Jared Helmstadter
Oscar Liquidano
Wiley Hesselgrave
Isaac Vargas (21) and Anthony Bergeron (20)
It was a lonely bench.
With a team ripped apart by illness (great debate lingers over whether it was a virus or bad burgers bought on a scouting trip to Sedro-Woolley), the Coupeville High School boys’ basketball varsity had only six semi-healthy men Saturday afternoon.
The JV team went them a man better, sending out five guys to play the entire 32 minutes, while coach Dustin Vanvelkinburgh sat by himself with an empty line of seats to his left. The only time he had contact with anyone was during timeouts.
Since he seemed fairly healthy, he might have liked it that way.
And while Gavin O’Keefe, Carson Risner, Drew Chan, Aaron Curtin, Josh Wilsey and Aaron Trumbull pulled down big minutes, at a time when some of them looked pretty haggard, they did have a little bit of breathing room, as coach Anthony Smith rotated his spare player in and out to give each of them at least a little break.
At the JV level there was no break for Isaac Vargas, Anthony Bergeron, Oscar Liquidano, Wiley Hesselgrave and Jared Helmstadter, who faced off with a Blaine squad that lists 25 players combined between its JV and C teams (and used them all).
Blaine’s first sub went in at the 6:46 mark of the first quarter and the Borderites employed a full-court press almost to the final buzzer, rolling in fresh players in waves.
Meanwhile, the Wolf Five went toe-to-toe and never backed off. They eventually succumbed (at least on the scoreboard) but they repped the black and red with pride Saturday. Up above are photos by Shelli Trumbull capturing the five of them in action.
To them, and their varsity brethren, I say, well played gentlemen. Well played.
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