USA TODAY Sports recently took a look at the men who have shaped high school football over the decades and reign supreme at the top as the winningest coaches in history.
While some of those coaches are still around and coaching to this day, there are a good amount who have either passed on in recent years or retired sometime during the last five seasons.
That bids the question: What active coach has the most wins and who are the next few who come the closest to that number?
With the 2026 high school football season just over a month away, here are the 10 active winningest high school football coaches in the country.
1. John T. Curtis Jr. – 640 wins
School: John Curtis Christian (LA)
State Championship wins: 27 (1975, 1977, 1979, 1980, 1981, 1983, 1984, 1985, 1987, 1988, 1990, 1993, 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2001, 2002, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2011, 2012, 2018, 2022)
Summary: The only active member of the 600-win club, Curtis Jr. has set the standard for winning for nearly six decades now. Under his leadership, the Patriots have won more state titles than any other school in Louisiana and are one of the state’s overall leaders in total wins.
2. Jim Roth- 521 wins
School: Southern Columbia (PA)
State Championship wins: 15 (1994, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2015, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022, 2023, 2025)
Summary: Roth has been moving his way up the all-time charts over the last decades as Southern Columbia has ascended into one of Pennsylvania’s premier football powers. Entering the 2026 season, he’s just two wins away from third all-time on the wins list.
There aren’t many teams around the country that have been as dominant in the 2000s and beyond than Roth’s Tiger squads. After going without a title between 2007-2014, a year without the Tigers winning a state championship since then has been very rare and they enter the new season as defending champions again.
3. Gary Rankin- 510 wins
Schools: Smith County (TN), Riverdale (TN), Alcoa (TN), Boyd Buchanan (TN)
State Championship wins: 17 (1994, 1997, 2001, 2004, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2013, 2015, 2015, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021)
Summary: Rankin, 72, resigned from his position at Boyd Buchanan in February but has insisted that he is not retired. Entering the 2026 season he is not with a team but has stated multiple times that he is not done coaching.
Since he still says he’s active, we have to include the man who is Tennessee’s all-time wins leader. Rankin has won everywhere he’s coached but found his biggest success at Riverdale and Alcoa. Under Rankin, Alcoa won state titles in 13 of his 16 seasons and he began their current run of 11 straight championships back in 2015.
4. Tommy Knotts – 501 wins
Schools: Harding (NC), West Charlotte (NC), Independence (NC), Dutch Fork (SC)
State Championship wins: 17 (1995, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2013, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2022, 2023, 2024, 2025)
Summary: Knotts was a perennial winner in North Carolina, winning seven state championships between 1995-2006 establishing himself as one of the best coaches in state history. He then moved down to South Carolina and has somehow done even better.
Playing in the state’s largest classification, the Silver Foxes under Knotts have become the premier program in the Palmetto State. Dutch Fork has won 10 or more games under Knotts in all but one of his seasons there and enter 2026 winners of three straight state titles and 10 of the last 13.
5. Jerry Sinz – 496 wins
School: Edgar (WI)
State Championship wins: 9 (1979, 1992, 1999, 2001, 2009, 2010, 2016, 2023, 2024)
Summary: Given Edgar’s recent success under Sinz, it would be more of a shock if he didn’t surpass 500 wins this season. Over the last two decades the Wildcats have become a consistent winner under Sinz and were just a win short of completing their first three-peat under him last season.
With Robert Hyland retiring two years ago, Sinz needs just a few more 10-plus win seasons to become the winningest coach in state history.
6. Jim Hightower – 482 wins
Schools: Catholic of Pointe Coupee (LA), St. Thomas More (LA)
State Championship wins: 6 (1978, 2016, 2019, 2020, 2022, 2023)
Summary: Hightower is the second-winningest coach in Louisiana history, trailing only Curtis Jr. While he began his head coaching career at Catholic of Pointe Coupee, he’s spent the last four decades at St. Thomas More winning state championships.
A Hightower-coached team has never had a losing season and he’s also the only coach in state history to win a district championship in all five LHSAA classifications. The 2010’s into the 2020’s have been Hightower’s best years at St. Thomas More as they’ve won five state championships in the last 10 years.
7. Randy Allen – 472 wins
Schools: Ballinger (TX), Brownwood (TX), Cooper (TX), Highland Park (TX)
State Championship wins: 4 (2005, 2016, 2017, 2018)
Summary: Allen’s been a winner in a state where high school football is more than just a game since he took over at Ballinger in 1981. He’s found success in all of his stops and now just sits 22 wins away from tying the Texas state record for most wins in a career.
While he found success at Ballinger, Brownwood and Abilene Cooper, his alma mater, he went to Highland Park in 1999 and found something special. Now the Scots are the winningest program in Texas and Allen’s led them to four state championships.
8. Jerry Pezzetti – 460 wins
Schools: Murray (IA), Melcher-Dallas (IA), Ankeny (IA), Ankeny Centennial (IA)
State Championship wins: 2 (1997, 2012)
Summary: Pezzetti’s legendary coaching career has spanned six decades as he took over at Murray right after graduating from Drake University. He would go on to coach six seasons at Melcher-Dallas, his alma mater, going undefeated in three seasons and winning four conference titles.
Ankeny is where Pezzetti has spent the majority of his career as he coached the Hawks for 44 seasons and won a state championship in his final season with the program. Once Ankeny Centennial opened in 2013, Pezzetti moved to the new program and has served as the Jaguars’ co-head coach alongside his son Ryan.
9. Alan Chadwick- 457 wins
School: Marist (GA)
State Championship wins: 3 (1989, 2003, 2020)
Summary: Chadwick’s been at Marist in some position since 1985 but was named the program’s head coach in 1985. That change proved to be the best thing for the program as Marist has never had a losing season or missed the postseason under Chadwick.
With 457 wins, Chadwick trails former Lincoln County (GA) coach Larry Campbell for the most wins in Georgia history and is just 21 wins away from surpassing his total. Marist has won 10 or more games in nine straight seasons and in 13 of their last 14 so that record could be changing in just a few seasons.
10. Dudley Hilton – 450 wins
Schools: Breathitt County (KY), Bell County (KY), Bourbon County (KY), Taylor County (KY)
State Championship wins: 3 (1991, 1997, 2008)
Summary: Hilton’s a name known all over Kentucky from his various stops at four different schools. No matter where he went though, he won.
Now in his third tenure at Bell County, Hilton is looking to win his third state title with the Bobcats. A championship at Bourbon County in 1997 is sandwiched in between the two state titles at Bell County.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Who are the active winningest high school football coaches? Here are the top 10
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