Paul Valencia says he learned to read by reading the sports section.

 

Before school, before work, before the day got moving, there was the newspaper.

 

Growing up in a sports-loving family, he knew he had to get to the sports page before his dad did. If he waited too long, the section would be gone, carried away to work with his father.

 

That early routine helped shape a life.

 

“I learned to read by reading the sports section,” Valencia said.

 

For Valencia, sports were never just games. They were family, memory, placeand story.

 

He was born in Hayward, California, about 11 miles south of Oakland. His parents had Raiders season tickets when the Oakland Coliseum opened in1966. His first game came in 1977 when he was six years old. The Raiders were part of his childhood, and they remain part of his life today.

 

He still has season tickets. He still goes to games. Each year, he attends the home opener with his wife, Jenny, and daughter, Luna. The silver and black have been a constant throughout his life.

 

Another lifelong passion is music, especially Prince. Ask Valencia about Prince and the conversation quickly becomes about more than songs. Like sports, the music is tied to memories, people and moments in life. The thing she loves most often come back to connection.

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That love of sports eventually became a love of storytelling.

 

Even in high school, Valencia knew he wanted to be a journalist. He jokes that he was not a great student, except in two classes: journalism and weight training. But he knew what he wanted.

 

After graduating from David Douglas High School in 1989, he joined the Army. Not just to serve, but to become a journalist.

 

Valencia visited recruiters from different branches and told each of them the same thing: he wanted to be trained as a print journalist. The Army was the branch that could guarantee it.

 

He went to basic training at Fort Leonard Wood, Missouri, then to the Defense Information School at Fort Benjamin Harrison, Indiana. There, he learned journalism in a hurry.

 

Instead of stretching the basics over years, the Army taught him quickly and intensely. Writing, reporting, some broadcast training and then it was time to work.

 

He was stationed at Fort Drum, New York, near the Canadian border, where he wrote for the Fort Drum Sentinel. He covered soldier life, training missions, family stories and sports on the installation. Later, he transferred to Fort Lewis in Washington and continued doing the same kind of work.

 

He describes himself as not necessarily a great soldier, but an honorable one.

 

And that matters to him.

 

After three years in the Army, Valencia returned to civilian life and kept chasing journalism. He studied briefly at Clackamas Community College, but his Army experience had already given him something no classroom could fully recreate: real reporting.

 

His first newspaper job came in Hermiston, Oregon.

 

He loved it.

 

From there came Pendleton, where he worked for the East Oregonian and covered sports, rodeo and life in Eastern Oregon. While covering the Pendleton Round-Up, he was once hit by a bull after it broke through a barrier near the media area.

 

It banged up his knee and gave him a story he still tells.

 

Eventually, his newspaper path took him through Roseburg, Salem and finally Vancouver, where he was hired by The Columbian in 2000.

 

At first, Valencia worked as a copy editor. He liked it, but he liked writing more. He liked being out with people. He liked finding stories.

 

In 2001, when the high school sports reporter left, his editor moved him into that role.

 

Valencia ran with it.

 

For the next 16 years, he covered high school sports in Clark County.Football fields, gyms, practices, playoff runs, coaches, athletes, parents and communities became his world.

 

He remembers Mountain View football making deep playoff runs. He remembers Evergreen winning a state championship. He remembers Camas, Skyview and countless athletes who gave him stories year after year.

 

The best part, he said, was simple: the people.

 

Meeting coaches. Talking with athletes. Following teams closely enough that, during playoff season, he was practically part of the scenery at practices and games.

 

Over the years, Valencia earned a nickname: “Positive Paul.”

 

The nickname was not accidental.

 

Valencia understood something many people overlook. For the overwhelming majority of high school athletes, those Friday night football games, basketball tournaments and track meets represent the highest level they will ever play.

 

A large percent of them will never become professional athletes. Most will never compete beyond high school.

 

Because of that, Valencia believed his role was different from that of a professional sports columnist criticizing millionaire athletes.

 

These were kids.

 

These were families.

 

These were communities.

 

He wanted his stories to capture achievement, perseverance, teamwork and growth.

 

That did not mean ignoring reality. It meant remembering the person behind the score.

 

His articles reflected that philosophy. Athletes worked too hard and sacrificed too much for their stories to be defined only by mistakes. Valencia wantedreaders to remember what was good, what was inspiring and what was worth celebrating.

 

The job was never only about wins and losses.

 

It was about character, leadership, heartbreak and joy.

 

Over time, Valencia’s career shifted. Today, with Clark County Today, he still writes features, but much of his work has moved into local government, transportation and public meetings.

 

He jokes that he was “demoted from sports” into covering local politics.

 

But then he starts talking about C-Tran, light rail, tolling, Vancouver, Camas, Ridgefield and the Interstate 5 Bridge, and it becomes clear he has found stories there, too.

 

Local government might not have the bright lights of a Friday night football game, but Valencia sees the human element. He sees how decisions made in meetings affect families, commuters, taxpayers and entire communities.

 

To him, there is plenty of story in those rooms.

 

That may be the thread running through Valencia’s life.

 

Whether he is writing about a soldier training in the snow at Fort Drum, a high school football team chasing a state title, a rodeo in Pendleton, or a transit board debating light rail, he is looking for the people inside the story.

 

He started as a kid racing to the sports section before his dad could take it to work.

 

Decades later, he is still reading, listening, asking questions and writing.

 

Only now, he is the one telling the stories.

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Thank you for your time, Paul. It was a pleasure. The autumn wind is blowing... ;)