Vance: The red-letter days of Wilsonville football

Published 12:36 pm Monday, August 4, 2025

When is a coincidence not a coincidence?

When it’s so obvious why a thing has happened.

In this case, the “coincidence” is this — wherever Wilsonville plays football turns out to be the best Class 5A football league in Oregon.

It was true last year, when Wilsonville took its second straight 5A championship and Special District 2 foe Silverton advanced to the semifinals. Together, the Wildcats and Foxes helped SD2 teams go 6-2 in the postseason. The state’s next-best league – the Intermountain Conference – went 4-3 in the playoffs.

Miles Vance

Wilsonville made SD2 the state’s best last year by posting a trio of upsets in the 2024 state playoffs – the Wildcats beat No. 4 Churchill in the quarterfinals, No. 1 Silverton in the semifinals and No. 2 Mountain View in the championship.

In 2023, Wilsonville won the 5A title for the first time since 2004 and helped Special District 1 teams go 5-3 in the second season. The IMC also went 5-3, but didn’t get a state championship.

With that as pretext, it clearly makes sense to pay attention to what’s going on in any league where Wilsonville plays football, so here’s a look ahead to the red-letter days in the Wildcats’ coming 2025 fall season.

Non-league

In the 2025 non-league schedule, the Wildcats’ biggest games to watch are their Week 1 contest against Sandy (Sandy at Wilsonville, 7 p.m. Friday, Sept. 5), their Week 2 contest against Summit (Summit at Wilsonville, 7 p.m. Friday, Sept. 12), and their Week 5 game vs. North Medford (Wilsonville vs. North Medford at Spiegelberg Stadium, 7 p.m. Friday, Oct. 3).

Class 6A Sandy went 6-5 overall a year ago and reached the quarterfinals of the 6A Football State Championship (the lower Class 6A bracket), Summit went 6-5 overall in 2024 and reached the quarterfinals of the Class 5A state playoffs, while Class 6A North Medford went 9-4 in ’24 and won the 6A Football State Championship.

Special District 2

Wilsonville will face just one 2024 playoff team during the SD2 season, that against Hillsboro (7-3 overall in 2024) in Week 3. The Wildcats (11-2 overall in 2024) will face the Spartans at 7 p.m. Friday, Sept. 18, at Hare Field.

Other notable games include a pair of matchups against teams that went 5-4 in 2024, featuring Forest Grove at Wilsonville at 7 p.m. Friday, Sept. 26, and Wilsonville at Aloha at 7 p.m. Friday, Oct. 17.

Miles Vance is the sports editor for the Lake Oswego Review, West Linn Tidings and Wilsonville Spokesman. He has covered high school sports in Oregon for 37 years.