[8] In 1985 Kim Maixner of the Bismarck Tribune wrote that the institution "has prided itself on its strong athletic department for many years.
[5] The now-defunct New England High School football program won four North Dakota High School Activities Association 9-man state championships from 1988 to 1997 before the team dissolved in 2006 due to low participation numbers.
[9] The cooperative team of New England-Regent-New England St. Mary's won the 1988 state championship over Hope-Page-Clifford-Galesburg by a score of 36–33.
[14] Mike Schatz, the coach of all four championship teams, erected a sign on his land outside of New England in 2016 to celebrate the city's football success.
[15] Schatz was inducted into the North Dakota High School Coaches Association Hall of Fame in 2010.
[16] Facing the possibility of not having enough male students to continue fielding its own team, New England formed a football cooperative agreement in 2006[17] with neighboring Dickinson Trinity, but exited that agreement in 2016 to form a new cooperative with Mott-Regent in 2017.
[19] In 2014, the New England Booster Club began efforts to revive football in the community by starting a youth program.