RENTON, Wash. — With the beginning of the 2026-27 high school sports  year just weeks away, here is VarsityWA reporter Todd Milles’ sitdown  Q&A session with WIAA executive director Mick Hoffman on Aug. 10.

Editor’s note: Questions and answers were lightly edited for clarity.

Milles:  Last December, Husky Stadium was the host site of Gridiron Classic, the  state football championships, for a third season. And this summer, the  WIAA and University of Washington agreed on it being held there again in  December.

How would you assess that partnership  at this point, and what are the most encouraging aspects of holding the  state championships at Husky Stadium? What are some tweaks the WIAA is  considering to further enhance the player and fan experience?

Hoffman: As far as the  partnership, it’s been phenomenal — the Huskies have been really,  really good to us to make their facility available and affordable with a  lot of access. I mean, the home team gets to dress in their locker  room, and what an honor that is. They’ve been really, really good  partners and we really appreciate that.

As far as tweaks,  one of the issues we want to run into at a lot of our events is when  somebody wins a state championship, the people who love them want to  celebrate with them. We get people trying to storm the field, which we  cannot have. It’s way too dangerous … so we cannot have that happening.  What we’re talking about is taking one of the aspects and trying to find  a way to do this at Husky Stadium like what happened in the Tacoma Dome  where you have a ‘Celebration Zone’ for the team that wins the  championship. So we are trying to figure out logistically how we can get  the team once they finish the ceremonial stuff on the field where we  can move them somewhere that they can have the people who supported them  — their fans, their families and anybody else — to be able to be with  them and celebrate in real time in an appropriate setting so the fans  don’t feel like they have to go on the field.

We haven’t figured  it out yet. We will walk the stadium and talk with UW and come up with  something. (WIAA assistant executive director) Andy Barnes, if anybody  can figure it out, it will be Andy. He is the one who has led this  partnership with (UW associate athletic director for events and  facilities) Dan (Erickson) and his team (Miles Dutton, Lily King), and  (UW associate AD for operations and capital projects) Chip (Lydum) at  UW, and so we have a lot of confidence we will get it figured out.

Milles:  Washington high school football coaches throughout the state were  polled by VarsityWA, and 120 responded to the question, “Where would you  like to see Gridiron Classic in five years — Husky Stadium, Tacoma Dome  or renovated Seattle Memorial Stadium?”

Half (60  coaches) said Husky Stadium. Nearly 33 percent (39 coaches) still  prefer it being held at the Tacoma Dome. Ten percent (12 coaches) are open to looking into renovated Memorial Stadium as a future site.

Given  the state of Gridiron Classic three years ago and it being held in  three high school stadiums, what is your take on this current poll?

Hoffman: It’s not surprising. I would hope people enjoy, especially those who  have been there and experienced it, that being at Husky Stadium is a  phenomenal experience, even though it’s an open-air stadium and we are  playing in December. So whether it’s been a little wet or a little cold,  we are still playing at Husky Stadium on a college campus. It doesn’t  surprise me that we would have a majority of people want it (at Husky  Stadium).

We are in the memory-making business, so it makes  sense for those coaches that were in the Tacoma Dome and maybe the ones  who don’t want to be in the weather in December would prefer it being  in there. The challenge there is, it’s way more expensive and there’s no  turf available right now for it, so you’d have to come up with a couple  million bucks to make that happen. I am sure the Tacoma Dome would love  to make that happen, and hey, we are working there for two full days in  setting up the day before and tearing down the day after. Being inside  would be awesome as well.

But it is good to hear that people  appreciate what the Huskies are doing for our students and our schools.  How does that compare to three years ago? Well, we were in high school  stadiums, which we thought were great stadiums. We had some people who  appreciated that real intimate setting. But it’s going to be tough in  this state to compete with the University of Washington.

Milles:  Another state in Florida adopted an ‘Open Division’ format for their state playoffs in June. Now, it sounds like an amendment for a similar  format will be proposed this fall for Washington, pushing to ratify a  version of an all-classification ‘Open Division’ for its state football  playoffs.

Do you think it’s a good idea, and why or why not?

