This spring has been a little bit backwards.
Normally, the spring pattern is to have two weeks of wet, cold, miserable weather to kick off the spring sports season. Then spring break arrives and the sun and warmth arrives with it, just in time for a week basically empty of sports events.
But this year, we got two weeks of beautiful weather followed by a cold, wet, windy spring break.
So while that might have spoiled some folks’ vacation plans, it left most spring sports teams with very few postponed events on their schedules.
That’s the good news. But as the spring sports schedule resumes today, we may soon see several postponed baseball and softball games.
The forecast for the first part of the week calls for continued wet and cold weather through mid-week. And even though the forecast dries out and warms up by Thursday, the heavy rains from last week likely will have left most area diamonds water-logged and unplayable.
But there are plenty of sports events on the schedule this week that are not normally impacted by weather. So let’s look at the highlights:
GIRLS GOLF: The Bay/View Invitational will bring together most girls golf programs in Southwest Washington in the first of two big tournaments in the region this season. The event will be held at Lewis River Golf Course in Woodland on Wednesday.
TRACK AND FIELD: Most area track and field teams will be sending athletes to the annual John Ingram Twilight Meet on Friday at Columbia River High School. Only Mountain View and Union don’t have this event on their schedule. The Thunder and Titans are slated to take part in the Willamette Falls Invitational on Saturday in Oregon City.
SOFTBALL: Even though most area diamonds are soggy, the good news is the 4A and 3A GSHLs won’t start league play until next week. The 2A GSHL opens league play on Friday, which allows plenty of time for drying out.
BOYS SOCCER: All three GSHLs open league play with matches on Tuesday. Soccer fans can head to McKenzie Stadium and Kiggins Bowl for a pair of soccer doubleheaders. At McKenzie, Kelso plays Evergreen at 5 p.m., which will be followed by Columbia River vs. Union at 7 p.m. Over at Kiggins, Prairie faces Hudson’s Bay at 5 p.m., and Mountain View meets Skyview at 7 p.m.
Tim Martinez is the assistant sports editor/prep coordinator for The Columbian. He can be reached at 360-735-4538 or e-mail at tim.martinez@columbian.com
