January | 2013 | Coupeville Sports

Archive for January, 2013

Escalle, Messner bring the heat in tough loss!!

Posted in Girls Basketball on January 13, 2013| 1 Comment »

Bessie Walstad eyes a potential rebound and the two defenders she's about to flatten. (Shelli Trumbull photos)

Bessie Walstad eyes a potential rebound and two defenders she’s about to flatten. (Shelli Trumbull photos)

A Mount Vernon Christian player is blissfully unaware she’s about to meet a defensive move known simply as … Hammer Time! Much crying ensued…

Attack the basket!

Three small words and three very important ones for a basketball coach. Which is why Coupeville High School girls’ coach David King can take away a huge positive from Saturday afternoon’s otherwise frustrating non-conference loss at Mount Vernon Christian.

While the tired Wolves, playing their third game in five days, fell 52-39, the play of hard-charging Lauren Escalle and Breeanna Messner gives King confidence as Coupeville returns to Cascade Conference play.

“A bright spot was seeing Lauren start to attack the basket instead of just settling for a jumper after two hard dribbles by her defender,” King said. “Lauren played her best overall game of the season, defense and on the offensive end.

“Bree has stepped up over the past few weeks and has been a steadying influence on the court, making good decisions and attacking the basket,” he added. “She is starting to look for her shot more.”

Escalle popped for 11 and Messner singed the nets for 10 as Coupeville dropped to 5-9. The loss capped a rough week in which the Wolves took 1A power King’s to the wire, then got pounded by 2A juggernaut Cedarcrest.

Coupeville, powered by Messner, opened strongly and led 12-10 after the first quarter.

Then, Mount Vernon Christian ramped up its press and the Wolves panicked a bit, allowing their hosts to reel off a 17-8 run.

“We moved the ball well on offense in the first and had five players score,” King said. “In the 2nd MVC started pressing and our turnover woes returned. Our pattern is to get out of our tempo, start rushing and throwing the ball away.”

Never one to back down, Coupeville rallied in the third, with the scoring spread out team-wide. Messner rung the bell for four, Escalle knocked down a huge three-point bomb and Bessie Walstad and Hailey Hammer each chipped in with three apiece.

The comeback couldn’t quite get over the top, though, and it was an old foe that ultimately blunted their efforts. Missing all eight of their free throws in the fourth quarter, the Wolves watched the game slide away.

Walstad backed up Escalle and Messner, hitting for seven, while Hammer went for five. Jai’Lysa Hoskins (four points, eight rebounds) and Amanda Fabrizi (two points, seven rebounds, six steals) also brought their A-game.

The Wolves, who return to league play with a home game against Lakewood Tuesday, Jan. 15, were down two players, with freshman phenom Makana Stone and steady senior Rhiannon Ellsworth both out. To fill the gap, sophomore Kacie Kiel made her varsity debut in the fourth quarter.

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Oh, what a night!!

Posted in Boys Basketball on January 12, 2013| Leave a Comment »

Winner, winner chicken dinner!

Ace photographer Shelli Trumbull takes us inside the celebration that has been 34 games and 702 days in the making.

Wolves win! Wolves win!

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Islanders ice Issaquah!!

Posted in Girls Soccer, GU17 Whidbey Islanders on January 12, 2013| Leave a Comment »

Micky LeVine, far left, scored the deciding goal Saturday. (Kali Barrio photo)

In the middle of brutality, they found beauty.

Playing on a soccer field that was closer to an ice rink and facing a team that reveled in nastiness, the Whidbey Islanders GU17 soccer squad pulled off a dazzling win Saturday.

With goals from Kendra Warwick and Micky LeVine lighting the spark, the Islanders swatted the visiting Issaquah Arsenal 2-1 in a game that wasn’t as close as the score might sound.

“While both teams struggled for footing on the ice rink that was Ft. Nugent Park today, we were still able to out-possess and out-hustle the other team,” said coach Sean LeVine. “We dominated possession and had several opportunities on their goal. They, on the other hand only had a few on our end.

“I’m very happy with how we played and I suspect that if we played them on a better surface the final score would be a lot more lopsided in our favor,” he added.

With the icy conditions perhaps freezing the part of their brains where the conscience resides, the Issaquah players came out in a bad mood, whacking the Islanders around on virtually every play. That philosophy immediately backfired, however, as it set up Whidbey’s first goal.

A foul gave the Islanders a free kick and Jennifer Spark smartly faked out the defenders, then fed Warwick with a beautiful pass. Warwick promptly blasted the ball past the hapless goaltender, setting off a celebration.

“It was a work of art,” Sean LeVine said of the goal.

His own flesh and blood then put the game on ice (ha ha…), as Micky LeVine punched in a goal after being set up by two of her teammates.

Becca Pabona and Ayla Muller combined for a crowd-pleasing give-and-go down the sideline, with Pabona crossing to LeVine, who converted faster than any ’80s music fans could chant “Oh Micky, you’re so fine, you’re so fine, you blow my mind!!”

Issaquah only got on the board late in the game when an Islander player finally tired of the physical play and took out an opposing player in retaliation. The ensuing free kick deflected off a Whidbey defender and flopped into the net.

Now 1-1-1 on the season, the Islanders return to their home field 11 AM Sunday for a State Cup game. That causes a bit of a conflict for their coach, as the Seattle/Atlanta football playoff game kicks off an hour earlier.

