Maryland Public Secondary Schools Athletic Association

Maryland Public Secondary Schools Athletic Association (MPSSAA), is the association that oversees public high school sporting contests in the state of Maryland. Organized after World War II in 1946, the MPSSAA is made up of public high schools from each of Maryland's 23 counties and independent city of Baltimore City, which joined the association in 1993 when its public high schools withdrew at the orders of a new Superintendent of Public Instruction (schools) in the Baltimore City Public Schools from the earlier longtime athletic league, the Maryland Scholastic Association (M.S.A.) which was founded in 1919. The MSA had been composed of public high schools in the City of Baltimore and private / religious / independent schools on the secondary level in the City of Baltimore and its metropolitan area and the surrounding central Maryland region. It was one of the few state-level interscholastic athletic leagues in the nation composed of both public and private/religious/independent secondary schools. After the Baltimore City public high schools withdrew from the MSA, the remaining private/religious/independent schools conferred and organized two parallel regional/state-wide athletic leagues with sports competition and exercise activities with one for young men and the other for young women. These were the Maryland Interscholastic Athletic Association (M.I.S.A.A. - for boys) and the Interscholastic Athletic Association of Maryland]] (I.S.A.A.M. - for girls) which endured today. All three state-wide athletic leagues, two for private/religious/independent secondary schools and one for co-ed public high schools exist today marrying on the proud traditions, memories and championships of the old Maryland Scholastic Association (MSA) - one of the oldest state athletic leagues for secondary schools in the country.

The current MPSSAA includes nearly 200 public high schools, with more than 110,000 student-athletes participating in 24 sports. The Maryland State Board of Education establishes the rules and regulations governing the Maryland Public Secondary Schools Athletic Association athletic programs and functions under the Division of Instruction of the Maryland State Department of Education. All qualified public high schools in Maryland in the 23 counties who qualify under rules and regulations may become members of the Maryland Public Secondary Schools Athletic Association.

The purpose of the Association is to promote, direct, and control all interscholastic activities of high school students; to establish, maintain, and enforce regulations to assure that all such activities are part of and contribute toward the comprehensive educational program of the state of Maryland; to work with the state department of education in the development of the program to safeguard the physical, mental, and moral welfare of high school students and protect them from exploitation.