Tim Martinez: 2026 prep football schedule brings change and return of Hudson's Bay vs. Fort Vancouver

Opening day of the 2026 high school football season is still more than four months away. But it's never a bad time to talk a little high school football.

So I spent some time last week diving into the tentative schedules of teams from Southwest Washington.

High school football schedules are generally created in two-year cycles. And since this fall starts a new two-year cycle, there were going to be changes.

But new scheduling arrangements in the 4A and 3A Greater St. Helens Leagues really shook things up.

For starters, to help the 4A and 3A schools fill out their non-league slates, the two leagues agreed to a Week 5 crossover of games.

In addition to that, the 4A GSHL adopted a new league schedule in which every team faces a league rival twice next season.

The 4A GSHL will open league play this season in Week 3 with three weeks of league games. Then comes the Week 5 crossover with the 3A GSHL followed by three more weeks of league play.

That means non-league play in Southwest Washington will be largely relegated to Weeks 1 and 2 for all leagues and Week 3 for the 3A GSHL.

So with an assist from Bryan Levesque of gshlfootball.com, here is a look at some of those non-league matchups for the 2026 high school football season.

Peace Pipe returns

Every year from 1956 to 2019, Fort Vancouver and Hudson's Bay met on the football field in the annual Peace Pipe Game.

But the abbreviated pandemic season of the spring of 2021 ended that streak with Fort Vancouver moving down for the 2A GSHL to 1A Trico League.

With a small window to schedule the matchup as a non-league game, the two programs opted against renewing the rivalry. The 2019 meeting was the last between the Trappers and Eagles.

That decision led to a very unfortunate occurrence in 2024. That season both Fort and Bay went winless in the same season for the first time.

But in 2026, the rivalry will be back as Bay is scheduled to host Fort at Kiggins Bowl in Week 2.

For the record, Fort leads the all-time series 37-28-2, but Bay won the last six meetings. Fort's last win came in 2013.

Camas meets 4A foes

In the last scheduling cycle, Camas had a hard time finding non-league 4A opponents.

The Papermakers had to fill out their six weeks of non-league games with opponents from Oregon, Idaho and Washington 3A.

But this fall, Camas will face two quality Washington 4A programs to open the season, hosting Chiawana of Pasco in Week 1, then traveling to face Curtis of University Place in Week 2.

Plainsmen up for challenge

High school football coaches have two theories when scheduling non-league games.

Some choose to play a softer schedule to give their team a chance to figure things out in the early season.

Others choose to throw their players into the fire, schedule tough foes that will help toughen them up for league.

Count Evergreen coach Christian Swain in the latter group.

The Plainsmen will open the season the road at Kamiakin of Kennewick, a 4A state playoff team. After a game against rival Union, Evergreen will play at 4A Woodinville in Week 3.

Different ways for 2As

With 2A GSHL teams now having a "league" game against 2A powers Tumwater or W.F. West, 2A coaches took different routes in filling out the opening two weeks of their schedules.

Mark Morris will open the season at home against Washington of Tacoma before playing at Castle Rock.

Hockinson will host Fort Vancouver before traveling to play 2B Medical Lake.

Washougal will play both games on the road - at Rochester, then at Heritage.

Woodland sticks with tradition, playing at Kalama and hosting La Center.

River looks for a challenge by hosting two 3A foes, Prairie and Mountain View.

Ridgefield looks for a bigger challenge, playing at Battle Ground, then hosting Skyview.

Trico quirks

Because Columbia of White Salmon will play an independent schedule again this fall, some Trico League teams went looking for an extra non-league opponent.

Never one to back down from challenge, John Lambert of La Center added a game at Lynden Christian to go with non-league road games at Montesano and Woodland.

King's Way Christian will travel to Marysville-Pilchuck to go with early non-leaguers against Horizon Christian of Oregon and Elma.

And Seton Catholic, which filled its non-league schedule with 2A teams Columbia River and Mark Morris the past two years, will instead open the season with a pair of 2B teams - albeit pretty good 2B teams in Onalaska and Adna.

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