My oldest son and I have been attending high school football & basketball games since he was 3. He mostly climbed around the stadium or bleacher seating and eats snacks at that age, but we have a great time, and it’s fun for me to see live action sports in a cheap and relatively hassle-free way: plenty of free parking & empty seats to choose from, bring your own food– or buy the concessions and support those boosters groups– and they’re pretty lenient on the bag/security rules for an old guy and his kiddo. You can even bring a football to throw around at the bigger stadiums.
We print out the schedules, pin them to the fridge, and then attend as we feel like it, no advance planning required!
Tickets are mostly smart phone-only via an app that you download. WIAA tournament ticket info is here for the Washington state championships.
Find your local H.S. sports
Try MaxPreps.com to find high school sports near you, since this post will focus on Washington state and specifically around Seattle.
Washington state H.S. sports
Here’s the full WIAA (Washington state athletics) page to find whatever sport interests you, including a list of all the leagues & ‘districts’ (geographic areas) and their schools. You can get to all the schedules, standings, and RPI ‘power rankings’ from there too. Info on the state tournaments is here. Start off attending games with the top teams to see the best play if you don’t much care which schools you watch!
Seattle-area high school sports
Here’s some resources to get in on the action:
Football (Fall)
Seattle’s Metro League is 3A, the 2nd highest division in Washington state. They ain’t bad! Here’s their schedule.
There are two 4A (top) divisions in the Seattle area, Kingco and Wesco. Here’s the Kingco schedule, and the Wesco one.
Fall sports include girls soccer and lower division boys soccer, slowpitch softball, cross country running, girls swimming, and volleyball.
Basketball (Winter)
The same leagues are available for basketball, girls or boys, and the state boys tournament is held at the Tacoma Dome. My son and I went last year and had a good time, taking breaks in between games to grab lunch in Tacoma and wander the city’s historic downtown.
Wrestling (Winter)
Watching Vision Quest (1985) inspired me to attend some wrestling matches. My son and I will try to get to one this year and will report back here! Here’s a video on the basic rules for those that are uninitiated. Winter also includes gymnastics, girls bowling, and boy swimming.
Wrestling state championships
February 20th and 21st will feature the top division boys & girls wrestlers’ tournament at the Tacoma Dome in 2025. Feb 21st and 22nd, 2025 will have the lower divisions.
Spring Sports (Baseball, boys soccer, fastpitch softball, tennis, track & field, golf)
There’s baseball and soccer too.
