The WA high school football championships dumped Pierce County — but it’s not all bad | Opinion
Mainly, I’m just excited for the kids.
On Monday, news broke that the Washington Interscholastic Activities Association (WIAA) has struck a deal with the University of Washington — officially moving this year’s high school football state championship games to Husky Stadium in Seattle. Locally, that’s a big deal, because it ends a nearly 30-year run of Pierce County playing host to the contests.
The story was first reported by SBLive’s Todd Milles, a News Tribune alum who continues to have his finger on the pulse of high school sports across the state. For Tacoma and surrounding communities, there’s no question this latest development hits a bit differently.
Is it a snub? Sure. And if there’s one thing we’re good at here, it’s holding grudges. You have to go all the way back to 1994 to remember the last time high school state football championship games weren’t played in Pierce County, which is generations of memories and just as many years of the local economic benefits. Hurt feelings come naturally, particularly in a place accustomed to watching Seattle and King County get all the nice things.
Still, let’s be real for a moment. If there was a time to be upset about the WIAA abandoning Pierce County — or, from another point of view, Tacoma making things unnecessarily difficult for event organizers — it was 2019, when the Tacoma Dome was kicked to the curb. Anything that’s happened since, including the recent decision to move the games to Husky Stadium on a trial basis, just serves as another sign of a relationship that risks going sour.
More importantly, even if the ship sailed on high school football a long time ago, the Tacoma Dome is still home to the yearly high school basketball and wrestling state tournaments. We should all hope that the WIAA and the City of Tacoma, which publicly owns and operates the Tacoma Dome, can find a way to work together to keep both events in the 253 for years to come.
In the meantime, when it comes to high school football, let’s focus on what matters — the kids.
Because I can tell you this much for certain:
For the high school athletes lucky enough to compete in this year’s football state championship games, playing at Husky Stadium, which is widely considered to be one of the premiere college football venues in the country, will be a major upgrade from the humble confines of Sparks of Harry E. Lang stadiums, whether you’re a Pierce County booster or not.
As nice as it has been to have the games in our backyard, the state championship contests, first and foremost, are about the players, the coaches, the schools and the local families sitting in the stands — and that’s worth keeping in mind. I still remember 1991 and 1992 in the Kingdome, before the T-Dome became home to the championship games, watching Puyallup Vikings teams led by undersized quarterback Darren Erath come up painfully short two seasons in a row. The culminating matchups of the high school football season were simply bigger and better back then, win or lose — and the venue, even in all its concrete glory, was a big reason why.
Bottom line: I’m happy a new generation of high school football players will now have a similar experience. The teams and players deserve it, as do the communities they represent.
If some folks in Pierce County aren’t thrilled about the prospect, I’d suggest they stop and think about who they’re putting first.
