Big changes coming to prep sports coverage this fall

“We certainly appreciate the coverage in the Gorge! Tends to be a black hole at times out here, but you guys keep seem to always include us!”

We try.

Now this summer, we decided to take a look at the western edge of our coverage area, which for years ended at Woodland.

Two of the three factors that played into our decision regarding White Salmon are also true in Cowlitz County — sometimes it’s hard to get results from events held there, and our website is available there.

So in effort to provide more complete coverage of all of the schools we cover, this fall The Columbian’s prep coverage area will expand to include all of the schools in the three Greater St. Helens League Leagues, plus the 1A Trico League.

This means schools that previously were considered out-of-area schools — Kelso, Mark Morris, R.A. Long and Castle Rock — will be considered in-area schools.

These schools will be included in our statistical tracking for football or for basketball scoring leaders in the winter. And athletes from these schools will eligible to be considered for athlete-of-the-week or All-Region honors.

Please note that this expanded coverage area will not include Kalama, at least to start, as Kalama plays in the 2B Central League. We may revisit that decision in the future.

At least one Cowlitz County reader is excited about our expanded coverage area, even though apparently he’s not a big fan of the internet.

On Friday, I received a call from a gentleman asking when our fall sports preview section was coming out.

When I told him Sunday, he said. “Good! Then I’m driving from Kelso on Sunday to get a copy.”

An electronic version of the special section is available to subscribers of our website, but we appreciate the effort.

In addition to widening our scope of possible nominees for athlete of the week, we are adding another wrinkle this fall to our very popular feature.

Every winner of the votes for football player of the week or fall sports player of the week will receive a certificate commemorating the honor.

This certificate will be presented to the winner in person by one of the members of The Columbian sports staff. In most cases, it will be reporters Meg Wochnick or Joshua Hart. But on occasion, sports editor Micah Rice or myself will get the honor of coming out to practice to present the certificate to the winner in front of their teammates.

At that point, we’ll also do a 60-second video interview, allowing the winner to offer up any words of appreciation.

Then we will post that interview on our website and to our social media channels.

It’s just another way to shine a light on the accomplishments of high school athletes in Southwest Washington and have a little fun in the process.

And if you’ve been to on our website, you should have noticed its updated look we launched earlier this month. This redesign will allow us to present photos and videos in a better way, while making the content easier to find and read.

Also, because we realize that younger fans digest information in ways different from our more traditional readers (like that guy in Kelso), we will be increasing our content on our YouTube channel, while also adding more Instagram posts, Instagram stories and Facebook posts and interactions.

If you don’t follow already, just look for 360preps or @360preps.

And Joshua Hart has revamped our preps podcast, giving it a more structured format that will include interviews with athletes and coaches. The first two of these new podcasts are available now at Columbian.com as well as other audio services.

It’s all part of a plan to provide something for everyone.

And if you like the changes, go ahead and let us know.

Tim Martinez is the assistant sports editor/prep coordinator for The Columbian. He can be reached at (360) 735-4538, tim.martinez@columbian.com or follow his Twitter handle @360TMart.