Girls Golf, Boys Track & Field, Girls Wrestling Set MHSAA Participation Records in 2025-26
By
Geoff Kimmerly
MHSAA.com senior editor
July 16, 2026
EAST LANSING, Mich. – July 16 – Girls golf, boys track & field and girls wrestling enjoyed record participation during the 2025-26 school year as 277,533 athletes total competed in Michigan High School Athletic Association-sponsored tournament sports representing 755 member high schools.
Girls golf set a participation record for the second-straight school year, this time with 4,355 athletes – an increase of 9.7 percent from the record total of the year prior. Boys track & field also set a participation record for the second straight year, this time with 25,053 athletes, up 1.2 percent from 2024-25. Girls wrestling continued its rapid growth, counting a record 1,783 participants this past winter – a jump of 18.5 percent from the year before – to give wrestling, boys and girls combined, a record total of 12,647 athletes despite a small decrease in the number of boys competing on the mat.
This past year’s overall participation total was 1,849 students more than in 2024-25, helped in part by the additions of field hockey and boys volleyball to the MHSAA postseason lineup but also despite a decrease in enrollment at member high schools of 441 students (approximately one tenth of a percent). Boys participation was up one percent to 162,984 athletes, while girls participation was down just two tenths of a percent to 114,157. MHSAA participation totals count students once for each sport in which they participate, meaning students who are multiple-sport athletes are counted more than once.
The addition of field hockey brought 1,169 participants to the girls total, which was also a 15-percent increase for that sport compared to the previous school year. Boys volleyball also saw participation increase during its first year of MHSAA sponsorship, up 49 percent to 2,261 athletes.
A few more sports also saw participation increases in 2025-26. Gymnastics was up 6.2 percent to 528 athletes, boys golf was up 5.4 percent to 7,819, boys soccer increased 2.3 percent to 14,435 participants, and competitive cheer increased 2.1 percent to 6,454. The boys golf total was its highest since 2005-06.
Among sports that saw participation decreases during 2025-26, boys basketball, boys bowling, boys lacrosse, girls soccer, girls swimming & diving and boys tennis all fell by less than one percent from the previous school year’s totals.
Football again was the most popular sport in terms of participation, with 35,635 athletes – 1.6 percent fewer than the year before but still the sport’s second-highest total over the last eight seasons. Volleyball continues to set the pace as the most popular girls sport, with its 19,297 athletes last fall a decrease of 1.9 percent from the previous year but still its second-highest total over the last eight seasons as well.
The participation figures are gathered annually from MHSAA member schools to submit to the National Federation of State High School Associations (NFHS) for compiling of its national participation survey. Results of Michigan surveys from the 2000-01 school year to present may be viewed on the Administrators page.
The following chart shows participation figures for the 2025-26 school year from MHSAA member high schools for sports in which the Association sponsors a postseason tournament:
|
|
BOYS |
|
GIRLS |
|
|
Sport |
Schools (A) |
Participants |
Schools (A) |
Participants (B) |
|
Baseball |
643/8 |
15,685 |
- |
-/12 |
|
Basketball |
732/7 |
20,408 |
662 |
12,783/17 |
|
Bowling |
411/19 |
4,304 |
375 |
2,638/25 |
|
Competitive Cheer |
- |
- |
338 |
6,454 |
|
Cross Country |
650 |
7,934 |
626 |
6,676 |
|
Field Hockey |
- |
- |
43 |
1,169 |
|
Football - 11 player |
517/54 |
32,898 |
- |
-/63 |
|
8-player |
129/15 |
2,658 |
- |
-/16 |
|
Golf |
545/45 |
7,735 |
420 |
4,355/84 |
|
Gymnastics |
- |
- |
89 |
528 |
|
Ice Hockey |
282/26 |
3,024 |
- |
-/39 |
|
Lacrosse |
172/5 |
4,979 |
133 |
3,038/9 |
|
Skiing |
103/2 |
730 |
97 |
630/4 |
|
Soccer |
481/13 |
14,398 |
458 |
11,822/37 |
|
Softball |
- |
- |
613 |
11,040 |
|
Swimming & Diving |
253/19 |
3,972 |
274 |
4,631/58 |
|
Tennis |
285/9 |
6,086 |
324 |
9,557/23 |
|
Track & Field |
681/2 |
25,050 |
677 |
17,756/3 |
|
Volleyball |
136/2 |
2,259 |
710 |
19,297/2 |
|
Wrestling |
517 |
10,864 |
390 |
1,783 |
(A) The first number is the number of schools reporting sponsorship on the Sports Participation Survey, including primary and secondary schools in cooperative programs as of May 15, 2026. The second number indicates the number of schools that had girls playing on teams consisting primarily of boys.
(B) The second number indicates the number of additional girls playing on teams consisting primarily of boys and entered in boys competition.
The MHSAA is a private, not-for-profit corporation of voluntary membership by more than 1,500 public and private senior high schools and junior high/middle schools which exists to develop common rules for athletic eligibility and competition. No government funds or tax dollars support the MHSAA, which was the first such association nationally to not accept membership dues or tournament entry fees from schools. Member schools which enforce these rules are permitted to participate in MHSAA tournaments, which attract more than 1.4 million spectators each year.
