High School Athletics Equity Checklist: Are All Sports Getting the Visibility They Deserve?

Varsity football, basketball, and soccer often dominate high school stadium crowds, social media feeds, and the occasional local news headline. But many high school athletic departments offer 15 sports or more. So where does that leave the cross country runners, JV volleyball players, or bowlers who train and compete just as hard?

Creating equity in high school athletics means ensuring every student-athlete and every team receives fair recognition and representation. It’s about more than visibility. It’s about belonging, morale, participation, and the overall culture of your athletic department.

This guide breaks down what true athletic equity looks like, why it matters, and how you can put it into practice using proven strategies that actually work for busy athletic directors. We’ll also take a closer look at how your online presence shapes perceptions of equity — and how you can utilize modern tools and tactics to highlight all programs equally while saving time for your staff.

What is equity in high school athletics? 

Equity in athletics is about providing fair and balanced recognition, resources, and opportunities to all student-athletes — regardless of their sport’s popularity, gender, or visibility.

Many athletic directors default to promoting and highlighting just the revenue-generating sports, like football. And that makes sense: the more community members you bring into your Friday night football games, the more revenue you’ll raise for your department. 

But what you choose to promote implies what’s important to you. In reality, you care about the success of all of your programs and athletes — and that’s what you want to show to your community.

Examples of equity in high school athletics

Here are some examples of what equity looks like in high school athletics:

1. Ensuring every sport has adequate facilities & equipment

If the tennis courts need resurfacing or the track hasn’t been updated in 10 years, while the football field gets annual upgrades, equity gaps begin to show.

2. Offering sports proportionate to student demographics

Your athletic offerings should align with the makeup of your student body. A 50/50 student gender split should be reflected in your sports opportunities.

3. Using inclusive language

Certain phrases and terminology can unintentionally exclude certain sports.

Wilton High School (CT) AD Bobby Rushton ran into this very issue:

“I said, ‘Looking forward to seeing everyone on the field,’ and a parent emailed me saying, ‘My daughter swims — that’s not a field.’ It was a good reminder that words matter.”

4. Promoting events on social media for all sports

Equity should always show up in your digital presence, especially as more of the community consumes athletics content online.

That means that you shouldn’t only post a gameday graphic for football every Friday night. From cross country meets to wrestling matches to cheerleading competitions, your athletic programs probably have multiple events happening every single day. 

And if you use a consistent system of sports graphics templates, you can easily cover all sports without adding hours to your workload.

“The easiest and quickest way to make sure you highlight everyone is with game day graphics. Every team has a game, so that’s one guaranteed touchpoint,” Frederica Newman, Athletic Director, Indian Creek School (MD).

WATCH: How to use social media to promote equity in your athletic department

5. Showcasing every sport in your athletics newsletter

Digital newsletters are a great way to tell every story coming out of your athletic department. Take advantage of unlimited space to highlight star athletes from every sport, provide game recaps, and promote upcoming events on a weekly or monthly basis. 

Look into digital newsletter tools like Gipper Engage that make it easy to create professional, branded digital newsletters and share them everywhere in no time. 

Why is equity so important in high school athletics?

Increasing visibility for school sports teams — especially online — has never mattered more. Families, athletes, and fans are constantly checking your school’s social media — and they’re paying attention to who’s being featured and who isn’t.

Former Peoples Academy (VT) Athletic Director Matt Ehrenrich learned this the hard way during his first year as an AD, “A reporter came to do a fall preview and I mentioned football, soccer, volleyball, and golf — and completely forgot cross country. One of our board members’ kids was on that team, and I heard about the mistake immediately.”

Matt quickly realized the meaning behind his mistake, “If I forget one team, I’m really forgetting a whole group of kids.”

“Forgetting” a group of kids can have real, tangible consequences for both the kids and your programs.

If those cross country kids don’t feel seen, they might not feel motivated to run as hard. Not only does this hurt their personal development and future opportunities, it might mean they don’t return to cross country in the seasons to come. This can lead to a drop in participation, or at worst, the need to eliminate the team entirely.

Equitable representation ensures your athletes continue to reap the benefits that high school athletics have to offer. And it helps guarantee that you can continue to offer all of your programs. 

Benefits of increasing visibility for high school sports teams

Equitable promotion and increasing visibility for school sports teams creates measurable, long-term benefits for the entire school community.

