High school sports: Pac Coast Wrestling to showcase some of the best in the Northwest and beyond

More than 80 teams are scheduled to compete next week at the Pac Coast Wrestling Championships, to be held Monday and Tuesday at the Clark County Event Center at the Fairgrounds in Ridgefield. Archived photo

More than 80 wrestling teams are scheduled to compete at Pac Coast on Dec. 29 and 30, plus there are eight boys basketball teams playing in the Mountain View Holiday Invite from Dec. 29-31, and across the river a prestigious girls basketball tournament features local teams

Paul Valencia
Clark County Today

National level high school girls basketball, with some local standouts mixed in, starts Saturday across the river in Portland, and then next week, Clark County will host two big high school sporting events.

The annual Pac Coast Wrestling Championships Tournament will be held at the Clark County Event Center at the Fairgrounds in Ridgefield on Monday and Tuesday (Dec. 29-30). Some 81 teams, featuring boys and girls wrestlers, are signed up to compete. Most are from Washington and Oregon, and a couple teams are traveling from California.

For local boys basketball enthusiasts, Battle Ground, Columbia River, Union and the host team will all be playing in the Mountain View Holiday Invitational, a three-day, eight-team tournament that starts Monday and concludes on Wednesday, Dec. 31.

The bracket for the 2025 Mountain View Holiday Invite boys basketball tournament.

For girls basketball, Clark County has a few teams in the prestigious Pacific Office Automation Holiday Classic, being held at five high schools in Portland.

The Union Titans are in the Diamond bracket, featuring some of the top programs in the Northwest as well as two premiere teams from California. Camas is in the Emerald bracket, which also features two teams from California. Skyview is in the Jade bracket, and Battle Ground is in the Opal bracket.

That event starts Saturday. For brackets and schedules, go to: https://portlandholidayclassic.com/

For wrestling, it is one of the biggest events in the region every year: Pac Coast.

For the third year now, it is being held at the Event Center.

“It’s big enough to host that many teams,” said Vinycia Seman, tournament coordinator and a volunteer with the Evergreen High School Boosters, which runs the tournament.

Pac Coast used to be held at Evergreen and then at other schools, as well. But the popularity of the event, as well as the addition of girls wrestlers, meant the tourney needed a new home.

Tournament organizers, including tournament director Chuck Keplar, appreciate the space at the Event Center.

Last year, there were 14 mats, but they were separated into different areas. This year, all 14 mats will be next to each other — match after match after match all there for the crowd to see.

“There’s just no high school that can accommodate that many wrestlers, for this scale,” Seman said.

The wrestlers, she added, look forward to this every year. With great competition, and a large field of competitors, it gives wrestlers a feel for what it will be like at the state tournament that will conclude the wrestling season.

Wrestling will start at 9:30 a.m. on Monday and Tuesday. Finals for Tuesday will be held in the late afternoon or evening. As wrestling fans understand, it is difficult to tell, days in advance, just when finals will start for a large tournament.

Tickets for Pac Coast are $30 for two days or $20 for one day for general admission. Children, senior citizens, and military are $25 for two days, $15 for one day. Parking is $6 per vehicle.

For the boys basketball tournament, Battle Ground and host Mountain View will tip things off Monday at 2 p.m. Columbia River will play its first-round matchup against Woodinville at 6 p.m. Union will take the court against Snohomish at 8 p.m.

The Tuesday and Wednesday schedules for the local teams will be determined by the outcomes of the first-round games.