Ed Givens’ Camas High School boys golfers have been out on the course for more than five weeks now, and it still feels weird.
“If you had told me a year ago that we’d be playing golf on March 8, 25 years of experience would have told me that was wrong,” the Camas coach said. “I used to coach the girls in the spring, and this even feels a bit early for them.”
It’s true. In a normal year, spring sports athletes would have commenced practices last week, in the hopes of starting competition at the end of this week or next.
But this year, athletes in Season 1 of the revised prep calendar are now reaching the end of their seasons, even though athletes in some sports still don’t exactly know how their season will end.
In golf, plans are mostly settled.
Camas golfers will play one last league match in the 4A/3A Greater St. Helens League on Wednesday against Mountain View. Then the Papermakers will get ready for the 4A district tournament, which is set for Wednesday and Thursday of next week at Tri-Mountain Golf Course.
The 3A golfers will play their district tournament on the same two days but at Club Green Meadows.
Normally, 4A and 3A district tournaments would be played on the same days at the same course — usually Tri-Mountain — with one tournament teeing off a couple of hours after the other. But COVID precautions led the league to alter those plans.
“We didn’t want to have all those golfers together at the same place, and I get that,” Heritage golf coach Dwight Patterson said. “But it’s a shame, because district is usually a cool event. It allows you to compare yourself against a lot of golfers in the area playing the same course on the same days.”
Givens still hopes the golf postseason won’t end there. He hopes District 4 golfers can have a bi-district event with District 3 golfers sometime later this spring.
“Some of the schools up north are playing golf now, and others will start (in Season 2),” Givens said. “I’m still hoping after that second season that we can play some kind of bi-district event. We aren’t going to have state this year, and we didn’t have state last year. It would be nice to give the kids something.”
The 2A Greater St. Helens League will hold a league golf tournament on Monday at Mint Valley in Longview. Then the 2A golfers will have a district tournament on Thursday and Friday of next week, also at Mint Valley.
The 1A district golf tournament will be played March 18-19 at Oaksridge Golf Course in Elma.
Culminating plans have also been set for cross country runners.
The 4A GSHL will hold a league meet on March 24 at Battle Ground High School. The 3A GSHL is also planning a league meet, either at Kelso or Evergreen, but those plans are still being sorted out.
The 2A GSHL is holding a league meet Thursday at Lake Sacajawea in Longview. And a district meet is also being planned, but, again, details are still being sorted out.
The 1A Trico League will hold a league meet on Saturday in White Salmon, and a district meet on March 19 at Harmony Sports Complex in east Vancouver.
Culminating events for boys tennis are also planned, but teams are still trying to finish their regular-season schedule after weather has played havoc on that, especially the snow last month.
The 4A/3A GSHL is planning culminating league events for volleyball and girls soccer later this month. The league still has regular-season games scheduled through the end of next week.
The 2A GSHL wraps up league play this week and will play district events in those sports. Brackets are expected to be released later this week.
The 1A Trico has scheduled a district volleyball tournament for Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday of next week. The 1A district soccer tournament will be played on Monday, Wednesday and Saturday of next week. The higher seeds will host first- and second-round matches. Saturday matches for soccer will be played at Castle Rock and volleyball at Tenino.
Tim Martinez is the assistant sports editor/prep coordinator for The Columbian. He can be reached at 360-735-4538, tim.martinez@columbian.com or follow his Twitter handle @360TMart.