1. Increased participation and school enrollment

At Concordia Prep, Frederica Newman saw school-wide impact from consistent, equitable promotion:

“We saw data that showed since we started using social media consistently, our enrollment increased, our retention improved, and for the first time in five years, we had a waiting list.”

2. Increased student engagement

More visibility creates more excitement that students will want to be part of. Bobby noticed that his athletes started to take notice of his social media posting and wanted in.

“I had students coming up saying, ‘Can I help?’ Now I have a student team handling birthdays, photos, and even video reels for our socials.”

3. Increased student pride

When every sport is celebrated, students start supporting each other.

Frederica noticed this shift firsthand:

“We had football players showing up to volleyball games, fans coming in themes. tTat’s when you know your athletic culture is thriving.”

How to put equity into practice online

Use the following athletic program equity checklist to evaluate and strengthen your digital equity strategy.

• Evaluate the current state of your equity
• Create a content calendar
• Leverage templates & automation
• Build a team

1. Evaluate the current state of equity in your online presence

Start by auditing your athletic department’s online presence:

• Which sports appear most often in your social media posts?
• What content is typically included in your monthly digital newsletter?
• Which teams, athletes, or levels (JV, freshmen, middle school) are missing?
• How balanced is online representation across boys’ and girls’ sports?

Keeping a simple tally over 2–4 weeks can reveal major equity gaps. 

2. Create a content calendar

Look at your schedules and plan social media coverage for all events. Start with game-day posts, then expand to:

• Athlete spotlights
• Score updates
• Starting lineups
• Results

Planning is how you can promote all school sports throughout the year. Use tools like Gipper’s Content Planner to help you plan out and schedule your posts ahead of time.

3. Leverage templates and automation

While social media is a powerful tool for equity, it can be a time-consuming one. Luckily, there are content creation platforms like Gipper Engage built specifically for athletic directors, coaches, and other school staff that save time.

Gipper features thousands of ready-made graphic templates designed specifically for athletic needs, one-click branding, an opponent logo database, and post scheduling. These tools make it dramatically easier to support every program — especially non-revenue sports that don’t always get attention.

You can quickly:

• Customize templates to your branding
• Batch-create graphics
• Schedule posts for the full week

This is one of the most powerful ways to support engagement strategies for underrepresented sports.

4. Build a team

There are more people around to help than you think. Ask for support from your:

• Coaches
• Team managers
• Parents
• Student media teams

Students especially love helping. Many schools, like Bobby’s, run student media teams that handle most of their school’s social media content. More hands means more digital representation for your athletes.

Pro tip: Gipper makes it easy to build your content creation team. Invite unlimited users and give them access to your brand assets, so your content looks consistent, no matter who’s creating it. 

Committing to equity in your athletic department long-term

Equity in high school athletics is not a one-time initiative. It’s an ongoing commitment. As your program evolves, continue asking:

“Who isn’t being represented, and how can we change that?”

You can even get your community involved. Think about:

• Starting a student equity focus group
• Sending a monthly equity survey for parents
• Adding an equity section to your end-of-season surveys

The more you check on your equity, the better your athletic department will be at supporting non-revenue sports.

At the end of the day, increasing visibility for all sports is how athletic directors strengthen their programs, unify their communities, and ensure that every student has the chance to feel proud of their contribution.

 Frequently asked questions about online equity

Why is equity in high school athletics important?

Equity in high school athletics ensures every student-athlete feels valued, supported, and represented. Promoting fair visibility across all sports boosts participation, engagement, and team morale, while strengthening community pride. Schools that prioritize athletic equity also build sustainable programs and positive experiences for all students.

How can athletic directors ensure equal promotion for all high school sports?

Athletic directors can ensure equal promotion by auditing current sports coverage, creating a consistent social media and content calendar, and using sports graphics templates for every team. Leveraging tools, automation, and student or staff support helps maintain balanced promotion and visibility throughout the entire sports season.

What are effective ways to promote underrepresented or non-revenue high school sports?

To increase visibility for underrepresented or non-revenue sports, schools can share game-day graphics, athlete spotlights, score updates, behind-the-scenes content, and student-led media. Consistent, engaging posts—even if small—can significantly raise awareness and support for sports like cross country, golf, swimming, and others that typically receive less attention.

What tools can help athletic departments create equitable content?

Tools with sports graphics templates are extremely helpful for creating content that promotes all sports. Platforms like Gipper Engage also have social media scheduling and branding features that streamline your content creation workflow to save you time.