Coupeville Sports

   Wolf football players like Jacob Martin (32) will tackle new conference foes starting next season. (John Fisken photo)

Get ready for round two with Bryce Hoisington.

A major shakeup to the Coupeville High School football schedule guarantees the Wolves will get a rematch with the Vashon running back who lit them up for a state record 573 yards in this season’s finale.

Only the second time around, it will be a conference game.

As reclassification shakes out across the state, leagues have latched on to the idea of combining to form football-only conferences, and the Wolves and their three mates in the 1A Olympic League have joined the dance.

According to a report in the Peninsula Daily News, the Olympic League will team up with the Nisqually League, which also has four football-playing teams.

The union will affect only the one sport.

Under the agreement, Coupeville will no longer face Port Townsend, Klahowya and Chimacum twice each season on the gridiron.

Instead, after playing non-conference games in the first three weeks (keeping alive the tradition of facing off with South Whidbey, one would assume), the Wolves will play seven conference games against seven opponents.

Along with the one game each against their three regular foes, they will now play conference games against Cascade Christian, Charles Wright Academy, Vashon and Bellevue Christian.

Cascade Christian will likely be the team to beat, having played in the 1A state title game five of the past eight seasons, winning titles in 2010 and 2014.

In previous seasons, week 10 was devoted to a non-conference crossover game (this season that was the Vashon bout), but that has been eliminated under the new agreement.

From the eight teams, the top two (or three, depending on each year’s allocation) will advance to the playoffs.

Both leagues will crown their own regular season champs.

While the new reclassification rules cover four-year intervals (a new count will happen in 2020), Olympic and Nisqually Athletic Directors plan to evaluate the football agreement after two seasons.