Guest Op-ed by Dr. Karissa Niehoff, Chief Executive Officer of the NFHS, and Wayne Ryan, Executive Director of the West Virginia Secondary School Activities Commission (WVSSAC)
High college sports activities is experiencing report participation. It can also be experiencing unprecedented strain.
Across the nation, younger athletes are coaching earlier, competing year-round and navigating expectations formed by a quickly increasing youth sports activities financial system. For many households, athletics now really feel like more and more excessive stakes.
High college sports activities function in a different way—by design. They exist inside faculties, alongside school rooms, guided by the similar academic mission. Participation is structured to help educational success and to show intangibles like self-discipline, teamwork, resilience and accountability. Rules round eligibility, seasons and competitors should not limitations to ambition; they’re safeguards for college students.
As expectations round profitable and development proceed to rise, we at the WVSSAC consider it’s value reaffirming the function that top college athletics play in schooling—and why that function issues.
Every highschool athlete is a scholar first, and we see highschool sports activities as a significant extension of the classroom. In “the last class of the day,” student-athletes develop character and integrity and study life classes they are going to carry with them lengthy after their enjoying days are over.
Today’s highschool student-athletes might be tomorrow’s leaders. So, whereas the objective of enjoying highschool sports activities is to win, the true function is far better—for college students to study and develop as folks.
How? By conserving highschool sports activities academic, competitively balanced and accessible for all college students. Why? To guarantee highschool sports activities develop the complete particular person, not simply the athlete.
Last summer season, the New York Times printed an article stating youth sports activities is now a $40 billion business. Private classes, membership sports activities, journey groups and elite competitions are expensive and wildly in style.
For many student-athletes, their sports activities expertise is targeted on changing into an elite athlete and touchdown a university scholarship.
But based on the NCAA, of the 8.2 million highschool student-athletes in the U.S. (an all-time report), solely 7% go on to play in faculty, and solely 2% earn any sort of scholarship.
Further, information from College Board’s “Trends in College Pricing and Student Aid 2025” report exhibits that the complete printed price of attendance (tuition, charges, room and board) at four-year schools now averages roughly $31,000 per 12 months in-state and greater than $50,000 per 12 months out-of-state—underscoring why households really feel intense strain to safe athletic scholarships.
That’s why the function of highschool sports activities have to be a lot greater than profitable, incomes trophies or advancing to the subsequent stage.
Only a choose few go on to play in faculty and even fewer get scholarships. But almost all student-athletes profit from taking part in highschool sports activities. They expertise private development. They study management expertise. They construct neighborhood and extra. When athletics are education-based, college students’ long-term growth and well-being stay the prime precedence above all else.
With the guideline of scholars first, the NFHS and state highschool associations like the WVSSAC are dedicated to preserving the integrity, alternative and academic alignment of highschool sports activities for all student-athletes.
The function of highschool sports activities—serving to college students study and develop as folks—is what we’re right here to guard and protect for generations to return. And it’s our honor to take action.
Dr. Karissa Niehoff is the Chief Executive Officer of the NFHS. Wayne Ryan is the Executive Director of the West Virginia Secondary School Activities Commission (WVSSAC). Visit DefendThePurpose.com to study extra.