SPORTS
San Diego’s beautiful weather makes it a terrific place to play sports all year. Residents of the city certainly take advantage of that with a wide array of teams and facilities.
San Diego Sports
The city attracts athletes from across the world to play for their professional sports teams and local clubs. The love for athletics starts young in San Diego with youth teams for toddlers up to teenagers. Pee wee football is one of the most popular extracurricular activities for youngsters who live in the area, followed by baseball, soccer, lacrosse, cheerleading, and even hockey.
In addition to private leagues, the high schools and middle schools also offer sports to their students. Those teams can prepare dedicated athletes to play for one of the colleges or universities in the city, like San Diego City College or the University of San Diego.
Where to Find the Right Team
Finding the right team to play for really depends on where it is located, skill level, and the athlete’s ultimate goal. For really small children, finding a recreational team is fairly easy. Parents can just go online or over to their local park, sign up for their child’s choice of sport, pay a fee, and that’s about it. For example, the San Diego Youth Aztecs, football and cheerleading programs, are in Chula Vista and often practice at Montgomery-Waller Park.
As they grow older and sports become more competitive, it is a little more difficult. The Albion Soccer Club in Ocean Beach has an MLS Next program for gifted players who would like to go pro one day. To get on the team, a player will have to try out.
At the high school level, where a student plays will likely depend on where they live unless they are involved with a club team outside of school. At the college level, including for San Diego State University, where someone plays will depend on whether they were recruited or if they are able to become part of a team as a walk-on.
Sports Facilities
There are multiple full-service sports complexes in San Diego that have facilities for many different sports. The Willie Henderson Sports Complex has one baseball field, one youth ball field, three multi-purpose soccer and football fields, two softball fields, and much more. The SoCal Sports Complex is a massive complex that often hosts soccer tournaments.
For athletes who are involved in BMX racing, San Diego BMX has one of the top tracks in the region. The city also has golf courses, rowing facilities, multiple cheerleading training facilities and much more.
Professional Teams
America’s Finest City has one major men’s professional team, MLB’s San Diego Padres. The city also boasts many other professional sports teams across several other sports, both at the highest level for that particular genre and minor league teams. For instance, the National Women’s Soccer League’s San Diego Wave FC and Major League Rugby San Diego Legion are both professional teams in the area.