This is normally a week when we spend time to look back upon the highlights of the fall season, before moving ahead with the winter season that gets going next week.
But the fall sports are still going strong in Clark County.
The Union football team will face Bellevue on Friday in a Class 3A semifinal at the Tacoma Dome. Game time has not yet been set. On Saturday, Skyview will play in a 4A semifinal at 1 p.m. against Ferris of Spokane at Spokane’s Joe Albi Stadium.
Before we talk more about Union and Skyview football, here are some random thoughts about other highlights of the fall.
n At the end of the regular season, it was an OK fall for Columbia River sports teams. But in the postseason, the fall season became great for the Chieftains.
The River football, girls soccer and volleyball teams all finished third, either in the 3A Greater St. Helens League or the district.
The volleyball team came out of the district tournament as the No. 3 team. But then River battled its way through the bi-district tournament to clinch a berth to the state tournament in Kennewick.
The River football team, after an 0-2 league start, came back to finish third in the 3A GSHL. But the Chieftains scored a nice win in the state preliminary round before making a solid showing in the first round of the state playoffs.
And then there’s the Columbia River girls soccer team that was 2-3 in league at one point, finished third in the 3A GSHL, had to win six consecutive win-or-go-home matches including, five on the road, to capture the school’s first state championship in girls soccer.
n And not every team at Columbia River finished third in the 3A GSHL. The Chieftains had league and district championships in boys cross country, girls cross country and girls swimming.
In girls cross country, seniors Allison Clark and Sarah Bobbe finished sixth and seventh overall at the state meet as River placed fourth overall in the team standings.
Kyle Boe raced to a fifth-place finish in the boys cross country state meet, helping River finish 11th overall.
And Jessica Bottelberghe swam to her first two state titles in the 200 individual medley and 100 butterfly — winning both events with room to spare — at the state swimming championships.
Congratulations, Chieftains, on a great fall.
n And speaking of girls swimming, there was a storyline that got a bit obscured by the third-place team finish by Hockinson and state titles won by Julia Sanders in the 2A state meet.
Senior Kyra Oja helped Hockinson to state titles in the 200 medley relay and 200 free relay.
When Oja started swimming for Hockinson four years ago, the goal was not trying to get a relay team from Hockinson to the state meet. It was trying to get a relay team from Hockinson to ANY meet.
As a freshman, Oja was part of the North County swim program, which took swimmers from Hockinson, Prairie and Battle Ground to form a team that trained with swimmers from Camas. For four years, Oja had to travel to Camas to train. When it came to the 2A state meet, Oja was the Hockinson swim team.
But this year, Hockinson had enough swimmers to field a team of its own, still training with swimmers from Camas, Prairie and Battle Ground.
With three talented freshmen teammates — Sanders, Bailee Christenson and Darien Hiller — Oja was able to be part of two state champion relays, a fitting reward after four years of dedication.
n So I wonder if the folks in Camas feel good about the fact that the Papermaker football team ended its season with back-to-back losses to two teams that will be playing in the state semifinals this weekend. Or maybe the Papermakers feel a bit frustrated.
Probably, a little of both.
Camas’ final two losses of the season were to Union and to Liberty of Issaquah.
On Friday at the Tacoma Dome, Liberty will face Lakes in one 3A semifinal, while Union will take on Bellevue in the other semifinal.
And what kind of feelings will be going through the Papermakers if Union and Liberty play for the state championship next week?
n And speaking of the 3A semifinals on Friday, Union will play Bellevue at the Tacoma Dome at either 1 p.m. or 7 p.m.
Given that Union has the farthest distance to travel to Tacoma of the four semifinalists, it serves to reason that Union and Bellevue will play in the 7 p.m. spot. But we will not get the official word from the WIAA until today.
As soon as Union beat Camas three weeks ago to lock the Titans’ path through the state playoffs, a lot of folks have been looking at the possible matchup with Bellevue. Three weeks ago, I was thinking that a Union-Bellevue matchup would favor Bellevue, given how the Wolverines powered past Union in the state title game last year.
But, now.…
Well, both Union and Bellevue played Wesco League teams on Saturday. Bellevue beat Glacier Peak, the Wesco’s No. 2 team, 35-7. Union beat Meadowdale, the Wesco’s No. 1 team, 49-7. And that 49-7 scored actually masked Union’s domination.
There are those who say Bellevue is not as strong this year as it was last year. And you can certainly make the argument that the Titans are playing better now than they were at this point last year.
The question is if the Titans have closed the gap against Bellevue that allowed the Wolverines to roll to a 35-6 win last season.
n Skyview will have to take the long road to reach the Tacoma Dome and the 4A championship game next week.
And the Storm hope to have some support on the road. Skyview is organizing a rooter bus for the long trip east. If you’re interested, contact Skyview High School this morning to get more information.
It’s hard to say what kind of team Skyview will be facing when they take on Ferris.
Class 4A teams from the east side of the state rarely venture to the west side — or vice versa.
The WIAA bracket ensures that one eastern team will play in the state semifinals. But in four of the past five seasons, no eastern has made the journey across the mountains to play in the state championship game in Tacoma.
This is what we know about the Ferris Saxons:
Ferris comes into this game with a 9-3 record. The Saxons are coached by Jim Sharkey, a former coach at Woodland and Battle Ground who is in his fourth season at Ferris.
Ferris finished 5-3 in the 4A/3A Greater Spokane League, which was good for third place among 4A teams.
The other 4A Greater Spokane teams that made the playoffs — Mead and Central Valley — lost in the state preliminary round.
But Ferris beat Wenatchee, then routed Kamiakin in the state playoffs and beat Eisenhower last week to reach the state semifinals.
So clearly, Ferris is playing better now than it was earlier this season. The same could be said about Skyview.
Quarterback Connor Halliday threw for nearly 300 yards against Eisenhower. But when windy weather made passing difficult, Ferris went to the running game in the second half.
So Ferris is a passing team that can run the ball when needed. I think Skyview has seen that kind of team before — like every day in practice.
And the Storm have seen that kind of game in the postseason as well and shown they can play that game better than their opponents.
Tim Martinez is the assistant sports editor/prep coordinator for The Columbian. He can be reached by phone at 360-735-4538 or e-mail at tim.martinez@columbian.com
