With no season-ending state championship events to prepare for, Camas High School’s traditional winter and spring sports coaches are adjusting their priorities as they ready their teams to begin truncated 2021 seasons this week.
Some are emphasizing the value of relationship-building and memory-making, especially for their seniors.
“My goal is to provide my (players) with great experiences over the next two months,” said Camas girls basketball coach Scott Thompson. “So much has been taken from them, and we have faced so many obstacles just to get to this point. We are going to primarily focus on giving back to them as much as possible. (But) we will work just as hard as any season. We owe it to the girls to go big every day we step on the court; anything less would be cheating them out of the opportunity to be the best version of our team.”
Others, meanwhile, are using the season to prep for 2022.
“With COVID restrictions and a limited season, we will be focusing on building a solid team and readying ourselves for the state tournament in 2022,” said Camas girls golf coach Robert Foster. “It is unfortunate that the playoffs were canceled this year.”
Following are previews of what’s to come in Camas this season:
Girls basketball
The Camas girls basketball team is loaded with talent and in a normal year would have high hopes of improving on its performance from a year ago, when it advanced to the 4A Hardwood Classic but didn’t place.
The Papermakers will be led by seniors Faith Bergstrom, who will continue her career at California Polytechnic State University in San Luis Obispo, California; Jalena Carlisle, who signed a letter of intent with Seattle Pacific University; and Katelynn Forner.