Coupeville Sports

  Senior QB/kicker Joel Walstad will lead the Wolves into a new league this season. (John Fisken photos)

Walstad fires a jumper last season.

Joel Walstad is about to step into the spotlight.

The third of three children in a highly-successful athletic family (following older siblings Tim and Bessie), Joel has been a strong player in all three of his sports — football, basketball and soccer.

But, as he enters his senior year at CHS, it will be a whole new ballgame, as he becomes The Man and not just a supporting player.

First up is the gridiron, where he’ll replace the graduated Gunnar Langvold as Coupeville’s starting quarterback.

While still finding time to limber up his leg and deliver extra points, field goals and punts for the Wolves.

Walstad can strike from many different directions, though he is still looking to fine-tune his skill set.

“My strengths are kicking and quickness,” he said. “I would like to improve on my passing and reading the defense.”

Now in his sixth season as a football player, having first picked up the sport as a seventh grader (“It looked like it would be fun”), Walstad wants to make an impact in his final go-around.

“Team goal is an (Olympic) League championship,” Walstad said. “Individual goals would be to kick a 40-yard field goal in a game and to throw for less than 5 interceptions on the year.”

The senior signal caller points to his family, including parents Shawn and Renee, and “all my coaches” as having shaped his game, and his life.

A big fan of history class who likes to spend most of his free time hanging out with friends, Walstad would give the slight edge in his sports world to hoops — “Because I have played it the longest” — but it’s football that he hopes might open doors at the next level.

“I would like to try to go to college for kicking,” he said. “I kicked a 55-yard field goal one time. You can ask Coach (Tony) Maggio!”