Camas Football History
2024 marks the 116th iteration of Camas Papermakers football.
Dating back to 1909 Camas High School has a long history of football success. In the over 100-year history of Camas football, the Papermakers have won the league championship 23 times. This includes winning two league championships in the same year! In 1957 Camas competed both in the Southwest Washington League (predecessor to the 4A GSHL) and the Clark County League (predecessor to the 1A Trico) and managed to win both leagues going a combined 6-1.
Camas first joined a league in 1924, the Clark-Skamania League (predecessor to the 1A Trico), winning 2 titles in 1925 and 1931. In 1933 the Papermakers began a 22-season chapter of Independent football. Camas High School was too large to play the local small schools, but not quite big enough to play the larger schools of Southwest Washington and thus created their own schedule, often playing similarly sized schools from across the Columbia River in Oregon. Over this span the Papermakers went 121-72-14 including a 10-1 season in 1937 which saw Camas win 10-consecutive games after an opening road loss to Portland power Grant High School.
In 1956 and 1957 Camas not only gave up life as an independent, they simultaneously joined 2 leagues, the Southwest Washington League (predecessor to the 4A GSHL) and the Clark County League (predecessor to the 1A Trico). Camas won the Clark County League in both 1956 and 1957 as well as taking the 1957 Southwest Washington League title. Camas went 8-1 in 1957 with only a narrow 7-6 loss to the then powerful Vancouver Trappers blemishing the record.
The 1960’s saw Camas as members of the Southwest Washington League – AA “Little AA” (predecessor to the 3A GSHL). Camas won 4 league championships in the decade and had a pair of 7-1-1 seasons in 1962 and 1969.
Things got bleak for Camas through the 1970’s, 1980’s and into the 1990’s. Camas did go 9-1 in 1972, finishing 2nd in the Black Hills League South AA.
In 1997 Coach Bob Holman took over the Camas squad and quickly turned the Papermakers back into regional force. After 3 consecutive losing seasons to start his tenure, Camas had their first winning season in 6 years and just the 8th in the past 3 decades. Despite not winning 3A GSHL championship, Camas won 8 games in 2001, 2002 and 2003, advancing to the post season for the first time in school history in 2001. 2005, 2006 and 2007 saw Camas win back-to-back-to-back league championships (3A GSHL), a first in program history. The 2005 Camas title was the schools first since 1969.
In 2008 Coach Jon Eagle took over the Red and Black. 2010 saw the Papermakers as league champions yet again. Camas would go on to win 7 consecutive league championships from 2010-2016 including 6 undefeated regular seasons, 2 quarterfinals appearances, 2 semifinals appearances and 2 appearances in the 4A state championship game. In 2016 Camas completed a perfect season going 14-0 and winning the schools first state championship. This was repeated just 3 years later as the 2019 Papermakers also went 14-0 and won a second 4A state championship.
In the 20 seasons from 2000-2019 Camas went a combined 185-41 winning 11 league championships and 2 state championships.
Coach Jack Hathaway took over Camas in 2021 and led the Papermakers to 3 consecutive 4A GSHL championships and 2 trips to the WIAA state playoffs.
In January of 2024 Adam Mathieson was hired to be the new head football coach of the Camas Papermakers. Team 116 will look to build upon the excellent foundation laid by past Camas teams and continue the tradition of excellence that defines Camas High School.