Oregon Coast · Oregon
Youth Sports in Seaside: Leagues, Facilities & What Families Need (2026)
Youth sports in Seaside, Oregon operate differently than what most families expect when relocating from larger markets. This is a small coastal city of roughly 7,100 people, and the youth sports ecosystem reflects that scale — community-run, volunteer-heavy, and built on a philosophy of keeping costs as low as possible for everyone. That last part matters more here than in most places.
The landscape is shaped by two primary entities: Seaside Kids Inc., a community organization committed to free or low-cost athletic access for every child, and the Sunset Empire Park and Recreation District (SEPRD), which provides the facilities, staff infrastructure, and programming backbone that makes it all possible. The two operate in close partnership, and for most recreational sports in Seaside, one or both names will appear in your registration process.
This guide covers the full youth sports picture — recreational leagues, high school athletics at Seaside High, travel sports realities, and registration timing for 2026. Whether you're a family looking for a low-pressure T-ball program for a 4-year-old or a competitive basketball family wondering what the regional circuit looks like, you'll find what you need here.
| Organization | Sport | Age Range | Type |
|---|---|---|---|
| Seaside Kids Inc. / SEPRD | T-Ball | Ages 3–6 (two groups) | Recreational |
| Seaside Kids Inc. / SEPRD | Baseball (Rookies) | 1st–2nd Grade | Recreational |
| Seaside Kids Inc. / SEPRD | Baseball (Minors) | 3rd–4th Grade | Recreational/Developmental |
| Seaside Kids Inc. / JBO | Baseball (JBO) | 5th–8th Grade | Competitive |
| Seaside Kids Inc. / SEPRD | Softball | Ages 8U–14U | Rec/Competitive |
| Pacific Basketball League | Basketball Tournaments | Youth divisions | Competitive (Tournament) |
| SEPRD | Swimming / Aquatic Fitness | Youth | Recreational |
| SEPRD | Taekwondo | Youth | Recreational |
| SEPRD | After-School Programs | School-age | Enrichment |
| SEPRD | Summer Youth Programs | Ages 3–12+ | Enrichment/Recreation |
Seaside Kids Inc. runs three baseball age tiers: Rookies for 1st and 2nd graders, Minors for 3rd and 4th graders, and JBO for 5th through 8th grade players. The younger two divisions are strictly developmental and recreational in focus, built around building confidence and basic mechanics rather than standings. Registration for the 2026 season is currently open via the SEPRD portal at sunsetempire.com.
All practices and home games are held at Broadway Field, located inside Broadway Park along Neawanna Creek — the same field used by the Seaside High School varsity baseball team when not in use during the school sports calendar. The field is available for rent outside of Seaside High's regular season windows.
Registration timing for the younger divisions fills quickly in late winter — families targeting the Rookies or Minors programs should register in February rather than waiting for March.
Competitive track: JBO players (5th–8th grade) compete in Oregon-organized junior baseball through Junior Baseball Organization Inc., with Seaside teams hosting games locally while Astoria Parks and Recreation handles broader seasonal coordination.
T-ball is the entry point for the youngest athletes in Seaside, offered in two age-appropriate groups: one for 3–4 year olds and one for 5–6 year olds. The program emphasizes basic motor skills and first exposure to teamwork in a low-pressure environment — this is not a scored or standings-tracked program.
Games and practices are run through SEPRD's Broadway Park complex at 1140 Broadway St, which gives young players easy access to the adjacent playground and green space. The indoor training facility at Broadway Park is also available for weather days, which matters a great deal on the Oregon coast.
Spring registration typically opens in February, and the younger age group (3–4) tends to fill quickly as it's many families' first point of contact with Seaside Kids Inc.
Competitive track: None — this is a pure introductory program.
Softball under the Seaside Kids Inc. and SEPRD partnership runs four age divisions from 8U through 14U, with a deliberate step-up in complexity as players advance — 8U focuses on batting and fielding fundamentals, while 12U and 14U players begin facing live pitching in a more structured competitive format. The program is co-ed at the youngest level and increasingly girls-specific at the upper divisions.
Broadway Field serves as the primary venue, with coordination support from Astoria Parks and Recreation for league scheduling at the JBO-equivalent level. Skills assessments for placement are held at the Broadway Field Hitting Facility, which doubles as part of the indoor training space.
Spring registration opens alongside baseball — February is the right window, and upper-division spots can be limited depending on volunteer coaching availability in a given year.
