Chicago High Schools Open 19 Sports: Here's How to Join Now

Chicago Public Schools offers 19 sports to high school student-athletes through the Chicago Public League. Families seeking to enroll a student begin by confirming the athlete meets the league age rules and then selecting a program that matches the student skill level.

The rules matter now because the 2023-24 school year brought digital ticket purchases and an online score ticker that changed how supporters follow games. Those changes sit on top of long-standing structures that sort teams by competitive level.

Division structure and separate Catholic conference

The Public League places most sports into Red and Blue divisions, with Red as the top citywide tier. Soccer adds two extra divisions beyond those two, while football splits into three conferences. The Chicago Catholic League operates apart from the Public League and fields 18 teams known for strength in football, water polo, wrestling and baseball.

Students and parents can review the full citywide sports calendar on the cpsathletics.com site to match a sport to an available season. Programs in either the Red or Blue division accept participants who satisfy the basic eligibility standards.

Age limits and next steps

Varsity eligibility ends once a student turns 20 during a season, or at age 19 in all other cases. That cutoff appears in Chicago Sun-Times reporting on local high school athletics and remains the standard applied across Public League contests.

Interested families start by contacting the athletic director at their neighborhood high school or visiting cpsathletics.com/high-school-sports to locate the current roster of offered sports. The same site lists the digital ticket system introduced in 2023-24, allowing direct purchase ahead of home contests.