Tumwater High School

Tumwater High School offers athletic teams in cross country, golf, football, soccer, dance, swim and dive, tennis, volleyball, basketball, bowling, wrestling, baseball, fastpitch, and track and field. Tumwater also offers a club rifle team, which currently holds two national championships.

The town has supported athletics at Tumwater High School and the recently formed Black Hills High School. The school's teams are known as the T-Birds, and have experienced success at the league, district and state level for all of their teams since the school's founding.

Tumwater is best known for its football program. Most of the success can be credited to long time head football coach Sid Otton, who coached from 1973–2016. In the 2005 season Otton broke the all-time Washington state wins record of 273 wins.[2] During Otton's tenure, Tumwater won five state titles, was nationally ranked four times, and made the state playoffs more than 23 times. The final state title won under Coach Otton was on December 4, 2010 against Archbishop Murphy High School in the 2A State Football Championship, with a score of 34–14. Otton compiled a career record of 394–131 in 49 seasons and retired following the 2016 season after 43 years at Tumwater. He retired as the all-time winningest high school football coach in Washington State history. He was elected to the Washington State Football Coaches Association Hall of Fame in 1996[3] For the 2017 season, former Otton player Bill Beattie ('78) took over as head coach and has continued the "Tumwater Winning Football" tradition. The T-birds won their 6th State football title with a 48–34 win over Steilacoom High School on December 7, 2019.[4][5]

Tumwater has also experienced success on the basketball court with both the boys' (third year straight, a school record) and girls' basketball (second straight year) teams making state together in back-to-back years for the first time in school history.

The Tumwater volleyball program has also had a lot of success over the years, including winning the state championship in 2008, 2014, and 2016. Many of the former Tumwater Volleyball players have gone on to play at the collegiate level. They are attending colleges such as Gonzaga University, Northwest University, Eastern Oregon University, Western Oregon University, and many other schools.[6]

Baseball has also become a perineal contended since 2013, earning the schools first State Championship in 2022.

Tumwater High School is a 2A-division member of the Washington Interscholastic Activities Association.[7]

State championships, 2nd place:

• Girls' basketball - 2007, 2010
• Girls' cross country - 1984
• Fastpitch softball - 1992
• Boys' golf - 1997, 1998
• Boys' tennis - 1986
• Boys' track and field - 1992
• Girls' volleyball - 2007, 2011, 2015
• Baseball - 2013

The Theatre program at THS has an outstanding history, including many national and state titles for their multitude of talented students. Past TAC Directors include Amy Ullen, Kristina Cummins, Joann Boswell, Robin Tuckett, and Heidi Fredericks. The current TAC Director is Harrison Fry.

Past Shows Include:

2006–2007: Romeo and Juliet, Murder's In The Heir

2007–2008: The Miracle Worker, Ask Any Girl, Little Shop of Horrors

2008–2009: The 11 Variations of Friar John, The Crucible, Anything Goes

2009–2010: Trouble at the Talent Show, Anatomy of Gray, Much Ado About Nothing, Once On This Island

2010–2011: Little Women, The Ugly Duckling, The Brother's Grimm, The Music Man

2011–2012: Our Town, A Midsummer Night's Dream, The Pirates of Penzance

2012–2013: Harvey, A winter showcase of 6 one-act plays, Aida

2013–2014: How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying, Julius Caesar

2014–2015: The Voice of the Prairie, The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee, The Tempest

2015–2016: Macbeth, Arsenic and Old Lace, Oliver!

2016–2017: Twelfth Night, Little Shop of Horrors, The Mousetrap

2017–2018: Frankenstein, Guys And Dolls, The Wind in the Willows

2018–2019: A Midsummer Night's Dream, Check Please, Once Upon a Mattress

• Brooke Feldmeier, 800m runner
• Cade Otton, NFL Tight End for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers

• Tumwater High School website