Coupeville Sports

There you go, South Whidbey. An updated photo for your data base.

Year two begins.

Today marks the one-year anniversary of coupevillesports.com (celebratory cupcakes can be delivered to me at Christopher’s on Whidbey, if you so choose … he said with fingers crossed).

We entertained some people. We pissed off some people. Sometimes the same people.

1,209 articles, with 99.8% written by my dish pit-abused fingers. A billion photos (give or take three or four), thanks to intrepid photographers like Shelli Trumbull, John Fisken, Kali Barrio and a thousand other moms and grandmas.

It has been a wild ride so far, as I have returned to covering live sports (there is no “joy” quite like watching a 0-0 tie in high school soccer in a driving rain storm…) and re-sparked my interest in writing.

I have, admittedly, fluctuated wildly between living the way the guardian angel on my shoulder, Kim Andrews, would like me to, celebrating the anonymous, unknown, rarely-covered athlete while also occasionally being a little turd who enjoys flicking the ears of others.

South Whidbey banned me from their high school gym and someone set up a rival blog to document how I was a big meanie. It lasted one whole article, which is real commitment there, Chuckles.

Sultan and Archbishop Thomas Murphy, not big fans. I amused the King’s football coach and their radio announcers, though, so there’s that.

And the gutless, ineffectual Canucks up in Moosejaw who own all three Whidbey Island newspapers and erased three years of my bylines from the Whidbey Examiner with a single keystroke?

Probably not getting an invite to their next pity party, where they try to figure out how a part-timer scoops their overpaid loafers 24-7-365.

I know. I should be the better man. There is great joy to be found when you shine the spotlight on a Holly Craggs, a Manuel Lopez Santillana, a Jared Helmstadter or a Heni “Smartest Young Woman in the World” Barnes.

But, there is also great joy to be found flicking fools.

So, I go forward, trying to find the balance between the two, while staying true to the one rock-solid principle behind this blog — if it amuses me, it runs.

But what do you, the readers, want to see? Take the snazzy poll below and let fire.