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Archive for March, 2014

Taya Boonstra? An American legend!!

Posted in A freakin' American hero, Happy birthday, Whidbey's Best, tagged , , , on March 22, 2014| Leave a Comment »

Taya Boonstra: American Legend

Taya Boonstra — she doesn’t mind if you take her photo.

Taya Boonstra is God’s gift to photographers.

Part of a proud tradition of camera-friendly Coupeville High School athletes that includes McKayla Bailey, Hunter Hammer and Caleb Valko, Ms. Boonstra never met a camera she couldn’t photo bomb.

During her time as a Wolf, whether she was doing time as a cheerleader or playing in the games herself, the irrepressible one always sparkled on camera.

She played her rear off on the court and diamond, but never failed to keep one eye cocked for a wandering camera.

Now a student at the University of Washington, Taya celebrates her birthday today. The legend turns 20.

And on this day, and every other day, we celebrate her — one of the classiest, sassiest to ever wear the red and black.

She made her town a better place, and she will always be held in high regard by those who have known her.

You are the gold standard, Ms. Boonstra. Never change.

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Heartbreaker on the diamond!!

Posted in Baseball, tagged , , , , on March 21, 2014| Leave a Comment »

Josh Bayne had three hits and three RBI Friday. (John Fisken p[hoto)

Josh Bayne had three hits and three RBI Friday. (John Fisken photo)

Aaaaaaaa-goooooooo-nyyyyyyyyyyyy.

Three outs away from a sweep of its season-opening three-game series against arch-rival South Whidbey, the Coupeville High School baseball squad couldn’t get the door all the way slammed.

Instead, they surrendered four runs in the bottom of the seventh Friday, losing 10-9 on a walk-off, two-out, two-run single.

Still, the Wolves, now 2-1 on the season, did win the series and will hold a tiebreaker over the Falcons, the only other 1A school to play baseball in the Cascade Conference. King’s doesn’t play baseball, while the other five league schools are 2A.

Coupeville will hit the road for non-conference games at Concrete and Nooksack Valley next week before returning to league play against the biggest baddie in all the land, Archbishop Thomas Murphy.

The game started slowly Friday, got pretty awesome for a stretch, then slipped away piece by piece.

The Wolves went with sophomore CJ Smith on the mound, and he didn’t have the command he had shown out of the bullpen in a CHS win Thursday.

After a rough first inning, in which he surrendered three runs, he settled down, but trailed 4-0 when he turned the ball over to Wade Schaef in the fourth.

After scraping together a run on an Aaron Trumbull double and Kurtis Smith single, Coupeville seemingly blew the game open with an eight-run fifth inning.

The Wolves used three hits, five walks and a crucial South Whidbey error to amass the runs. Morgan Payne (two-run single) and Josh Bayne (three-run double) delivered the biggest blows.

With Schaef cruising into the sixth inning, Coupeville seemed primed for the sweep, but the plucky Falcons refused to go away.

South Whidbey cut the margin to 9-6 going into the seventh, then jumped on mental errors by the Wolves to get two more in the bottom of the seventh.

Clinging to a 9-8 lead, with runners at second and third and two outs, Coupeville still had a chance to escape.

But it wasn’t to be, as the Falcon cleanup hitter became a hometown hero with a textbook single into left center to score the tying and winning runs.

Bayne paced the Wolves with three hits and three RBI, while Trumbull added two hits and two runs.

While he would have preferred getting back on the bus with a win, CHS coach Willie Smith came away mostly pleased with how his team handled the season-opening series.

“Although we lost, we did take the series and we had a lot of good things happen over the past three games,” Smith said. “We still have some work to do, as we struck out far too much today, mostly looking, and we still need to be able to put a team away when we have them on the ropes.

“But I feel like we put ourselves in a good position league-wise,” he added. “The areas we need to work on are definitely areas which we can fix.”

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“I’ll use my fast camera!!”

Posted in Track, tagged , , , on March 21, 2014| Leave a Comment »

Stephen Edwards appears to be sitting on the fence. He's not. (John Fisken photos)

Stephen Edwards appears to be sitting on the fence. He’s not. (John Fisken photos)

Makana Stone explodes out of the blocks.

Makana Stone explodes out of the blocks.

Jared Helmstadter comes flying down the back stretch.

Jared Helmstadter comes flying down the back stretch.

Ashlyn Miller fires the javelin.

Ashlyn Miller fires the javelin.

Joey Edwards takes a handoff from relasy temmate Nick Streubel.

Joey Edwards takes a hand-off from relay temmate Nick Streubel.

Sylvia Hurlburt's first step is a quick one.

Sylvia Hurlburt’s first step is a quick one.

Brandon Kelley has places to go.

Brandon Kelley has places to go.

Mattea Miller duels with a pair of Lakewood runners.

Mattea Miller duels with a pair of Lakewood runners.

He promised not to blink, and he delivered.

Ace photo man John Fisken captured images of three different Coupeville High School teams Thursday, snapping baseball and softball, then hauling rear up to Oak Harbor to nab the Wolf track team as it competed in the four-team Whidbey Island Jamboree.

If you like the pics above, pop over to the links below to see more (and possibly purchase some). Part of all sales goes to fund college scholarships for CHS student athletes.

Girls: http://www.wescoathletics.com/index.php?act=view_gallery&gallery=5792&league=3&page_name=photo_store&school=0&school_year=2013-14&sport=0

Boys: http://www.wescoathletics.com/index.php?act=view_gallery&gallery=5790&league=3&page_name=photo_store&school=0&school_year=2013-14&sport=0

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Opening Day a sweet success for softballers!!

