This fall, the Class 2A and 1A OSAA state girls volleyball tournaments will be moving out east to be hosted by La Grande High School and Eastern Oregon University on Nov. 7-8, moving from Ridgeview High School in Redmond which has hosted the two events since 2012.
La Grande School District Superintendent George Mendoza helped facilitate the move and believes bringing the state tournaments out east is the next step in the plan for athletics in the area.
La Grande High School remodeled its gym in 2018 and has capacity for 1,200 spectators with the option of running two matches at once on the floor.
Along with those renovations, Center Elementary next door to the high school has a high school-sized gym, and about a block away is La Grande Middle School which has its gym.
The facilities don’t end there though as the district opened the Wildcat Center next door to the middle school last year, a building that has three more gyms inside. And of course EOU has two courts that will be available for athletes as well.
All of those resources allow for teams to have plenty of space to warm up or practice as they get ready for the state competition.
“When you think of Eastern Oregon, we have elite athletic facilities,” Mendoza said. “We have athletic facilities that are at a high caliber relative to a lot of communities our size. We’re at a gold standard.”
The 2A and 1A athletes won’t have to share the same floor anymore as the plan is for EOU to host the 2A tournament while the 1A volleyballers will be competing inside La Grande High.
The deal is locked in for the fall of 2026 as well where the two sites will flip host duties with EOU hosting 1A and La Grande High hosting 2A.
Mendoza said the plan is to have an EOU match on the Thursday before the tournament, allowing the small school competitors a chance to watch a Mountaineers program that has become one of the best in the nation at the NAIA level, as seen by their 2025 preseason ranking in the top five of two major polls.
“To me, it’s the next step for the school district, for Eastern Oregon University, for the community to share our facilities and share our organization and our support to OSAA and our state,” Mendoza said. “Small-school kids that are likely from rural schools, getting to come to one of the best universities for rural school children and showcasing that facility, to me, is another win.”
As for some of the other logistics that go into hosting a culminating event, Mendoza has no worries that the town is ready.
A Hampton Inn recently opened with over 90 rooms, joining three other large hotels in the area. There’s around 50 places listed on Airbnb and more boutique hotels as well to host all the teams and families coming over.
EOU and La Grande are both wired to stream the state events online for those who can’t make the trip.
“We got lodging, we got restaurants, we got facilities, we got businesses that would be welcoming,” Mendoza said. “We have good technology for streaming things, making sure we support with that too.”
La Grande hasn’t had the chance often to host events while towns like Pendleton and Baker have hosted state basketball tournaments for a long time.
Last fall, Eastern Oregon hosted a couple state semifinal football games at the 8-man and 6-man level, opening the door for further collaboration.
Now, the town will have its own event to craft and to make into something uniquely La Grande.
“La Grande is a beautiful town,” Mendoza said. “For us to be able to bring state competition into our community, it’s a community that I think is going to be a great host and a community that I think will be really excited to welcome a lot of teams and a lot of people.”
austinw@osaa.org
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