Rainier Junior Senior High School was abuzz Monday morning with talk about the football team’s come-from-behind, overtime win Saturday night and the upcoming trip to the state championship game Saturday in Hillsboro. But it was still time to buckle down and focus on school work.

“We’re acknowledging that it’s wonderful, but then let’s move forward,” Superintendent Michael Carter said Monday afternoon. “I think in each classroom, they spent a minute or two at the beginning talking about it, but life goes on. Our job is to keep academics going.”

Principal Brad Ramey said students were remaining studious in the classroom.

“Everyone is excited, but it’s also the same old, same old,” he said. “Our first job here is to educate.”

Student leaders Monday were making plans for this week’s pep assembly, and decorations will go up on the football players’ school lockers Tuesday. All-green signs for the fans in the stands also were in the making for Saturday’s 3A championship game against Amity, ASB president Alison Gallaher said.

“We’re doing a green-out for the football game, where everyone is either wearing green or holding a green sign,” she said.

Gallaher and other student leaders also have arranged for a free rooter bus for students, sponsored by an anonymous business.

Like the school officials, Gallaher said students are remaining focused on academics, but with an undercurrent on the upcoming game.

“And winter sports start this week, so we do have basketball and wrestling, too,” she said, “but, honestly, it’s definitely about football this week.”

In downtown Rainier, only two businesses, so far, had signs boosting the Columbians football team — the Chevron Food Mart and Dr. Robert Sorlien’s dental office.

“Oh, I hope more businesses put signs up,” said Gloria Nelson, Sorlien’s officer manager, who created good luck signs on sheets of copy paper lettered in black Sharpie taped to the front and side windows of the business on B Street.

“It works,” she said of the simple method she used for the signs.

Nelson, a 1968 Rainier High School graduate, said she missed seeing Saturday’s semifinal game in Bend in Central Oregon because of a previous commitment in Olympia, but she was “glued” to the game on the radio on the way home. Rainier triumphed over Vale, 36-35, on a two-point conversion in overtime.

“I kept telling my husband, ‘Hurry up’ if the signal got fuzzy between here and Olympia,” she said, “and all along the way, the doctor (Sorlien) kept e-mailing me for updates on the score.”

Nelson said her family’s Saturday plans are scheduled just about to the minute to make the championship game in Hillsboro, which is just over the Cornelius Pass Road from the south part of Columbia County.

“My 9-year-old grandson has a basketball game in Longview at 2 p.m., so we’ll be heading out right after that,” she said.

Nelson said having a state contender is good for her small town.

“It’s nice to find positive things here,” she said. “They just seem like a good bunch of kids.”

Chad Womack, an agent at Tri-County Insurance in downtown Rainier and a school board member, also had to miss the playoff game because of prior plans, “but my dad and buddies all called me with updates,” he said.

There were some “rah-rah” reactions Monday in the business district about Rainier’s big win and the upcoming push for the state title, he said.

“I just talked to a guy a little bit ago, and he’s starting to put things up in the window (supporting the team,)” Womack said. “In the past, the fire trucks would come down and escort the team while they were leaving.”

When told there might be a chance of a police escort when the team bus leaves town Saturday, he said that would be “a good thing.” He said he’s also going to encourage other businesses to show their support.

“Hopefully, businesses will understand,” he said. “This is a big deal.”

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Columbians facing season's toughest test in powerhouse Amity

Rainier storms back to force OT, wins on 2-point conversion  (Nov. 29)