Who’s ready for some basketball? Wrestling? Rest of winter sports?
High schools: Tim Martinez
By Tim Martinez, Columbian
Assistant Sports Editor
Published: December 1, 2019, 6:00pm
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Battle Ground sophomore Kaden Perry finishes a two-handed dunk as Prairie players Kam Osborn, Gabe Lilly and Zeke Dixson look on in the second quarter of a 69-68 overtime win on Tuesday night at Battle Ground High School. (Andy Buhler/The Columbian)
Happy basketball season, everyone!
And wrestling season. And boys swimming. And gymnastics.
The high school winter sports season begins in earnest this week.
So who’s ready for some basketball?
I’ll admit I was enjoying the football postseason. The schedule allowed me to attend one game each week of the playoffs with Saturday afternoon games — first at Hockinson, then La Center, Camas and finally at McKenzie Stadium.
But after spending three hours on the sideline of the Camas-Mount Si game — and struggling to keep warm — the idea of spending time in the warm comforts of a gymnasium sounded pretty good.
If you’d like to stoke your fire for winter sports, there are plenty of good events to attend this week.
The defending 2A state champion Washougal girls basketball team opens on the road at W.F. West on Thursday.
The defending 3A state champion Prairie girls basketball team opens at Union on Wednesday in what should be a nice early season matchup.
The King’s Way Christian boys basketball team, which made a surprising run to the 1A state title game last year, opens at home Monday against Class 3A Prairie.
The Union boys basketball play a couple of home games against good programs — Thursday against Spanaway Lake and Saturday against Enumclaw.
And on Saturday, Kaden Perry and the Battle Ground boys basketball team will take the floor at the Moda Center to take on Crater of Central Point, Ore.
If you like wrestling, Prairie is hosting a five-team jamboree on Thursday with Washougal, Evergreen, Hockinson and Heritage.
And it’s only the beginning.
Revenge tour
For a fourth consecutive season, there will be an overlap of the fall and winter seasons as another Clark County football team has reached the state championship game.
Camas advanced to the 4A state championship game for the first time since 2016. The Papermakers will face Bothell at 4 p.m. Saturday at Mount Tahoma High School in Tacoma.
In a way, it’s a perfect final game for the 2019 Papermakers.
In 2018, Camas went 5-5. In 2019, during their unbeaten season, the Papermakers have avenged four of those 2018 losses by beating Lincoln, Bellevue, Sumner and Union.
Now they get the chance for some payback on No. 5. The 2018 season ended with a thrilling 36-35 loss to Bothell in the playoffs last season.
All-Region
This week, The Columbian will begin announcing its All-Region honors for fall sports.
We’ll start in Tuesday’s edition with girls cross country; boys cross country will follow on Wednesday; Thursday, we’ll have girls swimming; and then Friday, it will be volleyball.
The fan vote for the All-Region volleyball team concluded on Friday, and we had more than 4,000 votes cast. Those results will be combined with choices of area coaches and The Columbian staff to create the final All-Region team.
The girls soccer fan vote opened Saturday and will remain open through Wednesday. The All-Region girls soccer team will be announced on Dec. 10.
Slowpitch softball will make its All-Region debut on Dec. 11.
Football will cap the All-Region season. But first, the season needs to end.
Tim Martinez is the assistant sports editor for The Columbian. He can be reached at 360-735-4538, tim.martinez@columbian.com or follow his Twitter handle @360TMart.
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