Will high school football state championships continue at Husky Stadium? WIAA weighs in
Standing on the sideline of the University of Washington’s Husky Stadium after winning the Class 2B state championship game on Saturday afternoon, Okanogan High School running back David Huffstetler summed up his view of the surroundings succinctly.
“It’s a lot nicer than our field,” he said.
Indeed, the 70,000-plus capacity Husky Stadium on the shores of Lake Washington — one of the premier college football venues in the country — safely beats out the high school field at Okanogan, a town of about 2,500 people near the central-northeast corner of the state, about an hour north of Chelan.
It’s the first year the Washington Interscholastic Activities Association has held the Washington state high school football championships at Husky Stadium. Since the WIAA left the Tacoma Dome after the 2018 football season, the championships had been hosted by three Pierce County high school venues: Sparks Stadium in Puyallup, Mount Tahoma in Tacoma and Harry E. Lang Stadium in Lakewood.
Moving the championships to the high school stadiums was largely viewed as a stopgap until the WIAA could find a larger venue to call home. After years of work, the UW and WIAA struck an agreement on a one-year deal for the 2023 title games, effectively a one-year trial for both sides. The feedback has been overwhelmingly positive so far.
“Everyone needs to send a thank-you letter to UW,” said Okanogan coach Erick Judd. “This is a great experience being here. It’s just bigger. It just feels bigger than the other facilities.”
That’s the type of feedback WIAA executive director Mick Hoffman and assistant executive director Andy Barnes have been receiving, too.
“The feedback we’ve gotten from the schools has been super positive,” Barnes told The News Tribune on Saturday. “The staff loves it and it’s a great experience and a great setting for this.”
There have been some minor logistical kinks to work out, but all in all, everything has run smoothly during the six-game, two-day event. And the experience? It’s once-in-a-lifetime for the high school athletes, most of whom won’t be playing football at the next level.
“I came to my first Huskies game when I was six (years old), said I wanted to play here and finally made it happen,” said Liberty Bell quarterback Lucien Paz, after winning the Class 1B state championship game on Friday.
To Hoffman and Barnes, that’s the magic of holding the games at Husky Stadium.
“Just the experience of walking into the stadium,” Barnes said. “Obviously, for the home teams, getting to go in the Husky locker room and seeing what that looks like. For some of these kids that get to play at the next level, that’s really cool and for the kids that this is going to be their last football game, it’s a great memory that they’ll always have.”
Even the coaches on the losing end have given glowing reviews.
“Normally, the winning coaches have less complaints,” Hoffman said, laughing. “Even with that, they’re thanking us for giving the students the opportunity to be here.”
WHAT DOES THE FUTURE HOLD?
Holding the games at Husky Stadium was the result of years of work from Barnes, former UW athletic director Jen Cohen, and Dan Erickson, UW associate athletic director for events and facilities. After its initial bid was too costly, Hoffman said UW came back this year with a bid that made financial sense for the WIAA. The cost to the WIAA is around $70,000, which Hoffman said he expects to rise to approximately $80,000 after accounting for additional staffing.
Cohen is gone, leaving for the sunshine and palm trees at USC. Hoffman said the WIAA hasn’t sat down with new UW athletic director Troy Dannen yet, but they’re hopeful they can continue to host state championship games at Husky Stadium for years to come.
“We’re hoping to be able to continue,” Hoffman said. “(Dannen) has got a lot of stuff going on right now. The feedback we’re getting as we’re here has been positive, so we’re hoping it works out for them, as well.
They’ve been gracious, they said pretty much, ‘Here you go, just don’t break it.’ … The good news, with Troy coming in, he was a high school association director in Iowa. He’s a high school guy by trade. We’ve done some homework on him and everything we’re hearing is that he’s a really, really good man. So if it works for them, we’re assuming we’ll be able to maintain this.”
If for some reason talks break down, Hoffman said they’ll talk with Lumen Field and other sites about holding the state championship games in future years.
As of Saturday afternoon, prior to the 3 p.m. Class 2A championship game, Hoffman said they had sold around 11,000 tickets. They’re expecting that number to climb with walk-up sales for the 4A championship game, the final game of the weekend. The figures are in line with what the WIAA was expecting and hoping for.
“Last year, we were just over 10,000,” Hoffman said. “An average year is 12,000. A good year would be 15,000.”
It’s hard to imagine the games going back to high school venues, unless no other option is available.
“Our job is to make lifetime memories for kids and a facility like this helps solidify that,” Hoffman said.
This story was originally published December 2, 2023 at 4:33 PM.
