Coupeville Sports

Oh, Canada … is this the best you can do?

Sound Publishing. Black Press. The Canadian Corporate Overlords. The Evil Empire. Call them what you want, they are here and they own Whidbey Island’s three newspapers body and soul.

And yet, what has this influx of Canuck filthy lucre accomplished? How great of an investment can it really be when a one-man operation, a rebel outpost hidden in a secret bunker near Penn Cove, staffed by a guy writing on a computer fueled by three narcoleptic hamsters, is kicking your large fanny on a daily basis?

I’m not using hyperbole here. I’m talking cold, hard facts and nothing but the facts, ma’am.

Friday night at about 7:30 PM, the football game between Coupeville and Orcas Island ended. A game in which the host Wolves battered the visiting Vikings 47-14 before a capacity crowd for their first win of the season. Kind of a big deal in the local market.

Of course, if you relied on the Canadian-funded newspapers, you wouldn’t have read a single word about the game for 63 hours.

Let that sink in.

In 2012, the age of the internet, the age of 24-7 news, it took 63 hours for a story and photo to appear on the web site of the biggest paper in town, the Whidbey News-Times. A paper that sits RIGHT ACROSS THE STREET from Coupeville’s football field.

From 7:30 PM on a Friday until 11:08 AM Monday morning, you could have refreshed like crazy and found nothing. Nada. Zilch. Not on the News-Times site, not on the Whidbey Examiner site, not on the South Whidbey Record site.

And, since the News-Times Saturday edition had gone to press long before the Friday night lights turned on, forget about seeing anything in print until this coming Wednesday.

Oh, Canada.

Since we’re piling on, let’s also consider CHS played both a boys’ tennis match and a girls’ soccer game Saturday. The wait on those stories — a modest 40 hours or so.

It’s enough to make a Coupeville sports fan rip out their hair. Or, turn to the one-man operation that’s beating them like a … well, I’d say rented mule, but a mule would have got there faster than the News-Times did.

During those 63 hours, from 7:30 PM Friday to 11:08 AM Monday, I put out nine stories.

Having covered the football game in person, I had a (much more exciting) story on-line an hour after the game. Then, the next day, we hit with a photo essay by Shelli Trumbull, 12 pictures that covered football action, cheerleaders, fans, Willie Smith cooking hamburgers and cute kids eating hot dogs. Oh yes, and we topped it off with a third article that featured an exclusive interview with Josh Bayne, the hero of the big win.

Toss in features on football stud/jazz drummer Danny Savalza, volleyball/tennis ace Allie Hanigan, in-person coverage of the soccer game, a report on the tennis match that included ALL of the CHS kids who played, an update on former Wolf turned college cross country star Tyler King and a piece on former Wolves Jon and Jodi Crimmins upcoming wedding anniversary and there was plenty of new material to read during those 63 hours.

You just had to forget about Canada to find it.