In short: As a fan, a free MaxPreps account lets you follow your favorite teams and athletes, get final scores and rankings updates automatically, join game chat, save 10% on professional photos, and help keep your school's coverage accurate by reporting scores. There is no paid MaxPreps membership — it is free.
Follow your teams and athletes
Favoriting is the core of a fan account. Search for a school, team, or athlete, then choose Follow on the team or profile page.
- Everything you follow appears in your account menu, so your teams are one click away from any page on the site.
- You can follow multiple schools — your kids' teams, your alma mater, and rivals you want to keep an eye on.
- Following an athlete keeps you current on their stats, photos, videos, and awards.
Your follows carry over to the MaxPreps app when you sign in with the same account.
Updates you get automatically
When you favorite a team, MaxPreps subscribes you to these updates so you do not have to configure anything:
- Final Scores — as soon as a game is finished.
- Rankings — weekly, when your team moves up or down.
- Videos, Photos, & Articles — when your team is featured or tagged.
- MaxPreps Messaging — occasional announcements about new features and high school sports stories.
You control all of it. Every list can be turned off individually in your account settings under Communications Preferences — see MaxPreps Emails & Notifications for the full breakdown and frequency of each. Available alert options vary by sport, team, and whether you are on the web or the app.
Game chat
Signed-in fans can join the chat on a game's contest page and follow along with other fans while it is happening.
Save 10% on professional photos
MaxPreps photographers shoot thousands of high school games, and those galleries are available to buy. Members get 10% off every order, with no expiration — the promo code is applied automatically at checkout as long as you are signed in. Details and print sizes are in Purchasing Professional Photos.
Help cover your school
Fans keep a lot of MaxPreps current, especially at smaller schools where no one is entering results.
- Report a final score when a game wraps and the score has not been posted yet — see How do fans report scores?
- Provide live play-by-play updates for a game. Some contests show a Sign Up to Score Game option when a team still needs a scorer. See Become a MaxPreps Scorer.
- Submit a correction if a score, roster, or schedule looks wrong.
Watching games is separate
Streaming live and on-demand games is a paid subscription through the NFHS Network, not part of your free MaxPreps membership. If you have questions about billing or access for it, MaxPreps Subscription Support points you to the right place. Any recurring charge you see is an NFHS Network video subscription — MaxPreps membership itself never has a fee.
How to get started
- Create your free account, or sign in if you already have one.
- Search for your school and follow its teams.
- Follow any athletes you want to keep up with.
If you are a parent of an athlete, or a coach or athletic director, you can do more than follow — What You Get With a Free MaxPreps Account covers claiming a profile and requesting Team Admin access. Getting Started on MaxPreps shows all three paths side by side.
What to keep in mind
Some teams have thinner coverage than others, because most scores, rosters, and stats come from coaches and volunteers at each school. If your school's page is out of date, reporting scores or encouraging a coach to claim Team Admin access is the fastest fix. If you cannot find a school or athlete at all, see Unable to find Athlete or School.
Last updated: July 2026.