Posted in Softball, tagged , , , , on March 21, 2014| Leave a Comment »

Coupeville's senior leaders, (l to r) Madeline Roberts, Breeanna Messner and Haley Sherman. (John Fisken photos)

Coupeville’s senior leaders: (l to r) Madeline Roberts, Breeanna Messner and Haley Sherman. (John Fisken photos)

Emily Licence patrols third base.

Emily Licence patrols third base.

Hailey Hammer told her coach she was only at 45%, but she used that 45% well.

Still recovering from an ankle injury suffered during basketball season, the Coupeville High School junior moved a little tentatively at times during the softball season opener Thursday. Except when she was at bat.

Than the power-hitting first baseman blasted away, knocking home a pair of runs and teaming with sweet-swinging senior Breeanna Messner to spark the Wolves to a huge 6-3 home victory over arch-rival South Whidbey.

Erupting for a three-spot in both the first and fourth innings, Coupeville collected some well-placed hits, then mixed them in nicely with 10 walks and a couple of wildly thrown balls by the Falcons.

South Whidbey’s starting pitcher struggled, perhaps bothered by the cold, crisp air and slight breeze that trickled across the prairie, and the Wolves jumped on her quickly.

Three of the first five batters in the bottom of the first scored, and Coupeville was on the cusp of really breaking out a big inning.

Madeline Roberts led off with a walk, scampered to second on a passed ball, took third on a wild pitch and eventually strolled home when Messner crunched a laser shot over second for the season’s first RBI.

After a walk to McKayla Bailey, two runs came in on a ground-out by Hammer. The second run scored when a Falcon airmailed the ball over the third baseman’s head for an error.

The fourth was almost a repeat, with a mixture of walks and a couple crucial hits staking the Wolves to another three-spot.

Emily Licence and Roberts eked out back-to-back walks to lead things off, then Bailey and Hammer packaged RBI singles around a free run when a South Whidbey throw to first landed somewhere down around Oak Harbor.

With runs to play with, Bailey, Coupeville’s starting hurler, came right at the Falcons. The junior flamethrower struck out eight and only had a brief bit of trouble when she tired a bit in the seventh, giving up a pair of late runs on wild pitches.

Even then, she bore down and found one last burst of adrenaline, ending the game on a nasty strike out, stranding two runners as her last pitch popped with conviction into Messner’s glove behind the plate.

Bailey was backed by a strong defense, with Madeline Strasburg coming up with a big-time catch in center, Roberts pulling off a smart tag play on a runner headed to third and Emily Coulter gobbling up everything that came her way at second.

Coulter was one of three first-time starters for Coupeville. The sophomore was joined by junior right fielder Monica Vidoni and freshman third baseman Licence.

Freshmen Tiffany Briscoe (pinch runner) and Jae LeVine (pinch hitter) also debuted for the Wolves.

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Wolves silence Falcon bats!!

Posted in Baseball, tagged , , , , , on March 21, 2014| Leave a Comment »

Wolf catcher Jake Tumblin called a good game Thursday, as CHS pitchers (John Fisken photo)

  Wolf catcher Jake Tumblin called a good game Thursday, then chipped in at the plate with two hits and three stolen bases. (John Fisken photo)

Church was in session Thursday, and the sermon was all about denial.

Coupeville High School hurler Aaron “Church” Curtin was flingin’ smoke, and backed by an opportunistic defense, he shut down visiting South Whidbey to a 6-1 tune.

The second straight win over their Island arch-rivals, it lifted the Wolves to a glossy 2-0 on the young season and clinched the tie-breaker between the only two 1A schools playing baseball in the Cascade Conference.

While Coupeville still has another 18 regular season games to play, 16 in league play (including a game in Langley Friday), it doesn’t hurt to know that, if it comes down to it, the Wolves will have an edge when playoff berths are decided.

“Well, it certainly helps, but we still need to finish ahead of them in league, so a long ways to go until it’s completely secured,” said a low-key CHS coach Willie Smith.

If Curtin keeps pitching like he did in his first outing of the season, following on the heels of strong work from Ben Etzell in the opener, it’s just going to get better for Coupeville.

“Aaron pitched a heckuva game,” Smith said.

Curtin struck out six over six innings and effectively scattered five hits, spacing them out where they did little damage.

When the Falcons did get bat on ball, the Wolf defense was ready.

Etzell went airborne to snag a screaming liner, then doubled a runner off of second for an inning-ending double play.

Then Wade Schaef topped him with “an ESPN highlight reel play,” laying out on a dead run to grab a liner at his shoestrings, snatching away a huge hit at a time when CHS was clinging to a one-run lead.

Schaef also swung a huge bat for the Wolves, crunching a double and knocking home three runs.

The whole lineup clicked, with Korbin Korzan thumping a double and Jake Tumblin racking up two hits and three stolen bases. Korzan, Tumblin and Morgan Payne each had an RBI, while Etzell and Josh Bayne also collected steals.

Coming into the season, pitching was a strong suit for the Wolves, with Etzell, Curtin, Aaron Trumbull, Bayne, Schaef and others forming a strong staff. But that staff may be even deeper than thought.

Sophomore CJ Smith, who transferred to Coupeville during basketball season, made his debut on the mound in the seventh and closed the game with a bang. Facing the top of the order for the Falcons, he retired them one-two-three on just eight pitches.

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