Coupeville Sports

Pardon me, but was this “abysmal?” (Shelli Trumbull photos)

Or this?

Maybe this?

They know not what they have unleashed.

We brought the Everett Herald to its knees, busted their preseason football poll into little bits and pieces. No matter how many times their maids and chauffeurs voted, Archbishop Thomas Murphy and King’s couldn’t hold off Wolf Nation.

We outvoted them, dominated the message board and left them crying.

And now the South Whidbey Record, a sliver of a paper compared to the Herald, wants to provoke us?

You don’t know the power of the Wolf. But you’re about to.

What’s ticking me off at the moment is a story in the Record about the Coupeville/South Whidbey boys’ basketball playoff game.

Or, more precisely, a word.

That word, written by Ben Watanabe, is “abysmal.” As in “ending Coupeville’s abysmal season.”

So, from the perspective of a writer who saw one or two Wolf games, he views our boys’ hoops squad and what they accomplished over the last four months as “extremely bad or appalling.”

I can think of a few words for Mr. Watanabe, but hesitate to use them, as he is a fellow ink-stained wretch. A misguided one, but part of the fraternity.

Now, I understand. From the outside, a 1-21 record doesn’t set the world on fire.

But where Watanabe and the other knee-jerkers fail, and fail miserably, is YOU WEREN’T THERE.

You didn’t see the broken leg. The severe concussion. The wrist injury. The stitches. The enormous black eye. The staph infection. The food poisoning. The viral crud that kept on swirling through town.

You didn’t see Drew Chan rise off his death bed and play virtually every minute against Blaine.

You didn’t see Ben Etzell, eye almost swollen shut, play on.

You didn’t see Caleb Valko, less than 24 hours after getting four stitches under his eye, play to the last ounce of his strength.

You didn’t see Carson Risner throw up, take the floor, then repeat that pattern for the next two hours.

You didn’t see a team that came back day after day after day with limited fan support.

A team beset by god-awful refs who allowed other teams to throw punches, refs who shoved Wolf players and then called a technical on the PLAYER.

You didn’t see every one of those Wolves work their ass off all season.

You didn’t see the emergence of younger players like Morgan Payne and Wiley Hesselgrave. You didn’t see the continued development of Nick Streubel into a force in the paint South Whidbey will have little chance to contain next season.

You didn’t see the improvement. The commitment. The fight still left in a program that is rebuilding after a 20+ year coach retired and his entire roster graduated two seasons ago.

You didn’t see a damn thing, but yet you’re very quick to reduce four months of sweat, of work, of commitment, of playing as a team and standing behind each other, to the word “abysmal.”

So, we’re going to give you a chance to think about your word choices. Because I am calling on every single one of my readers to go to the link down below and leave a comment on your story.

I’m not telling them what to say. That’s up to them.

Though, if they need help, calling YOU “abysmal” would be a good place to start.

http://www.southwhidbeyrecord.com/sports/190461791.html