Competitive track: 12U and 14U players with strong skills can pursue travel softball through regional clubs based in Astoria or the Portland metro, typically requiring a 90-minute or longer commitment to practice and tournament travel.
Seaside's most regionally significant youth sports asset is its basketball tournament circuit. Since 1993, the Pacific Basketball League has hosted seven to nine tournament weekends annually in Seaside, drawing teams from Oregon, Washington, Idaho, California, and western Canada. These are not local rec league games — they are destination tournaments that fill Seaside hotels and generate a genuine competitive atmosphere inside the SEPRD gym at Broadway.
The SEPRD facility includes gymnasium space with courts for basketball at the main complex on Broadway Street, with the warm-water pool and fitness areas adjacent. Tournament registration is managed through the Pacific Basketball League (PO Box 1015, Seaside, OR 97138).
For local families, the tournament weekends also represent an opportunity for kids playing recreational basketball through SEPRD to watch high-level competition in their own backyard — which is not something most coastal Oregon communities can offer.
Competitive track: Families pursuing year-round competitive basketball will need to connect with club programs in Astoria or Portland, as Seaside does not have a standalone competitive club program outside of the tournament circuit.
SEPRD's main facility at 1140 Broadway includes both an indoor lap pool and a warm water therapy pool, with structured youth swimming programs available seasonally. The Bob Chisholm Community Center and Mary Blake Playhouse, both managed by SEPRD, add art classes, pottery, Taekwondo, and yoga to the youth activity calendar — filling the gap for families whose kids aren't sports-focused or are between sports seasons.
The Broadway Park complex also features an award-winning skate park with modern ramps, rails, and bowls, and ADA-accessible kayak and canoe access to the Neawanna River — both of which function as informal youth activity infrastructure even outside of organized programming.
Seaside High School competes as the Seagulls in the 4A-1 Cowapa League, one of the more geographically spread conferences in Oregon's coast and Columbia River region. League rivals include the Astoria Fishermen, Scappoose Indians, St. Helens Lions, and Tillamook Cheesemakers — schools ranging from 320 to over 600 in enrollment, which means Seaside often competes against programs with larger roster depth. The school is located at 2600 Spruce Dr in a building completed in 2021, purposefully built on a ridge above the tsunami inundation zone.
Fall sports include football, volleyball, cross country, golf, and swimming. Winter brings boys and girls basketball, where the program carries its strongest recent legacy — the Seagulls basketball teams won back-to-back 4A state championships, making them the first program to repeat as 4A champions since the classification was established in 2006–07. Spring covers baseball, softball, track and field, and tennis. For families with multi-sport athletes, the seasonal spread gives kids genuine flexibility without major calendar conflicts.
SEPRD's youth programming extends well beyond league sports. The Seaside Youth Center, located within the Broadway Park complex, anchors after-school and summer programming for school-age children, with a focus on supervised activity and enrichment during the hours when working parents need coverage. Preschool programs run through the same facility system for the youngest kids.
The Bob Chisholm Community Center adds Taekwondo, art classes, and pottery to the menu — programs that matter to families whose children aren't drawn to team sports or who are navigating an off-season. Senior lunch programs and movie events at the same facility make it a multigenerational community hub rather than a single-purpose gym complex. SEPRD's stated P.L.A.Y. philosophy — Positive Life Activities for You — explicitly prioritizes low-to-no-cost access as the organizing principle for everything on the calendar.
Families relocating to Seaside for the youth sports programs tend to zero in on neighborhoods with quick access to Broadway Middle School fields, the Seaside High athletic complex, and the community center facilities near Downtown. From what I see in purchase activity, homes in South Seaside and Seaside East tend to move fast — sometimes within days of listing — because they offer that practical combination of proximity to sports facilities, quieter residential streets, and reasonable price points. North Seaside draws similar interest from active families, and well-priced homes there under $600,000 rarely sit long before receiving multiple offers.
