Coupeville Sports

     Wolf Baby officially endorses Madison Tisa McPhee as the Most Awesome Wolf of 2012. (Shelli Trumbull photo)

It’s Dec. 31, 2012 and I’m still not Vincent Nattress.

Shot to the ribs! One last jab at the Whidbey Examiner and their Canadian Corporate Overlords, who managed to steal my bylines, hand them to someone else, scrub my stories from their database and thoroughly take a crap on 15 years of my writing.

Well, at least I got paid well for my time and … no, actually I didn’t, did I?

Which is at least part of the reason I became big in Belgium in 2012.

Part of coupevillesports.com is to give something back to the community and part of it is to inflict a wedgie on those who sold out the dream of independent journalism as soon as the first Canuck pay-off cleared at the bank.

So, what have I accomplished in these first 4.5 months, since I launched August 16?

431 posts. 780 photos. 20 sponsors. Numerous pissed off folks at Archbishop Thomas Murphy and Sultan and a few up Canada way. A few down this way, as well, as my number one commentator was a woman upset with my coverage of a missing local fisherman.

But, like I said, I’m big in Belgium, which is neck-and-neck with Canada as my second biggest readership base, trailing (surprise, surprise) the United States. My feature on Belgian foreign exchange student/Wolf cheerleader Iris Ryckaert got me started and at least some of those readers are still checking in on an almost daily basis.

So, I’ve got that going for me, which is nice.

Overall, it’s been a nice ride so far, with big wins (suck it South Whidbey! suck it even harder Sultan!!), big announcements (Toni Crebbin retires, CHS kills The Wobble), nice quotes (“Does this school have good insurance?”), synchronized barfing (not as pretty as it sounds…), big shots to the nads (Gavin O’ Keefe breaks his leg, Ryan Griggs moves to Arizona) and superstars doing what superstars do (Breeanna Messner KO’s Orcas Island, Luke Merriman hits TWO buzzer-beating three point bombs in one middle school game, Jake Tumblin lays waste to Chimacum in the football finale).

And a special mention to two Wolves, Joel Walstad and Madison Tisa McPhee.

Walstad gets props for stuffing former teammate Taylor Ebersole’s shot during a basketball game at La Conner, proving the best players stay on Whidbey and don’t run away and cry to daddy at the first sign of trouble.

And MTM? Great hurdler. Great soccer player. But what makes her extra special was she let me run a photo of her taken in a Seattle ER mere moments after she smushed her nose something terrible in a collision on the pitch — the very definition of “breaking news.”

She could have told me to stick it where the sun don’t shine, and that was probably her first thought. But she didn’t, cause she’s awesome.

Caleb Valko gave good smack-talkin’. Messner, Nick Streubel, Bessie Walstad, Nathan Lamb and many more shone brightly in 2012. Gabe Wynn and Tiffany Briscoe are the future, and the future is bright.

But the MVP of the first 4.5 months? MTM, hands down.

Now just don’t break anything else. I’d rather write about you winning a state track title than to go all TMZ on you again.