It’s the end of May, which may be the most exciting and frustrating time of year for prep sports journalist.
That’s because it’s the time of the year when athletes in nine sports — baseball, softball, boys soccer, boys track and field, girls track and field, boys tennis, girls tennis, boys golf and girls golf — are all competing for state championships.
All of this pursuit of excellence are worthy of celebration and recognition.
But with all these athletes going after their dreams at the same time, it’s almost impossible to give all of them their due attention.
Take golf, for example.
Once again, the Class 4A and 3A state championships return to Southwest Washington.
Last year, there were great local stories in Columbia River’s Chloe Bartek and Camas’ Brian Humphreys claiming individual state titles.
But somewhat overshadowed were the team championships of the Hockinson boys team at Class 2A, and the Woodland girls at 1A in tournaments played in the Tacoma area.
Hockinson continued its strong tradition with its fourth team title since 2006. And it was the sixth time the Hawks had placed first or second at state.
Woodland’s title was a bit of an oddity. It was the first time a team won a state team title in golf — boys or girls — because no other team was able to have two players make the cut. And the WIAA has held state golf championships dating back to 1956.
Many of those same storylines return this week.
Humphreys is back to defending his 4A state title, and he has two teammates along with him to make Camas a contender for the team title.
The Hockinson boys are back with four golfers in the field. The Hockinson girls did the boys two better by qualifying six players to state.
The Hawks will need all the help they can get if they want to unseat Bellingham, which has won five straight 2A girls team golf titles.
The Woodland girls look to defend their title by sending four golfers to state. And the Woodland boys are sending five to state.
With the Memorial Day holiday, the state golf tournaments will be on Wednesday and Thursday this year. Wednesday’s forecasts calls for the chance of thunderstorms, but Thursday should be better.
And on Friday and Saturday, we’ve got more stories to cover.
Camas and Battle Ground will be in Spokane for 4A softball. Prairie, Mountain View and Columbia River will be in Lacey for 3A softball. Woodland will be in Richland for 1A softball.
The Woodland baseball team faces Kiona Benton in the 1A baseball semifinal in Yakima.
The Skyview boys soccer team faces Ferris in the 4A semifinals in Puyallup on Friday.
In Kennewick, Skyview’s Sammi Hampton will take aim at her third consecutive 4A singles state title.
And we have several athletes competing for state titles at track and field meets in Tacoma and Cheney.
And that is just the tip of the iceberg.
