There’s enough activity to keep us all busy this weekend

Well, let me start by apologizing.

Apologizing for what, you may ask.

We’re embarking on what figures to be a very big week in Clark County high school sports. By the end of this weekend, we could crown local state champions in baseball, softball, boys soccer, boys track and field, girls track and field, boys tennis, girls tennis, boys golf and girls golf.

And a state championship is a huge story, to the athletes who win it, to the schools and communities they represent and to the fans who support them. To them, a state championship is the biggest story of the year.

But unlike the fall and winter sports season, when state championships are handed out over the course of three to four weeks, spring state championships are handed out in the same week — this week. In fact, come Saturday, we may have several state champions from Clark County, several huge stories.

And, as much as we’d like, we can’t put every story on the prime position on top of the sports section. We can’t give every event the lead photo on the page. We can’t get every story on the front page on the sports section. And we can’t get photographs taken of each state championship event.

But we will try to get to every event that we can. The entire Columbian sports staff will report to work Friday and Saturday. We will send five reporters around the state to cover state championships.

The plan now is to send Paul Valencia to Tacoma for the Class 4A and 3A softball state tournaments, where Heritage has already clinched a berth to the 4A tournament. Because of soggy fields in Tacoma, the 3A bi-district tournament was delayed last weekend. Beginning today, Union, Camas and Prairie will attempt to lock spots to the 3A state tournament. The West Central bi-district tournament is scheduled for today and Tuesday at the Sprinter Recreation Center field.

Paul Danzer will be heading to Harry Lang Stadium in Lakewood, where the Camas boys soccer team will seek its third 3A state championship in five years. The Papermakers, fresh off their 1-0 victory over top-ranked Shorecrest, will face another undefeated team when Camas faces Mount Rainier of Des Moines in a state semifinal at 4 p.m. Friday.

Greg Jayne will return to Mount Tahoma High School in Tacoma for the Class 4A/3A/2A state track and field championship. The Camas girls will look to continue their undefeated season. The Papermakers won district and bi-district team titles and are ready to take on the challenge of tracking down a state title. And the field at all three meets are filled with Clark County athletes who could come home with state titles.

Brian Smith will head to Safeco Field for Friday’s Class 3A state semifinal between Camas and Columbia River at 1 p.m. And that, of course, means that we will have one Clark County team in the state championship at 4 p.m. Saturday at Safeco Field.

And I draw the assignment of covering the Class 3A state tennis tournament right here in Vancouver. The Union girls team are going to take aim at the team title behind singles player Victoria Tam and doubles team of Christina Le and Megan Carter. Columbia River’s Christine Wang and doubles team of Julie Piboonvaranggoon and Lauren Wetzel also look to advance deep in the tournament at Vancouver Tennis Center. Union’s Alex Wallace, fresh off his win at the bi-district title, will take aim at the 3A boys singles title.

Reporter Al Thomas will be in the office Friday and Saturday, helping round up results and details from other state championship events that we could not get to — like the Class 2A state softball tournament in Selah where Woodland will be playing; or the Class 1A/2B/1B state track and field meet in Cheney where Stevenson’s Austin McCrum and La Center’s Zach Olivera are the top-seed boys pole vaulters and La Center’s Katrina Chamberlain is the top-seed girls high jump; or the 4A state tennis tournament in Kennewick, where Skyview’s Kent Andreasen and Mountain View’s Chaeran Kim and Jenna Grillo will be playing; or the 2A state tennis tournament in Seattle where Hockinson’s Mackenzie McWilliams makes another return trip.

And we haven’t even mentioned the state golf tournaments, which will take place in and around the Tri-Cities. Camas’ Daniel Snoey returns to defend his Class 3A state championship and hopes to help the Papermakers improve on their second-place team standing. And Snoey leads a large contingent of very talented golfers from Clark County. The state tournaments will be played Tuesday and Wednesday.

If you can’t get to all of these events yourself — and we wouldn’t expect you to — you can stay up to date with all the accomplishments of our talented young athletes from Clark County at columbian.com, or the Columbian’s prep blog at columbian.com/preps or follow on The Columbian’s high school sports Twitter feed at twitter.com/360preps.

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