MHSAA 2023-24 School Year Classifications Announced
By
Geoff Kimmerly
MHSAA.com senior editor
April 6, 2023
Classifications for Michigan High School Athletic Association elections and postseason tournaments for the 2023-24 school year have been announced, with enrollment breaks for postseason tournaments posted to each sport’s page on the MHSAA Website.
Classifications for the upcoming school year are based on a second semester count date, which for MHSAA purposes was Feb. 8. The enrollment figure submitted for athletic classification purposes may be different from the count submitted for school aid purposes, as it does not include students ineligible for athletic competition because they reached their 19th birthday prior to Sept. 1 of the current school year and will not include alternative education students if none are allowed athletic eligibility by the local school district.
All sports’ tournaments are conducted with schools assigned to equal or nearly equal divisions, with lines dependent on how many schools participate in those respective sports.
For 2023-24, there are 750 tournament-qualified member schools. Schools recently were notified of their classification, and sport-by-sport divisions were posted to the MHSAA Website today (April 6). MHSAA Executive Director Mark Uyl said schools may not subsequently lower their enrollment figure. However, if revised enrollment figures are higher and indicate that a school should be playing in a higher division, that school would be moved up.
Five MHSAA Finals champions awarded so far during the 2022-23 school year are assigned to different divisions for 2023-24. Division 6 champion Grand Rapids West Catholic will play 11-player football in Division 5 this upcoming season. The Holland Christian boys soccer team will be moving into Division 2 after winning the Division 3 Final in the fall, and East Grand Rapids’ girls swimming & diving program is headed back to Lower Peninsula Division 3 after winning in LP Division 2 this past season. A pair of cross country champions are on the move – LP Division 4 boys champion Wyoming Potter’s House Christian to LP Division 3, and Upper Peninsula Division 3 girls champion Munising into UP Division 2 – and the Grass Lake boys bowling team will compete in Division 3 next winter after winning the Division 4 championship last month.
Also set to change divisions among Finals runners-up from head-to-head sports are Cadillac volleyball (Division 2 to D1), Ann Arbor Greenhills boys soccer (Division 4 to D3), Mendon 8-player football (Division 2 to D1) and three 11-Player Finals runners-up – Caledonia (Division 1 to D2), Grand Rapids Forest Hills Central (Division 2 to D3) and Muskegon (Division 3 to D2).
Visit the respective sport pages on the MHSAA Website to review the divisional alignments for all MHSAA-sponsored tournament sports. Click the “SPORTS” menu above to access the page for each sport, then the “Assignments” link on the selected sport page and then “DIVISION LIST” to see the 2023-24 division.
Traditional classes (A, B, C, D) – formerly used to establish tournament classifications – are used only for MHSAA elections. To determine traditional classifications, after all counts are submitted, tournament-qualified member schools are ranked according to enrollment and then split as closely into quarters as possible. For 2023-24, there are 187 member schools in Class A, Class B and Class C, and 189 member schools in Class D.
Effective with the 2023-24 school year, schools with 807 or more students are in Class A. The enrollment limits for Class B are 380-806, Class C is 177-379, and schools with enrollments of 176 and fewer are Class D. The break between Classes A and B decreased eight students from 2022-23, the break between Classes B and C decreased 11 students, and the break between Classes C and D is six students fewer than for the 2022-23 school year.
The new classification breaks will see 21 schools move up in Class for 2023-24 while 24 schools will move down:
Moving Up from Class B to Class A
Bay City John Glenn
Fowlerville
Garden City
Lansing Eastern
Orchard Lake St. Mary’s
Tecumseh
Moving Down from Class A to Class B
Detroit Henry Ford
Detroit Mumford
Harper Woods
Plainwell
Sault Ste. Marie
Spring Lake
Moving Up from Class C to Class B
Ann Arbor Greenhills
Grand Rapids Covenant Christian
Hartford
Ishpeming Westwood
Kent City
Mason County Central
Pinconning
Moving Down from Class B to Class C
Blissfield
Clawson
Clinton Township Clintondale
Detroit Northwestern
Elk Rapids
Fennville
Sanford Meridian
Stockbridge
Moving Up from Class D to Class C
Auburn Hills Oakland Christian
Benton Harbor Countryside Academy
Detroit Crocket Midtown Science & Medicine
Grand Traverse Academy
Martin
Munising
Rudyard
Saginaw Michigan Lutheran Seminary
Moving Down from Class C to Class D
Eau Claire
Fowler
Jackson Prep
L’Anse
Marcellus
Merrill
Mesick
Morenci
Muskegon Heights Academy
St. Ignace
New Postseason-Eligible Tournament Schools in 2023-24
Waterford Oakside Prep
Enrollment Breaks by Classes – 2023-24
(Number of schools in parentheses)
Class A: 807 and above (187 schools)
Class B: 380 – 806 (187)
Class C: 177 – 379 (187)
Class D: 176 and below (189)