Sports and athletics are of special importance in high school. Particularly in small towns, most high school social life revolves around sports in some way, and athletes hold a special place in the student body. Beyond that, high achieving athletes can get scholarship money to attend college, where they have a chance to enter professional leagues.
Sports teams are organized and financed by the schools. The number and type of teams depends on the size of the school. Larger schools may offer tennis, golf, volleyball, wrestling, boxing, soccer, hockey and track, most with boys and girls teams.
However, even small schools will try to form basketball and American football teams. In most of the country, these are the most important sports.
School teams compete with each other in a highly organized fashion. There are different leagues based on location and the size of the school - teams tend to compete with other teams from similar schools.
Athletic teams are among the most important clubs in any school, to the extent that many other clubs (such as marching band and cheerleading squad) exist primarily to support them.