About

HighSchoolGridiron.com has been created so all of the vast historical information about national high school football that was collected for the first time way back in the 1920s by a dedicated hobbyist, coach and official from Minnesota does not disappear.

It also serves as the home of Mr. Football USA, which is awarded to the national high school player of the year in football. HighSchoolGridiron.com editors have named a national player of the year at the conclusion of each season since 1996 with selections dating back to 1970 based on research by Rankings Editor Doug Huff, Editor Mark Tennis and Managing Editor Ronnie Flores.

Huff, one of only three daily newspaper sports writers enshrined into the National High School Sports Hall of Fame in 1999, first published national high school records in 1965 while a student at West Virginia University. His national high school records were used as a foundation for the first National High School All-Sports Record Book, published in 1978 by the National Federation of State High School Associations (NFHS).

Combined Tennis and Flores have over 50 years of experience covering high school football. Flores currently serves as the managing editor for CalHiSports.com and its weekly Cal-Hi Sports newsletter, now in its 34th year. Along with Tennis, co-founder of Cal-Hi Sports, Flores co-authored the seventh edition of the 352-page CalHiSports.com State Record Book & Almanac.

Since 1927, when Art Johlfs of Minnesota compiled the very first national high school football rankings, and continuing until 2011, when Tennis and Huff directed the ESPN FAB 50 rankings, there have been national rankings in football and boys basketball that are titled under the National Sports News Service banner.

In 2012, ESPN discontinued its high school division, but that is not completely stopping Tennis and Huff from doing rankings. While there are no immediate plans to offer weekly national football rankings on this blog, final end-of-the-season rankings will be continuing. For boys basketball, rankings, Mr. Basketball USA and additional historical lists can be found on HighSchoolHardwood.com.

We hope users enjoy our blog and come back to check for facts and records dating back more than 100 years. We will continue to build on the year-to-year rankings lists and may add more historical features and lists from time to time, including the Street & Smith’s Preseason All-American teams that Doug Huff started authoring in the late 1970s. We welcome any and all input.

To contact HighSchoolGridiron.com editors, please call 209-463-9050 (Mark Tennis) or 800-660-1334 Ext. 4414 (Ronnie Flores). You can also email either at  markjtennis@gmail.com or ronnie@studentsports.com