Clicks on the website aren’t always the definitive way of getting feedback about what stories strike a chord with readers.
There are a variety of factors that can impact pageviews. For example, if a story gets spread by social media or picked up by another website, numbers can climb.
But they do offer a little bit of insight.
As we start to look back on 2018, I thought we’d take a look at the top 10 high school sports stories as ranked by readers on Columbian.com.
But first, a couple of observations.
First, in doing my research on this topic, I discovered that readers in Clark County really like to read about teachers’ strikes, elections and the Golden Corral.
Secondly, it confirmed my appreciation of the work done by sports writers Meg Wochnick and Andy Buhler. Their reporting, creativity and writing have brought about some great stories that touched a lot of people in our community.
While compiling this list, I omitted any athlete-of-the-week vote or All-Region fan vote.
Those features are very popular with our readers, but they are more polls than stories. And this list could get pretty boring if I were to include them.
I’ll leave that data for my annual performance review (I’m the one who coordinates those polls).
OK, here they are.
No. 10 —Union’s Darien Chase announces he will sign with Nebraska (Oct. 25). While Chase was one of the more prized recruits to come out of Clark County in the past few years, this story hit our top 10 likely because it was picked up by recruiting sites and fan sites out of Nebraska. Still, it was big news.
No. 9 — Nathan Kunz gives up football because of concussions (July 12). Usually a high school sports story in the middle of the summer doesn’t move the needle. But Meg’s story about the Columbia River football star who decided that continuing to play football wasn’t worth the risk after he dealt with a concussions was a great read in the run-up to the annual Freedom Bowl Classic all-star game. It’s also a hot-button topic around football.
No. 8 — Hudson’s Bay teammates bond through loss of parents (Sept. 27). Another good story from Meg about Carter Morse and Toa Kaumatule, who became good friends and better teammates after building a bond based on the shared experience of losing a parent.
No. 7 — Profile on Union assistant coach Mark Rego (Aug. 31). Meg’s inspiring profile to kick off the prep football season focused on the longtime Union assistant football coach who returned to the sidelines after battling tongue cancer last spring.
No. 6 — Hockinson beats Lynden to repeat as 2A state football champions (Dec. 1). Andy Buhler’s gamer put the Hawks in the top 10. Oddly enough, the story in Union winning a state title the same day only came in at No. 14. Two reasons for that. One, Hockinson’s game was in the afternoon, meaning the story posted around 3:30 p.m. and was updated a couple of hours later. The Union game story didn’t post until after 10:30 p.m. Also, Union’s game was televised, while Hockinson’s was not.
No. 5 — Mariners draft King’s Way Christian pitcher Damon Casetta-Stubbs (June 7). The All-Region player of the year was hoping to go earlier than the 11th round. But that didn’t keep him from signing with the Mariners. Casetta-Stubbs spent the summer playing for the Mariners’ Rookie League team.
No. 4 — A profile on Ridgefield softball coach Dusty Anchors (March 26). When Andy shared this story last spring, it was thought this would be Anchors last season coaching the Ridgefield softball team, as he was diagnosed with terminal heart disease. But after Anchors led the Spudders to the state tournament, he got a new lease on life when doctors told him that because of medication, a healthy diet and some weight loss, his conditioned had improved. As of last fall, Anchors was looking forward to another softball season.
No. 3 — Former Heritage football player returns home to surprise brother (Sept. 14). Andy Buhler saw a video online of Heritage football player Kahai Umiamaka being surprised during a team meeting by a visit from his brother Kalani, a former Heritage player. The brothers had not seen each other since Kalani enlisted in the Air Force 18 months earlier. Andy wrote about the reunion and it hit at No. 3 on our list.
No. 2 — Profile on Nasseen Gutierrez (Feb. 11). This is another well-reported and well-written profile by Meg on a Columbia River student who used basketball to help cope with the loss of his parents to a murder-suicide.
No. 1 — Mark Rego dies (Oct. 6). A couple weeks after Meg’s first profile on the Union assistant coach, Rego learned his cancer had returned. He died of complications of lung cancer soon after that, stunning the community he had touched so much over the years. Rego remained an inspiration to his players as they marched to the state championship.
A lot of good, memorable and heart-wrenching stories filled 2018. Meg and Andy did a great job capturing them.
I can’t wait to see what stories they share with us in 2019.
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.
