2/25/21

(Adna, WA) Adna Athletic Director KC Johnson is the Football Commissioner of the combined Central 2B and Pacific leagues. There are a total of 18 teams which are divided in two tiers based on competitive balance. The upper tier has churned out the State 2B Champion for the past 4 straight years and a team in the finals for the past 6 years. A team from this combined league has been in the state finals 13 straight years and a total of 7 titles. So it is not difficult to reach a conclusion that the State Title will run through this league likely for years to come.

But in this Covid-19 season no one will play for the big Gold Football trophy and only League or District Championships will be on the line. Johnson says when he was putting this year’s schedule together for the 10th or 20th time this last time 2 factors really stood out. 1 there would be no traditional 10 game season with a crossover game or a State Tournament. And 2, they were going to get to PLAY!

Johnson says the first focus was to get teams who were cleared to play on a schedule and start getting games in as soon as safely possible. Since only about half the league was cleared when just the West and Puget sound Health Regions got cleared leaving half the league still in phase 1 and unable to play. Johnson says they moved forward and made plans in case the Southwest Region remained stuck in phase but when everyone was given the green light his original plan other than week 1 for some was set to go.

Johnson said from the beginning he was looking to create at least one special event that would give players, especially the Seniors a feeling of specialness. So he came up with the idea of playing 4 games at one location in one day, much like Day 2 of the old State Football Championship format.

Johnson says he looked for a location that was neutral and had a turf field. Other than Kalama none of the 2B schools play on turf, they all have natural grass. Johnson says fellow AD Tim Trimble at Montesano welcomed the event since the Bulldogs play on Friday night. So, 4 games on Saturday will take place at Montesano High School in  special quadruple Football Saturday with games scheculed for 10a, 1p 4p and 7p.

Johnson says of course it won’t be the same, each game will have very limited fans in the stands and there won’t be concessions and once a team is done or teams are waiting to get in they won’t be able to sit in the stands and watch each other play but it is a little bit different and Johnson said Montesano has a first class facility and field.

Johnson is planning on doing a 2nd Quadruple header during the crossover or district games at the end of the season. But with so many district play-offs being scheduled a neutral site may not be possible and in that case they would play at Kalama. Johnson said Kalama’s stadium is another great site and believes any potential conflict of Kalama getting a home game is far out-weighed with the opportunity to host a 2nd special event. 

Johnson said, “if we can make a special memory especially for this year’s seniors who have really taken it on the chin then we want to do that but we also will make sure to do it properly and safely as to not put any other games at risk.”

This Saturday’s game will also all be streamed live on the ESN/NFHS Networks we will have just one person doing the games, it is our part of impacting each game as little as possible while delivering the games to people who don’t get a chance to go to the games. Matthew King will settle in and call and video all 4 games for ESN. You can find the link to watch and/or subscribe to watch on our Broadcast Schedule page.

Here is the line-up for this Saturday:

10am Toledo vs Onalaska
1pm Kalama vs Adna
4pm Pe Ell/Willapa Valley vs Forks
7pm Rainier vs Napavine

www.elisportsnetwork.com