So I got a call this week that went a little something like this:
“Hey, you guys had us vote for the All-Region volleyball players a couple of weeks ago. When are those results going to be published in the paper?”
Answer: Soon. Like, really soon.
We had fans cast their votes for which players they wanted to see on The Columbian’s All-Region volleyball team way back before Thanksgiving. Then soccer fans cast their votes right after the holiday, and finally football fans cast their ballots right after that.
We ran those ballots early because we didn’t want two ballots open at the same time. We also ran ballots for area coaches to cast their votes as well.
All of those votes have been closed and the results have been tabulated.
And those results are … coming later this week.
I will say we had at least 1,500 votes cast for each of those sports, so thanks for your contributions. And that’s for the coaches, too.
The Columbian is taking a slightly different approach this year with the presentation of our All-Region athletes of the year. We are giving our talented and creative team of photographers the chance to have some fun capturing images of our fall athletes.
The results, at least what I’ve seen so far, are looking pretty good.
The first of our All-Region fall athlete of the year will be announced in Tuesday’s Columbian. The series will start with boys cross country.
Subsequent sports will follow: girls cross country, girls swimming, girls soccer, volleyball and football. We don’t have set days for those sports, nor will they be published in that order.
Now with the “team” sports, we had fan and coaches votes to help us select the final team. For the other sports — swimming and cross county — selection was based on more tangible results such as times and state placing.
One concern we had when going to fan and coaches votes was that athletes from smaller schools might get overshadowed by athletes at larger schools.
But as I look at our teams — and I’m going to try to not give anything away — there are 2A/1A athletes on just about every one of our fall All-Region teams.
Again, no boys tennis or golf in this fall run of All-Region teams, because those seasons won’t conclude until state tournaments are held in the spring.
So start looking for these All-Region teams on Tuesday, and then every couple of days afterwards. He hope to conclude the series by Christmas Day or so.
And I hope you enjoy our more visual presentation of our All-Region athletes of the year.
• • •
This week’s schedule is very busy as teams try to get events in before the winter break. And the schedule that we have right now might not include some make-up dates of postponed events that we haven’t been made aware of.
And the Weather Man says no chance of weather postponements this week.
So here are the highlights.
MONDAY: The Prairie girls basketball team will try to avoid an 0-2 start when the Falcons travel to play Union.
TUESDAY: The Union boys basketball team, fresh off two tough road losses to ranked opponents from the Everett area, get another non-league test when the Titans host Federal Way.
WEDNESDAY: NBA teams might complain about playing back-to-back games on the road. But the Federal Way boys team doesn’t worry about such things. The Eagles will play at Evergreen one day after facing Union.
THURSDAY: It’s the battle of the Godinhos when Union’s wrestling team, coached by John Godinho, travels to take on Castle Rock, coached by Joe Godinho. I say let John and Joe wrassle each other, and everyone else just watch.
FRIDAY: It’s rivalry day in boys basketball: Washougal plays at Camas, Evergreen plays at Mountain View and Seton Catholic plays at King’s Way Christian.
SATURDAY: Battle Ground, Heritage, Prairie, Mountain View, Washougal, and Evergreen wrestling teams conclude competition at the Best of the West Tournament in Pasco.
