Denver Area High School Named Best Athletic Program in U.S.

Although largely known for outdoor activities like mountain biking and snowboarding, Colorado is a hotspot for traditional youth sports, too. Just look at Greenwood Village, where you'll find the best high school athletic program in the country, according to MaxPreps.

The high school sports media outlet recently released its annual list of America's top athletics programs, ranking the Cherry Creek High School Bruins as the country's best. In the 2024-2025 academic year, Cherry Creek won nine state championships in boys golf, lacrosse, baseball, soccer, swimming and diving, tennis and football, the school's fifth state football title in six years.

In girls athletics, Cherry Creek won state championships in field hockey and swimming and diving, while the girls tennis and track and field teams took home runner-up trophies at the state tournament.

Cherry Creek's boys lacrosse finished the year ranked fourth nationally, while the golf team finished ninth and swimming and diving ranked 25th. Meanwhile, the girls swimming and diving team finished the year ranked 14th nationally, and girls field hockey came in 22nd.
All of that winning was good enough for 2,621 MaxPreps Cup points for Cherry Creek, 221 more than second-place St. Thomas Aquinas High School in Fort Lauderdale.

Awarded every year since 2011, the MaxPreps Cup is based on an algorithm that compiles a school's state championships, state runner-up finishes and placements in national rankings across sports. The point totals are also weighted based on a state's size, the popularity of the sport being counted, the enrollment of the school and the school's athletic division, according to MaxPreps.

Cherry Creek has an enrollment of around 3,800 students and competes in Colorado's 5A high school sports division, the second-largest division in the state. The school has won 248 state athletic titles since it opened in 1955, with 86 championships between the boys and girls tennis programs. But Cherry Creek's latest title from MaxPreps is a particularly big deal for youth athletics in the western half of the country, according to the Colorado High School Activities Association

"This marks the first time in the fourteen-year history of the MaxPreps Cup that a Colorado school has been at the top of the standings at year's end. Cherry Creek also becomes the second westernmost school to win the MaxPreps Cup, with Jesuit of Portland, Oregon, being the only school west of Denver to have ever won the cup," a statement from the CHSAA reads.

Valor Christian High School in Highlands Ranch was the only other Colorado school to make the MaxPreps Cup list, coming in 22nd thanks to state championships last year in girls golf, lacrosse and volleyball, as well as boys ice hockey. Valor Christian was also a runner-up in boys basketball, cross-country and lacrosse in the 2024-2025 school year.