“I know, I know, it’s during the Seahawks game,” LeVine said, before warning, “But it’s OK, I’m DVRing it … so no spoilers!!”

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SWEET SON OF A GOAT-LICKIN’ WHORE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Posted in Boys Basketball on January 12, 2013| Leave a Comment »

Well, the arrow is pointing at Jack Nicholson…

It is over. It is done. It is finished.

On a day when I made the wrong choice and stayed on the Island to watch “Gangster Squad” and “Zero Dark Thirty,” the Coupeville High School boys’ basketball team went down the freeway and shocked the world.

A 51-41 non-conference win at Mount Vernon Christian Saturday evening, fueled by a season-high 24 points from Ben Etzell, snapped a 33-game losing streak for the Wolves that had stretched over parts of three seasons and 702 calendar days.

The first time Coupeville has won for coach Anthony Smith (“I am SOOOO happy for my guys, because they work so hard!!”) and the first time the varsity boys have tasted triumph since Feb. 10, 2011, the next-to-last game in Randy King’s 20-plus-year career, it came during the toughest stretch of the 2012-2013 season.

It was the third game in a six-game road trip for the Wolves and came less than 24 hours after they were battered by Cascade Conference leader Cedarcrest.

And yet the Wolves rallied, coming back from six down at the break, shattering a season-long trend of poor third quarters in high style. Racing past their hosts 17-7 in the first eight minutes after halftime, they surged and never wavered.

With Etzell hitting key free throws down the stretch, virtually everyone on the roster chipped in to the scoring effort. Aaron Trumbull banged home nine, Nick Streubel popped for six, Carson Risner rumbled for four, Caleb Valko and Aaron Curtin each netted three and Morgan Payne dropped in a bucket.

It was a team win for a team that plays as a team, through good times and bad.

This is a team that deserved to win.

A team that has refused to give in to the haters and the whiners, the bitchers and the complainers.

A team that had a win ripped away against Orcas Island by a ref crew so bad they allowed a rival player to throw a punch and remain in the game and then heaped it on from there.

A team that remained friends, fought together, stood tough, overcame losing its most explosive offensive player, Gavin O’Keefe, to a broken leg in the second game of the season and kept on coming, practice after practice and game after game.

This is a team that deserved to have a fun bus ride back across the bridge at least once before seniors Valko, Drew Chan and Josh Wilsey graduated.

I have seen this team play eight times this season — seven at home and once on the road (at La Conner) and they never laid down once.

They played through food poisoning, viral crud, god-awful refs, hurting knees, a lack of wide-spread support from their own student body and catcalls from former students who couldn’t carry their water bottle.

Tonight, that all ended and I am very, very happy for them.

A job well done to Valko, Chan, Wilsey, O’Keefe, Curtin, Streubel, Risner, Trumbull, Payne, Etzell, Anthony Bergeron, Smith and assistant coach Dustin Vanvelkinburgh.

You shocked the world. You shut up the whiners and the bitchers.

And you did the truly impossible — you actually made me regret having chosen the movies for the first time in my film-obsessed life.

Well done, gentlemen. Well done.

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“I can put my game face on!!”

Posted in Girls Basketball, Middle School, Volleyball on January 12, 2013| Leave a Comment »

Valen Trujillo

Trujillo during volleyball season.

They are the words any basketball coach lives to hear.

“My strengths are defense! I can put my game face on!”

As Coupeville Middle School 8th grader Valen Trujillo prepares for the start of her second basketball season (“Yes, I’m a rookie!”), she already has the proper mind-set in place.

Recognizing she still needs to work on her offensive skills, she is determined to make an impact for the Wolves through hustle, hard work and getting up in someone’s face.

A three-sport athlete (she’ll turn out for track in the spring) Trujillo views basketball, where she flops between wing and post, as a nice way to fill her extra hours.

“I wanted to stay in shape and wanted to try basketball out!,” Trujillo said. “It seemed very fun! Also, many of my good friends are also doing the sport.”

Since volleyball ended, she has continued to work out after school with friends Carlie Rosenkrance, Mattea Miller, Savanna Dohner and Tiffany Briscoe (“They are such great motivation during the workouts!”).

The first day of basketball practice is Jan. 22, and with it will come a change in focus, as she tries to add new skills to her hoops game.

“Shooting is my weakness. Last season I never attempted to shoot the ball,” Trujillo said. “But that’s going to change this year! My goals are to work on my skills and improve to the best of my abilities.”

If basketball goes anything like volleyball, she’s sure to be a hit. She and Briscoe paced the Wolf squad all season and are both looking forward to making the jump to high school volleyball next season.

“Volleyball is my favorite sport!!,” Trujillo said. “I just have found a passion for it. Also, I have my “partner in crime,” Tiffany Briscoe.”

She singles out an epic season-ending match against Langley (“The match was neck and neck. We went into overtime; the game points went into the 30’s.”) as a team highlight and was especially pleased with the growth she showed in her serving game.

As an individual, my highlight was getting my over-hand serves down,” Trujillo said. “Also, dives, hustling and digs are some of my favorite things to do in games.”

With a large group of family and friends to call on for support, Trujillo, who sings at her church and wants to learn the guitar, has plenty of role models.

“My parents have taught me how to never give up and to finish what you started. Also, my parents taught me to have sportsmanship,” Trujillo said. “I have a great group of friends and they give me such support and make it enjoyable along the way!”

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