Quality of Competition
Large high schools tend to have bigger athletic departments and budgets. A bigger budget allows for teams to travel farther for or bring in higher levels of competition. This increase in quality of competition has numerous effects. First it raises the level of the athletes performance while pointing out weaknesses that need to be developed for the next level. Secondly, it does the same as previously stated for coaches. There are multiple levels of development. Third, it attracts coaches from collegiate institutions. This is important because it can put a student-athlete on the map for the recruiting process, or it can lock in a scholarship for a student-athlete. If you look at top high school basketball, volleyball, wrestling tournaments, they attract collegiate coaches. College coaches want to scout as much as possible so being able to see high quality competition allows them to do that while giving student-athletes the opportunity to develop and be scouted. Ultimately, all three of these effects from quality of competition go hand-in-hand in developing student-athletes. In short, “Iron Sharpens Iron.”
Connections
High schools that are large in size tend to have more connections to institutions to help their student-athletes. These large athletic departments are more likely to be able to fund recruiting trips or bring in coaches to scout/offer/recruit student-athletes. Once word gets out in a school system that coaches are coming to a specific high school, there tends to be student-athletes trying to find a way to end up at that high school. Connections to collegiate institutions can create opportunities for student-athletes that smaller schools may not have or be in position to create.
Academic Support
Large high schools equal larger staff. Larger staff equals more academic support for student-athletes. These large staffs increase the likelihood that student-athletes will make a connection with a staff member to help them improve their academic performance and be more prepared for collegiate academics. This is a commonly overlooked benefit for student-athletes at large high schools.
Equipment/facilities
The ability to have top-level performance equipment can physically prepare student-athletes for the next level in ways that other equipment cannot. There is consistently changing science and breakthroughs that change or improve the way athletes train. The more physically developed student-athletes are, the more chances they will have to get on the field/court and perform successfully when they get on campus. Having state of the art equipment/facilities helps to bring in top level coaches and athletes. This creates a winning culture and programs for the schools. Winning programs bring in coaches to recruit student-athletes.
Exposure
This is different from connections. This is the exposure in the media. Large schools tend to dominate the media; whether this is their use of social media to spread awareness of accomplishments, wins, news etc. or the actual news. The more exposure schools have access to or receive the more student-athletes will benefit. This can create a standard for these athletic programs, and student-athletes that will be a major benefit. The news and social media can also inform coaches of potential recruits that they may not have been aware of just through their everyday reading, so the ability for a large school to dominate the news is only going to benefit their student-athletes.
