So the fall sports season has officially come to a close in Clark County.
It was a thrilling fall season with many highlights.
So before we begin the march into the winter sports season, let’s wrap up some loose ends from the fall.
• I took my first trip out to the new and improved Doc Harris Stadium on Friday night. It gets a thumbs-up from this reviewer.
But even more impressive was the thrilling playoff game between Camas and Lakes, even if it didn’t turn out the way the Papermakers had hoped.
It was a spirited back-and-forth affair that seemed to have turning point after turning point.
But in the middle of all that excitement, I found myself looking around Doc Harris Stadium. Then I thought about the two Clark County soccer teams that were playing in state semifinals matches that same night two hours to the north.
Then I thought Doc Harris would be a great spot to hold the state championship for soccer. Remember, Doc Harris Stadium hosted boys soccer state championships in 2003 and 2004.
In fact, word has it that officials at Camas are considering making a bid to host the soccer state championship in the future. So that’s something to keep an eye on in the coming months.
• The Hockinson girls soccer team has reached the 2A state tournament five consecutive years. And in each trip, the Hawks have lost in the first round.
But the WIAA bracket has not been kind to the Hawks.
Four of those five first-round losses took place in Clark County. In all four of those losses, the team that beat Hockinson went on to play for the state championship. Three of those teams won the state championship.
It happened again this season. Sehome of Bellingham, which beat Hockinson 6-2 in the first round on Nov. 9, captured the 2A state title with a 6-2 win over White River on Saturday.
• The cross country state meet was held two weeks ago in Pasco. But the season continued into last week, at least for a select few all-stars.
The Nike Border Clash 12, which pits the best prep cross country runners in Washington against their counterparts in Oregon, was held Sunday morning at the Nike World Headquarters Campus in Beaverton, Ore.
Skyview’s Priscilla Timmons and Washougal’s Dylan Croeni were selected to compete for Washington.
Croeni finished 12th out of 79 competitors Sunday in 14 minutes, 16 seconds as the Washington boys beat Oregon 16-47.
Timmons was 30th out of 78 girls in 17:11 as Washington topped Oregon 17-46.
• Fall all-league teams are still trickling from leagues throughout Southwest Washington.
To date, we’ve published the 4A Greater St. Helens League and the 1A Trico League fall all-league teams in print.
Some of the 2A GSHL all-league teams have been put on our high school sports blog. We will publish the 2A GSHL teams in print when we’ve received all of the fall all-league teams from the league.
We haven’t seen any of the 3A GSHL fall all-league teams, even though some of them — like cross country, golf and tennis — were selected about a month ago.
Hopefully, we’ll see them this week and publish the rest of them this week.
• We are also seeing some preseason reports on winter sports teams being returned by coaches around the area. We’ll begin putting those reports up on our high school blog later this week.
• Also look for a link that will give boys and girls basketball schedules for every Clark County high school program in the next week.
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
