It is easy for society to dismiss the present for the past.
Yesterday is always better than today.
Which brings me so much joy to write about something that is better right now, today. We are living in the best of times for high school football in Southwest Washington.
Oh, there have been great years in the past. Ridgefield won the small-school state championship game in 1995, the same year Evergreen became the first big school from Clark County to reach the semifinals. In 2001 and 2002, Mountain View made it to back-to-back final fours. Evergreen repeated the feat in 2003 and 2004, even winning the championship in 2004. Since the early 2000s, Columbia River, La Center, Union, Skyview, and Camas also have all made it at least to the semifinals.
Still, none of those playoff seasons started like this one.
Last week, The Columbian’s readership area had seven teams in district or state preliminary round playoff games. All seven teams won. Looking back at the brackets, I cannot find another season with more teams from our area in the state playoffs.
Camas, Union, and Skyview in the 4A bracket. Mountain View and Columbia River in the 3A tournament. La Center and Woodland taking part in the 1A playoffs.
Now, in theory, all seven could lose this week. (No, that’s not going to happen.) Or perhaps they all could be out by the quarterfinals. (Seriously doubt that.) But for argument’s sake, let’s say it does end by Week 12, the quarterfinals. Will that make this year better than, say, Evergreen winning it all in 2004? Or the few seasons when two teams reached the semifinals?
It’s close, but I’d still vote for 2013, because there are seven fan bases getting to experience the thrill of state.
The last two years, we had five teams make it to state. In 2003, we had six. As I noted in my Day After Report on the high school sports blog on Sunday, we’ve been spoiled by some fantastic football in the past 13 seasons.
But there was one tough season in this run. Back in 2007, our teams went 1-8 in the Week 10 games. That’s right, just one team made it to state. And then that team lost in the first round of state. (I do not like to think of the Darkness that was 2007. The pain never really goes away, you know.)
Anyway, what would have happened if that one team in 2007, Camas, had won the state championship? Yes, it would have automatically made that year a great year for football for Southwest Washington. State titles don’t come around here very often.
Yet, I’d still prefer a playoff season like this one, no matter how it finishes.
There are rooter buses going to the Tri-Cities for two teams. There is another one going north and east of Seattle. Three teams have “home” games in the first round. Tailgates, barbecue, music, cheers.
Then there are the possibilities, the what-ifs.
If Mountain View and Union win this week, McKenzie Stadium will host 4A and a 3A quarterfinal games.
Oh, and if Union and Camas win, the two rivals will play each other in the 4A quarters. Meanwhile, Woodland and La Center would face each other in the quarters, too, if both win this week.
Then there are Skyview and Columbia River trying to pull off quite a combination, winning one week in the Puget Sound area and the next in the Tri-Cities.
Yes, this is a lot to ask for, all of this to happen.
But because we are living in the best of times for high school football in our region, at least we are in position to pose those what-if questions.
Paul Valencia covers high school sports for The Columbian. He can be reached at 360-735-4557. Follow him on Twitter 360paulv.
