ABSTRACT A phrase commonly used within high school sport is “education-based athletics”; however, there is no empirical investigation on the meaning of this phrase, nor how it is specific to the high school sport context. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to examine high school sport administrators’ perceptions of the meaning of “education-based” high school sport. Utilizing a grounded theory approach, nine administrators participated in interviews and defined “education-based” athletics as an extracurricular sport-based context that supports the mission of the academic institution through offering youth experiential learning of life skills with the aim of developing constructive members of society. Supplementary categories detail administrators’ aspirations for high school sport and challenges they face in actualizing those aspirations. By recognizing the purpose of sport embedded within an academic institution as a contextual obligation, practitioners and coaches will be encouraged to anchor future work toward long-term development aimed to increase civic engagement.