More quality football per capita in that region

Just what’s in the water out there?

Adams County, one of Washington’s larger when it comes to area and smaller when it comes to people, has four high schools.

They are, in no particular order, Lind, Ritzville, Othello and Washtucna.

If those names seem familiar, you follow high school football.

All four schools, in some configuration, will have their teams playing this weekend in the Gridiron Classic, the state football championships in the Tacoma Dome.

Lind and Ritzville, of course, play together. Everyone knows Ritzville as the town where U.S. 395 meets Interstate 90. Lind, just south on 395, is known for being dumped on by Mt. St. Helens. There’s even a sign commemorating the “feat” outside of town. The Broncos open the weekend meeting DeSales of Walla Walla on Friday at 4 p.m. for the B-11 title.

Washtucna teams with LaCrosse, just down State Route 26 in Whitman County, to dominate the B-8 ranks. They’ve won the past two titles in the classification and 34 consecutive games. They’ll meet Columbia (Hunters) Saturday at 1 p.m. for the B-8 title.

Othello, west across 395 from Washtucna, will play for the 2A title against East Valley of Yakima late Saturday night. The Huskies played an impressive schedule and were smart enough to avoid other Adams County teams. They sport the least impressive record in the Gridiron Classic at 9-4 but, as one of our local television stations likes to say, let’s dig deeper.

Othello opened the year with a 28-21 loss at home to Royal, which will meet Freeman in the 1A title game. Two weeks later the Huskies fell again, this time to East Valley, but the 21-14 margin was, until last week’s 41-35 double-overtime win over Archbishop Murphy, the Red Devils’ closest game. A 30-27 loss to Connell was avenged in the semifinals by the Huskies, whose other defeat came at the hands of Prosser, the state’s third-ranked 3A team at the time.

So has does a county with 16,602 residents spread over its 1,925 square miles turn into the South Bend of Washington?

Well, of the 5,678 people under the age of 18 the U.S. Census Bureau estimates to be in the county, probably 5,667 of them are football players or fans. If you’ve ever been to Othello for a game, you understand.

All the little kids, including the girls, are wearing Huskies gear and rooting for their heroes. And Lind-Ritzville and Washtucna are no different.

This is a football crazy (and I mean that in a positive way) county that is reaping a well-earned reward this weekend.

Speaking of crazy, the most recent USA Today national high school poll lists Evergreen of Vancouver as No. 10 in the West rankings.

To paraphrase Lloyd Bentsen, I’ve seen Evergreen and they are no Bellevue (ranked ninth nationally by the same publication).

There are two alternatives: The first would be the football in the Inland Northwest is incredibly competitive with other areas of the West. After all, Evergreen defeated Gonzaga Prep 31-30, and the Plainsmen were not the better team. If Evergreen is 10th in the West, Prep is at least ninth.

The other alternative: These national standings for high school sports are a bunch of bunk.

I’ll vote for No. 2.

Who knows which teams are better? I’ve seen more than 40 high school football games this year, and, unless they play, I can’t tell you how our teams stack up with teams from the West Side, let alone California or Texas.

I doubt anyone can.