Here's what I tell every family before they start touring: get a full payment picture first, not just a loan approval number. Your actual monthly obligation includes property taxes, homeowner's insurance, any HOA dues, and your specific loan structure — and those figures together can look quite different from the number your approval letter shows. The families who move confidently on a home are the ones who already know their comfortable budget, not just their maximum. In a market like Seaside where desirable inventory moves quickly, preparation genuinely matters.
| Sport | Organization | Registration Window | Season Dates | Where to Register |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| T-Ball (Ages 3–4) | SEPRD | February–March 2026 | Spring (April–June) | sunsetempire.com |
| T-Ball (Ages 5–6) | SEPRD | February–March 2026 | Spring (April–June) | sunsetempire.com |
| Baseball – Rookies (1st–2nd) | Seaside Kids Inc. | February 2026 (open now) | Spring | sunsetempire.com/216/Seaside-Kids-Inc |
| Baseball – Minors (3rd–4th) | Seaside Kids Inc. | February 2026 (open now) | Spring | sunsetempire.com/216/Seaside-Kids-Inc |
| Baseball – JBO (5th–8th) | Seaside Kids Inc. / JBO | February–March 2026 | Spring/Summer | sunsetempire.com/216/Seaside-Kids-Inc |
| Softball (8U–14U) | Seaside Kids Inc. / SEPRD | February–March 2026 | Spring | sunsetempire.com/216/Seaside-Kids-Inc |
| Basketball Tournaments | Pacific Basketball League | Rolling 2026 | Fall–Spring weekends | Contact PBL directly |
| Taekwondo | SEPRD | Rolling enrollment | Year-round | sunsetempire.com |
| Youth Swim | SEPRD | Seasonal | Year-round sessions | sunsetempire.com |
| Summer Youth Programs | SEPRD | Spring (March–April) | June–August | sunsetempire.com |
The honest reality of competitive youth sports in Seaside is that most travel-level pathways run through Astoria, roughly 20 miles north via Highway 101. For basketball, soccer, and football club programs operating at a competitive travel level, Astoria is where most families from Seaside end up commuting for weeknight practices. The drive is approximately 20–25 minutes in normal conditions, though the Highway 101 corridor can slow during peak summer tourist season.
Tournament travel is a more significant commitment. Regional youth sports tournaments draw families to Portland, Eugene, and the Willamette Valley, typically involving 90-minute drives each way. For the baseball and softball families connected to JBO-level competition, expect tournament weekends in Hillsboro, Beaverton, or Salem during the late spring and summer calendar. Families relocating from metro Portland often find this familiar — but families coming from rural areas or expecting coast-based tournaments will need to build travel budgets accordingly.
The flip side is that Seaside is a tournament destination, not just a launching point. The Pacific Basketball League's 30-year history of hosting regional tournaments means your kids get competitive exposure at home, which offsets some of the outbound travel burden during basketball season. For a city of 7,100 people, that's an outsized asset.
Local Expert Takeaway: Baseball registration through Seaside Kids Inc. opens in February and the JBO upper divisions fill faster than the recreational tiers — if you have a 5th-through-8th grader who wants competitive play, register as soon as the window opens at sunsetempire.com/216/Seaside-Kids-Inc. Families new to the coast consistently underestimate how quickly volunteer coaching slots fill alongside player spots, and late registrations in smaller programs often mean waiting a full season.
Registration for the 2026 Seaside Kids Inc. baseball season opened in early 2026 and is currently active. The best window to register is February, particularly for JBO-level players in 5th through 8th grade, as upper-division spots are limited by volunteer coaching availability each year. Register at sunsetempire.com/216/Seaside-Kids-Inc.
Does Seaside have a free youth sports program?
Yes — Seaside Kids Inc. explicitly operates on a no-cost model, with the stated mission of providing free athletic opportunities for local youth regardless of a family's financial situation. The organization runs in partnership with SEPRD and relies on more than 100 volunteers annually to deliver baseball, softball, and T-ball programs each spring season.
What sports does Seaside High School offer?
Seaside High School competes as the Seagulls in the OSAA 4A Cowapa League and fields teams in football, volleyball, cross country, golf, and swimming in the fall; boys and girls basketball in the winter; and baseball, softball, track and field, and tennis in the spring. The basketball program is the school's most decorated, having won back-to-back 4A state championships — the first program to do so since the classification launched in 2006–07.
Explore the full Seaside series: The Ultimate Seaside Relocation Guide · Is Seaside Safe? · Cost of Living in Seaside · Best Neighborhoods in Seaside · Seaside Schools & Family Life · Seaside Youth Sports · Seaside Parks & Recreation · Retiring in Seaside · 1031 Tax-Deferred Exchange in Seaside · Seaside First-Time Homebuyers Guide · Seaside Down Payment Assistance Guide · Moving to Seaside from California