Coupeville Sports

Great, now I’ve gone and got the Canadian Corporate Overlords all miffed…

I mean, what do you think they’re gonna say when they notice that an unpaid blogger (I’m actually $18 in the hole, after paying for my domain name) who DOESN’T EVEN COVER OAK HARBOR SPORTS has juicy news about Marshall Lobbestael, the one-time state title-winning quarterback at OHHS? News that their handsomely-compensated employees at Sound Publishing haven’t bothered to notice?

The sound you just heard is the pipeline of cool Canadian filthy lucre coming to a sudden, grinding halt, as the bean counters in Ottawa (or is it Halifax? Manitoba?) scream, “Just what are we paying these Whidbey Islanders for, anyway?!?!?!?”

But that’s what I’m here for, to tweak the Evil Empire and to do a community service by bringing you the cold, hard facts about Whidbey Island’s own — even when those folks have moved off The Rock.

Lobbestael, who went from flinging the pigskin for the Wildcats — in the days when current Coupeville gridiron coach Tony Maggio was on the OH staff — to tossing 300-yard games in college for Wazzu, is now following in the footsteps of Maggio.

He, and his former center on the ‘Cat title team of 2006, Edmundo Corrales, have joined the coaching staff at Sedro-Woolley High School this year. They were lured there by a chance to reunite with their head coach from their high school days, Dave Ward, who took the head job with the Cubs after being let go by an ignorant administration at Archbishop Thomas Murphy, where he had led the bad boys of the Cascade Conference to back-to-back trips to the state title game.

Now reunited, the trio who helped bring big-time attention to Whidbey Island football, are moving forward and instilling the love of the game in new players.

“High school football is all about playing and having fun. It was something I loved doing and something I wanted to be involved with on the coaching end,” Lobbestael was quoted in a piece by Trevor Pyle in The Skagit Valley Herald. “Throughout high school, I was lucky to have a great group of coaches. It made a good impression and a positive influence on my life.”

And now The Lobster is paying it forward.