The Ohio high school soccer state finals are returning to the home of the Columbus Crew for the first time since 2022, the Ohio High School Athletic Association announced Monday.
All 10 state finals — five girls games and five boys games — are scheduled for Nov. 13-16 at ScottsMiracle-Gro Field, the downtown Columbus stadium where the Crew play. The games had been held at Historic Crew Stadium each of the past three years but are moving because of turf maintenance.
OHSAA officials said the change is meant to make sure players and fans get the quality playing surface and game-day experience a state final deserves. The announcement landed Monday morning, about five weeks before the championship weekend.
ScottsMiracle-Gro Field is no stranger to the event. When the stadium opened as Lower.com Field, it hosted the finals in 2021 and 2022, the building’s first two years. The games then moved back to Historic Crew Stadium in 2023, a venue that had hosted the finals every year since it opened in 1999.
That move was partly driven by the risk of schedule conflicts between the high school finals and the Crew’s own playoff games. With turf work now sidelining the older stadium, the finals are downtown again.
The girls brackets open the weekend, with Division IV and V finals on Friday, Nov. 13, followed by Divisions I, III and II on Saturday, Nov. 14. The boys finals follow on Sunday, Nov. 15, and Monday, Nov. 16, with the Division I and II title games closing out each night.
