By Rick Anderson

For The Daily World

With four picks last Friday, Hoquiam defensive back Jackson Folkers probably set a record for single-game interceptions in the storied Aberdeen-Hoquiam football rivalry.

Or he might have tied the previous mark. There’s even a very remote possibility he fell short of it. Such is the nature of high school football record-keeping.

Compiling and assembling statistics at the high school level is very much a hit-and-miss proposition. Elias Sports Bureau and other national statistical services don’t cover Southwest Washington prep sports.

The notion that The Daily World or other local media outlets have school and series records at their fingertips is a huge misconception.

The Daily World has perhaps 20 years worth of Twin Harbors football and basketball scores on file. We lost another 15 years or so of results when the newspaper went to a new computer system in the mid-1990s and the IT folks making the conversion neglected to save the information.

Hoquiam alum Ralph Lovelace, who now lives in Olympia, has been invaluable in providing us historical updates on football and basketball rivalries. North Beach’s Bob Wiley has done yeoman work keeping meet records in the Grays Harbor All-County Track Championships up to date.

Three Willapa Harbor athletic directors — Raymond’s Mike Tully, South Bend’s Tom Sanchez and Willapa Valley’s John Peterson — have well-deserved reputations for providing reliable information on historical matters.

But when it comes to providing historical information on sports other than football and basketball, or individual records in any sport, most area writers and broadcasters are pretty much flying blind. There’s no central resource for that data.

If readers learn that so-and-so set a school record for single-game pass receptions, it is likely that information comes from the school — or, in some cases, from extended research using a microfilm machine.

Even accepting a source’s word regarding a school record can be risky, since not all coaches and athletic directors are diligent in updating those marks. On the occasions I published an unverified record claim, there was a 50-50 chance I’d receive a phone call or email — usually polite but sometimes contemptuous — along the lines of “You forgot the 1947 game, when my great-uncle Fred played for the Bobcats…”

All those disclaimers aside, it’s a pretty safe bet that Folkers’ accomplishment last Friday is unsurpassed in the Aberdeen-Hoquiam series history.

Four interceptions by an individual in one game is an exceptionally rare feat. To put it in perspective, the Seattle Seahawks’ franchise record for single-game INTs is three. Only one player apiece for Washington and Washington State (Washington’s Al Worley against Idaho in 1968 and WSU’s Lamont Thompson against UCLA in 2001) has registered four interceptions in one contest. A minor oddity is that I was in attendance for both Worley’s and Folkers’ performances.

That puts Folkers in elite company. Thompson and Worley each earned All-American recognition during the seasons in question. Both were subsequently inducted into their school’s athletic Hall of Fame.

Another landmark — this one undeniable — took place last Friday.

With its 28-7 triumph, Hoquiam ran its winning streak over Aberdeen to an unprecedented (for the Grizzlies) five games. As Lovelace noted this week, the Grizzlies went unbeaten against the Cats for five consecutive years from 1936-40, but that streak included one tie. The series record for consecutive victories is 12, by Aberdeen.

Witnessing the proceedings was what may have been the largest Friday night crowd at Stewart Field in recent memory.

On the wane for several years, Aberdeen-Hoquiam football attendance underwent a revival last year, probably due in part to accurate forecasts that the game was a toss-up (Hoquiam won, 14-12).

This year’s edition didn’t have the same type of pre-game buzz, but coincided with at least three Aberdeen class reunions and probably a couple of Hoquiam reunions as well.

While a couple of Saturday afternoon Aberdeen-Hoquiam games at Stewart Field drew big crowds, I can’t recall as large an overflow at the ancient Aberdeen stadium for a Friday night affair.

Perhaps the spectators sensed they would watch history in the making.

Or, more accurately, probable history in the making.