Coupeville Sports

Nick “The Big Hurt” Streubel (Mekare Bowen photo)

“You da man, Streubel!!”

Nick Streubel got shafted this season. He’s going to get shafted next season.

The Coupeville High School junior, who celebrates his 17th birthday today, and his teammates were not allowed to earn All-Conference honors during the football season because the Wolves didn’t play a “complete” conference schedule.

They played South Whidbey, King’s, Granite Falls and Sultan, but, in the first year of a two-year program to give CHS — the smallest school in the league by far — a chance to grow, they didn’t play the biggest teams in Archbishop Thomas Murphy, Lakewood and Cedarcrest.

While those three schools have varsity rosters dominated by juniors and seniors who have been in the weight room for years, Coupeville’s varsity includes every kid who showed up, from the man-mountain Streubel, AKA “The Big Hurt,” to painfully undersized freshmen.

The decision to go slightly off the schedule for two years was a good one for a lot of reasons, but the decision to not allow Wolf players to receive consideration for league honors — which ran contrary to what CHS parents were told when the program was instituted — stinks.

King’s Mason Friedline was not only the best lineman in the league, but possibly the state, this past season, and Streubel never gave ground once to him when they faced off.

In the four conference games, Jake Tumblin rolled up far better rushing numbers and Caleb Valko collected far more tackles than guys who ended up on the All-Conference teams.

They deserved a chance to be recognized, a chance for coaches to vote yes or no on them, based on what they did in those four games.

And you can’t tell me they were “non-conference” games, because when Coupeville beat South Whidbey on their home field, that gave the Wolves a playoff spot and denied the Falcons the same. THAT game was most certainly a conference game.

I know, the simple answer is to wait a year, and if Coupeville picks up the Big Three again in 2014, then its players are eligible.

But that will be a year too late for Streubel, Tumblin, Brett Arnold, Gunnar Langvold and the others who will play their senior season later this calendar year.

And if that All-Conference team in late ’13 doesn’t include Streubel, it will be a mockery. Just like the one in ’12.

But how can I help, you ask? By bombarding the conference’s AD’s with emails, for a start. Write one and mass-send it all to eight AD’s.

Let them know you don’t agree with their rational for denying Streubel and Co.

Make it your birthday present to Nick.