A wise man once said: “Basketball season doesn’t start for me until football season is over.”
On second thought, maybe it was a wise guy.
Well, no matter where your focus is right now, there’s one thing that is undeniable: High school basketball season starts today.
So before we talk about that football game this week, let’s talk a little roundball.
The season gets going Monday night in Clark County with a doubleheader featuring a couple of Evergreen Public Schools rivals: Heritage at Mountain View.
The Timberwolves travel to play the Thunder, with the varsity girls tipping off at 5:30 p.m. and the boys following. The schedule says 7 p.m., but 7:15 or 7:30 p.m. is likely a closer target time.
Most area teams will play at least once this week, with some playing as many as three games.
Here are games of note:
While the Skyview football team is still practicing, the Skyview boys basketball will be playing. The Storm open the season at home Tuesday against Prairie. Skyview may be a bit short-handed, as some basketball players have yet to unstrap their football helmets.
The Storm will bit more on a level playing surface on Wednesday when they travel to play Camas. Even though Camas’ football season ended last Friday, any football players who also play basketball won’t be able to take the court until they’ve had 10 practices under their belts. That likely will mean the first two weeks of the regular season.
Federal Way, a state semifinalist in 2010, will play two games in Vancouver this week. Federal Way plays at Evergreen on Tuesday, and at Union on Wednesday.
Hockinson plays at Prairie on Friday in the battle of Brush Prairie.
The Camas boys play Lewis & Clark in the Fitz Showcase in Spokane on Friday.
And Mountain View hosts another rival when the Thunder face Evergreen in a boys/girls doubleheader at 5:30 p.m. Friday.
Columbia River plays at Skyview at 5:30 p.m. Saturday in boys/girls Vancouver Public Schools doubleheader.
In other girls games of note, Camas plays at Skyview on Thursday. Battle Ground plays one game in the Northwest Invitational in Beaverton, Ore., on Saturday against an opponent to be determined.
Skyview football
Oh, yes, the football game that’s still going on.
Skyview will attempt to become the first Clark County team in seven years to win a football state championship when the Storm play Skyline of Sammamish for the 4A state title on Saturday at the Tacoma Dome.
If you can’t make it to Tacoma — and if you can, you really should — you can watch the game live on Root Sports at 7:30 p.m.
The funny thing about this matchup — apart from the whole Sky vs. Sky thing — is that if high school football used the same system that college football uses to determine its championship game, there’s no way either of these teams would have made it to the title game.
Skyview opened the season 0-2 and now sit at 11-2. Skyline 1-2 and now sit at 10-3.
Neither team was ranked in the Associated Press’ final poll of the season.
But it wasn’t as if either of these teams lost to the Weak Sisters of the Poor.
Skyview lost to Sherwood in Week 1. Sherwood will play for a second consecutive Oregon 5A state championship on Saturday.
The Storm also lost to Coeur d’Alene, which last week repeated as Idaho 5A state champions.
Skyline lost to Bellevue, which will be playing for its fourth consecutive 3A state title on Friday. Skyline also lost to Lake Oswego, which will play in the Oregon 6A semifinals on Saturday. And the Spartans lost to Eastlake, which lost last week in the 4A quarterfinals.
So perhaps playing tough non-league opponents — regardless of the outcome — can help build a champion.
Tim Martinez is the assistant sports editor/prep coordinator for The Columbian. He can be reached at (360) 735-4538 or tim.martinez@columbian.com or you can follow him on Twitter at www.twitter.com/360TMart.
