Coupeville Sports

Bite me, Canada!!

We’re 77 days into the revolution!

August 16, 2012 was the day coupevillesports.com went live, with both middle fingers gently extended and pointed in the direction of Canada, where the Evil Empire that owns all three Whidbey Island newspapers, sits.

And what have we accomplished in those 77 days, besides being immature and self-righteous? A lot, it would seem.

We’ve published 256 articles (at least 17 of which were worth reading!), which is an average of 3.3+ articles a day. We’ve inflamed new “fan” bases at Archbishop Thomas Murphy and Sultan (you’re welcome!) and we’ve taken sports back to the people.

We have constant features on Coupeville athletes, with words right from the mouths of the players themselves. The Canadian-owned rags, not so much.

We cover things LIVE, sprinkling our stories with little tidbits you wouldn’t know about if you hadn’t froze your butt off in a driving rain-storm. The Canadian-owned rags, not so much.

We provoke, we irritate, we embrace, we celebrate, we raise up, we are a part of Wolf Nation. The Canadian-owned rags, not so much.

And I would say it’s working, as our numbers continue to surge upwards. Our page views virtually doubled in October, than virtually doubled again in November.

In a matter of minutes from now, we are about to roll past a major round number in total page views for the site. It’s five figures, and there’s no 1 in there, but there is a 2 and a 5.

And what has driven the surge? Brett Arnold. And lots and lots of exclamation points.

Our top 10 stories as of Nov. 1:

1) “Faith guides Brett Arnold through tough times”

2) “Farm Dog — forever a friend of the world!!” (Remembering Stacie Farmer on her birthday.)

3) “This is our Island!!” (The Wolves take The Bucket away from South Whidbey.)

4) “Wolf receiver juggles dirty diapers, big pass plays!!” (With a stinkin’ cute pic of Riley Boyd and Britnie Korzan’s stinkin’ cute lil’ daughter.)

5) “Fleming, Arnold go bonkers in close loss!!”

6) “47 reasons to detest ATM!!” (Which inspires my best batch of hate mail yet.)

7) “The ‘girl that hits really hard’ is alive and well!!” (We track Jessica Riddle down in Anacortes.)

8) “BREAKING NEWS: Tisa McPhee suffers accidental nose job!!” (My most TMZ moment yet, as we run a pic taken moments before in a Seattle ER after Madison resists her first urge to tell me to go take a flying leap. MTM rules!)

9) “The Turks were jerks!!” (Sultan, making Aberdeen look classy.)

10) “No one ever brings you down and you’re always loved!!” (Holly Craggs, human ray of sunshine.)

Right on the outside, still fighting hard for that #10 slot — Haley Sherman, Iris Ryckaert (I got a ton of hits from Belgium!) and Ashley Ellsworth-Bagby. All over the place, the All-Stars (smack-talkin’ Caleb Valko, Danny “Shaman” Savalza and Hunter “Page Hit King” Hammer.)

And who will be the next big thing? It could be McKayla Bailey, or Sherry and Jon Roberts, or Kenzie Kooch, but I’m putting my money on legendary former Wolf Mike Engle, as soon as his wife MaryAnn gets him to answer his questions.

If anything can beat an Arnold in this town, it’s an Engle. Those five letters are page hit gold, baby!