Coupeville Sports

Ricky Muzzy goes airborne as Coupeville’s Korbin Korzan slides into the bag. (Shelli Trumbull photo)

Muzzy prepares to unload on a hapless pitcher.

I am often accused of picking on South Whidbey (and it’s mostly true), so, from time to time, I offer an olive branch to Coupeville’s closest rival.

While I don’t exactly want the Falcons to beat the Wolves at anything, the reality is there are a lot of very talented, very smart young men and women wearing the blue and white.

Let’s take a moment to acknowledge them.

Cause Lord knows the Canadian-owned South Whidbey Record isn’t exactly doing a bang-up job at it.

The legend of Ricky Muzzy is growing.

The South Whidbey High School sophomore, a two-sport star for the Falcons, delivered the biggest hit in recent Whidbey Island baseball history Monday.

When he lashed a two-out, bottom of the seventh RBI single, plating Jake Sladky, Muzzy lifted the Langley diamond men to their first win over Cascade Conference royalty Archbishop Thomas Murphy in seven seasons.

Then, since the 1-0 win felt so good, Muzzy and the Falcons went back out Wednesday, this time in Everett, and bounced ATM 5-4 to become the first team to knock off the Wildcats twice this season.

Now 11-5 on the season (9-5 in league play) South Whidbey has bounced back from losing its season-opening series to Coupeville to take firm hold of the race between the two 1A schools for a #1 playoff seed.

It’s been a fun ride for Muzzy, who, while he enjoys his time on the basketball court, where he plays guard for the Falcons, gets the most excited when he takes the field and sprints out to play shortstop.

“My athletic strength is baseball!,” Muzzy said. “I love it because of the relationships you build with your teammates and coaches, and just the game itself is great.”

His walk off base knock against ATM has found a spot on his personal highlight reel, along with “my first varsity baseball start, and home run last year.”

Muzzy hails his family for helping him succeed, both in sports and in life.

“My parents, for teaching me how to work hard and making me into the young man I am today,” he said. “All my friends, all of my coaches, as well.”

A big fan of his biology, Algebra 2 and Spanish classes (“I love all my teachers!”), Muzzy keeps a strong focus on his class work.

Though he still has more than half his high school career to go, he’s already looking ahead at the future.

“I’d like to go to a good college and study sports medicine,” Muzzy said. “And yes, it has always been my dream to play baseball at the college level.”

When he’s not on the baseball diamond, he keeps his skills sharp by playing Wiffle ball during the summer.

A fan of Jack Johnson’s music, his favorite movie is “probably “The Hobbit”.”

And, while Wolf fans can ponder how nice it would be to have the sweet-swinging, crisp-fielding Muzzy camped out in the middle of the infield if his family were to suddenly move, he seems quite content down South.

“South Whidbey has a lot of nice people, good coaches, good teachers,” Muzzy said. “Overall, it’s just a really enjoyable place to go to school!”