Coupeville Sports

CHS coach Tony Maggio just saw game film on King’s. He’s going to need a minute.

This is not going to be easy. That’s for sure.

But they said the same thing to the 1980 U.S. hockey team. The ’85 Villanova hoop squad. The 1950 U.S. mens’ soccer team. The 2007 Statue of Liberty-pullin’ Boise State football team. Bobby Plump and the ’54 Milan High School basketball squad (think “Hoosiers”). Rulon Gardner on the Greco-Roman wrestling mats at the 2000 Olympics. Buster Douglas knocking the crud out of the baddest man on the planet, Mike Tyson.

They play the games for a reason. Because anything can happen between the first whistle and the last whistle.

And regardless of every stat, every pundit, there is a chance Coupeville High School will march on to Mickey Clark Field this Friday, Oct. 19 and shock the world by stepping all over all-world quarterback Billy Green and his previously perfect King’s squad.

And, if they do, the Wolves will be the number one 1A school in the Cascade Conference, grab an automatic berth to tri-districts and make the world of Washington state high school football collectively soil its britches.

But it’s not going to be easy.

King’s, the school that whipped ATM so badly they fired their coach after just four games (oh, I’m sorry, he “resigned,” did he? That’s what they call it when you get locked out of your office?), is 7-0 and has outscored its opponents 338-70.

With Green, a Brigham Young University recruit, whipping 29 touchdowns through the air (with just two interceptions), the Knights have scored between 40 and 62 points in every game this season.

A line anchored by Yale recruit Mason Friedline has given him plenty of time to operate and Green has picked apart defenses for nearly 1,600 yards, with Caleb Taylor (748 yards, 14 TDs) and Ben Welch (7 TDs) being his primary targets.

When the Knights do take a break from the air express, their ground game is paced by Trevor Hansen, who has rumbled for 400+ yards.

So, they’re good at running up the score on other teams. We get it.

But remember that little story from that best-selling book, what was it called … oh yes, the Bible? About a plucky young guy who picked up some stones and went upside the head of the #1 ranked fighter in all the land?

Coupeville is David in this version of the story and Goliath is about to go down face-first, cause Goliath always goes down. Hard.

So this is where CHS unleashes its justifiably vaunted running attack (Jake Tumblin and Brent Arnold are among the league leaders in yards, while Danny Savalza, Bryce Fleming and Josh Bayne ain’t too bad themselves). Where they disrupt the King’s passing attack and bust out some game-breaking pick sixes.

Where they reach down and channel their Chaminade University, circa 1982 (look it up … that’s why we have the internet!) and stun the universe.

Write the legend, Wolves!