oct. 16, 2015, beating Ardmore 34-16. The streak began the following week with a 38-22 loss to Johnson (Hunstville).

The Apalachee (Winder, Ga.) football team took the field three weeks after a school shooting that killed two students and two teachers, including defensive coordinator Richard Aspinwall. Apalachee fell 48-21 to Clarke County and the Wildcats dropped to 0-4, extending their losing streak to 25. But being back on the field was part of the healing process from the Sept. 4 shooting as Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson paid a visit to spend time with students.

Kendre Harrison of Reidsville (N.C.) is again tearing it up on the basketball court this season after dominating on the hardwood and gridiron, leading both to state titles as a sophomore. He caught 62 passes for 940 yards and 16 touchdowns as a tight end and added 76 tackles and nine sacks for the Rams, who went 15-1. In basketball, he dominated on both ends of the basketball court with averages of 19.4 points, 15.1 rebounds and 3.7 blocked shots per contest.

Joyce Edwards of Camden (S.C.) was a three-sport, all-state standout in basketball, volleyball and soccer. Now playing basketball for Dawn Staley at the University of South Carolina, Edwards joins Olympian Missy Franklin and WNBA star Alissa Pili as the only two-time honorees. She led the 26-5 Camden volleyball team in kills with 215, scored 45 goals for the 18-5 soccer team and led the basketball team to its second straight state title. She averaged 31.3 points and 13.3 rebounds per game as the Bulldogs went 28-2. She also was the co-MVP at the McDonald's All American game.

Senior Westyn Balch of Hawley (Texas) threw a perfect game, striking out every batter in a 7-0 playoff win over Forsan in May. The Harding University freshman now has two perfect games. He averaged more than two strikeouts per inning on the season and finished with an ERA under 1.00.

College softball's all-time home run leader Jocelyn Alo of Oklahoma and Campbell (Ewa Beach, Hawaii) became the first female to sign with the Savannah Bananas barnstorming baseball team in April. Following a high school career where she won wrestling and softball state championships, Alo continued her dominance with the Sooners from 2018-22, hitting 122 career home runs and winning two national titles.

Layla Lamar of Panther Creek (Cary, N.C.) hit for the home run cycle in a 15-3 victory over Middle Creek (Apex, N.C.) in April. Now a Florida Gator, Lamar hit a solo home run in the first, a two-run and three-run homer in the third and a grand slam to end the game in the fifth. Overall she went 4-for-4 with four home runs and 10 RBI.

Mater Dei (Santa Ana, Calif.) head coach Gary McKnight moved into second place on the all-time high school basketball coaching wins list, passing former DeMatha (Hyattsville, Md.) coach Morgan Wootten. He sits at 1,283 wins, 50 behind aforementioned Robert Hughes. McKnight has led the program to 11 state championships, 16 regional titles, 24 section titles and 40 league championships in 42 years.

Former No. 1 pick in the NFL Draft pick JaMarcus Russell was fired over the summer from the coaching staff at his alma mater Williamson (Mobile, Ala.) and is facing a lawsuit accusing him of taking a $74,000 check that was meant to be a donation to the football program. During his legendary career at Williamson, Russell set the Alabama High School Athletic Association record with 10,774 career passing yards. A local business owner wrote the $74,000 check, saying that Russell had approached him about a donation to help the Williamson football team purchase weight room equipment. The school allegedly never received the check and Russell reportedly deposited it into a credit union and quickly withdrew the funds.

Before leaving for Duke, Cooper Flagg helped Montverde Academy (Montverde, Fla.) win its record seventh Chipotle Nationals title with16 points, eight rebounds and six blocked shots in the final. That put the exclamation point on another dominant season for the program and secured the No. 1 ranking the the final National Top 10. Recognized as a national champion by MaxPreps in 2013, 2015, 2018, 2020, 2021, 2022 and 2024, Montverde Academy is 344-27 under head coach Kevin Boyle since he took over prior to the 2011-12 season.

Central (Miami, Fla.), a nine-time state champion, was ordered in November by the Florida governing body to forfeit all nine games it had played this season for using an ineligible player. The Rockets used a fifth-year high school student-athlete in compiling an 8-1 mark, according to the Florida High School Athletic Association.