Normally, by the third weekend in November, things are starting to wind down in the fall sports season.
After all, this week marks the start of practices for the bulk of the winter sports teams.
You’d might expect to have a couple of local football teams still playing, plus maybe a soccer team or two.
You wouldn’t expect to have 10 teams still playing.
But thanks to an adjustment in the state tournament volleyball schedule, plus a perfect storm of success in soccer and football, that’s exactly what we have this fall.
It all starts with a wildly successful postseason for Clark County girls soccer teams.
Five local teams reached the state-tournament round this fall. Four of them have advanced to the state semifinals — one each at 4A, 3A, 2A and 1A.
Those four consist of pairs with similarities.
Camas and King’s Way Christian have deep squads that are led by Division I-bound senior forwards.
Camas has Maddie Kemp, who is expected to sign with Gonzaga later this week. The Papermakers, in coach Roland Minder’s final go-round, clinched a fourth straight trip to the semifinals. Camas will face Central Valley of Veradale at 6 p.m. Friday in the 4A semifinals at Puyallup’s Sparks Stadium.
King’s Way Christian has Washington State-bound MacKenzie Ellertson. The Knights are going to the state semifinals for the first time when they face Klahowya of Silverdale at 4 p.m. Friday in the 1A semifinals at Shoreline Stadium in Shoreline.
Prairie and Columbia River teams are peaking at the right time after less-than-stellar starts to the season.
Prairie opened the season 0-4-2. But since then, the Falcons have gone 13-1-1 to return to the 3A state semifinals for the first time since 2011. Prairie will meet Holy Names of Seattle at 4 p.m. Friday in Puyallup.
Columbia River was 6-4-1 in the early October, battling for a district playoff spot. The Chieftains have since gone 8-1, including five consecutive wins in the postseason — all by shutout. River will face Sehome of Bellingham in the 2A semifinals at 8 p.m. Friday in Shoreline.
This year, the state volleyball tournaments are broken over two weekends, with the 4A and 3A tournaments being held this weekend in Yakima.
Camas gets an early start on Friday in the 4A tournament, facing Issaquah at 8 a.m.
Mountain View, which won three consecutive loser-out matches on Saturday to clinch a state berth, is in the same bracket as Prairie in the 3A tournament. Mountain View opens at 1:30 p.m. Friday against Lakeside of Seattle. Prairie also plays at 1:30 p.m. against Oak Harbor.
If Mountain View and Prairie have the same first-round result, they would face off for the fourth time this season on Friday evening.
And Clark County’s three juggernaut football teams kept rolling with Union, Mountain View and Hockinson winning first-round routs.
Hockinson will face Steilacoom in a 2A state quarterfinal at 6 p.m. Friday at Doc Harris Stadium in Camas.
In a precursor to what we might see next week in the semifinals, McKenzie Stadium will host a football doubleheader on Saturday. Union meets Bothell at 1 p.m. in a 4A quarterfinal, followed by Mountain View vs. Rainier Beach at 4 p.m. in a 3A quarterfinal.
Tim Martinez is the assistant sports editor/prep editor for The Columbian. He can be reached at 360-735-4538, tim.martinez@columbian.com or follow his Twitter handle @360TMart.