Hoffman: I think it’s a great idea if people are interested in doing something  different and they bring something forward and it gets a chance to be  debated (by the WIAA representative assembly).

The ‘Open  Division,’ what is really cool about it is it doesn’t matter what  classification you are in. So if your best conceived team is a 2A team …  or a 2B 11-man team, they get to compete against anybody, and I think  that would be a really fun experience.

What we’ve seen and heard  from other states when we’ve studied it is it depends where the cutoff  (for participants) is. So, we’ve heard of some where they did a 16-team  ‘Open Division,’ and the 16th team didn’t like it, the 15th (team)  didn’t like it. The top four to seven (seeds) liked it. So they’ve  adjusted over time to go to eight (participants) in some of those  situations.

Another (example) is what happened just south of our  border here in Oregon … where they did a 64-team (OSAA football)  tournament where the top 32 play for a state championship and where  (Nos.) 33 through 64 played for the ‘Cascade Cup,’ an unofficial type  championship. All of a sudden, (No.) 32 was playing No. 1 rather than  playing (No.) 33 at home. It is a big difference in competition. Their season was shorter. All of a sudden, No. 40 is playing two or three  extra weeks because they are one of the higher seeds in their part of  the bracket, and No. 32 is getting (put on) running clock the first week  because they are playing the best team in the state.

It’s not as  simple as it sounds. We’ve learned that. It doesn’t mean that it  shouldn’t happen. I have full faith in our coaches and ADs and  superintendents taking a hard look at this and coming up with something.  If we can make a better system for everybody, hey, we are all for it.

Milles:  After Year 1 of WIAA sanctioned girls flag football, do you have a  sense on the way it will trend in participation and popularity for the  future?

Hoffman: We are hearing  more where schools are going to add it. Lynnwood, I believe, the school  district up there has already announced they are adding it. Spokane  schools have said they are interested in doing maybe a modified or full  version this winter as well. We are hearing more and more east-side  schools are interested in it, and maybe some school districts that are  late adopters — southwest Washington, we are hearing there is some  interest starting it down there. We expect it to continue to expand.

Milles: In May, it was announced that Bellevue School District athletic and activities director and WIAA executive board member Jeff Lowell was hired as a WIAA assistant executive director for a new position created called Compliance and Member Engagement.

Please outline why the new position was created and what his new role and responsibilities are?

Hoffman: We created the position out of need essentially. As a self-governing  agency, our schools are expected to be watchful of each other, and self  report when they have their violations, and if they believe somebody  else is violating (rules), to (report them).

In the last  few years, you have maybe seen or heard of more findings of schools  being penalized for violations. And that is because schools are coming  forward and bringing concerns to us, and then we’ve sent them to the  schools that are investigating, then leagues and the WIAA districts get  them all.

The volume of that has been increasing. People are  seeing that if they are willing to come forward and speak up, (the  issues) will be addressed. We want (WIAA) staff to address it. We wanted  to create a position that could help schools as they go through these  processes and tracking (issues).

Any of those types of violations,  what a lot of people don’t understand is when there is a violation that  gets reported to the league, then the league decides what the penalty  is. Then that goes to the WIAA district and they do that same process —  they review what the league did and either agree or disagree, or alter  it in some way. Depending on the level of violation, it goes to the  (WIAA) district directors and then the (WIAA) executive board.

Somebody  has to track that process all the way through the system, and honestly  with what we were trying to do in service to our schools, we needed more  help to be able to do that well.

The other piece of this is, the  schools would ask, “How do we do this, or what should we be doing, or  what questions do we ask?” And so, that is another part for Jeff. He  just started Aug. 1, and he’s already created some guidance documents  for schools to help answer some of those questions.

When he  applied and was chosen for the job, the response from people who worked  with him are like, “That is a good fit!” He understands it and did that  kind of work in schools where he was successful in monitoring and  helping with processes like that.

Again, he’s been very active in  our AD association, so it is not like we are looking to get anybody.  It’s that if somebody makes a mistake, which are inevitable, how do we  make it right? How do we address it in real time and then how do you  earn the trust in your way back so you are not being penalized for the  same thing over and over and over? You own it and move forward.

Essentially, that is the gist of the new position, along with multiple other things.