Rising softball star Veronica Crownover. (Kelly Crownover photos)
Sarah Wright takes her cuts on the first day of practice.
The Venom live!
Sort of.
Last spring and summer, the Central Whidbey Little League Junior All-Star softball squad, AKA The Venom, drilled every regular-season foe by 10+ runs, advanced to the state tourney and finished 18-2.
This year, there’s no team.
With most of the Venom having jumped up to high school ball — three of them, Katrina McGranahan, Lauren Rose and Hope Lodell, are starting for Coupeville High School as freshmen — there wasn’t enough girls left to field a team.
So, the three remaining members of the championship team, eighth graders Veronica Crownover, Sarah Wright and Tamika Nastali picked up Yuma, Arizona refugee Ema Smith and headed south.
The four Wolves will play for a juniors team out of Langley this year that is coached by Brad and Karen Jaeger.
Adapt. Move on. Keep playing and then reunite with their former Venom teammates next year when they hit the high school.
That’s the plan and they’re sticking to it.
Coupeville Sports 
Heather Nastali is also CHS Freshman and playing for Ms Rafferty this year. I believe we also have others from Venom.
That’s true. Both Heather and Robin Cedillo are on the CHS squad, so there’s five players from the Venom who have made the jump to high school ball. I was just making a point about the three (McGranahan, Rose, Lodell) who were immediate starters. No disrespect meant to the others.