Coupeville Sports

   Coupeville is chomping through the 1A Olympic League the same way Luke Merriman eats hot dogs — in big bites. (John Fisken photo)

We are Darth Vader. At least for the moment.

Sparked by a top-drawer basketball season, Coupeville High School has slid past Klahowya to become the true rulers of the 1A Olympic League.

How is this possible? Let me break it down for you.

With the regular season done for basketball, when you look at the six varsity sports in which Coupeville has competed in so far during the 2015-2016 school year (four in the fall, two in the winter), the Wolves have won more games against league opponents than their rivals.

Now, we’re only counting official “league” games, and not the weird “non-league” volleyball and soccer matches played against league foes to fill out schedules in the fall.

Those games didn’t count in the official league standings, so they don’t count here.

So, with spring still ahead of us, and four more team sports to decide (baseball, softball, boys soccer and girls tennis), here’s where the league win tallies stand right now:

Coupeville (25)
Klahowya (23)
Port Townsend (18)
Chimacum (13)

The Wolves are also tied with Klahowya with two league titles, having retained their girls basketball top dog status while stealing boys tennis away from the Eagles.

For the sixth-smallest 1A school to be up on the second-biggest is an accomplishment, and Coupeville has done it so far by being spectacular in one sport, solid in almost every one, and, during their one weak season, not taking a zero.

The Wolves are the only school not to have a win-less league season in at least one sport this year.

Broken down by sports, the wins:

Coupeville — girls basketball (9), boys tennis (4), boys basketball (4), girls soccer (4), volleyball (3), football (1)
Klahowya — VB (6), girls soccer (6), girls BB (4), FB (4), boys tennis (3), boys BB (0)
Port Townsend — boys BB (7), FB (6), girls BB (4), girls soccer (1), VB (0), boys tennis (0)
Chimacum — boys BB (7), VB (3), FB (1), girls soccer (1), girls BB (1), boys tennis (0)

Last year, in the first go-round for the four-team league, Klahowya finished with 52 wins to Coupeville’s 40, while Chimacum (23) and Port Townsend (20) brought up the rear.

The Eagles won five titles in 2014-2015, to two each for Coupeville and Chimacum and one for the RedHawks.

With five of the six league champs having repeated so far, thanks to Chimacum’s miracle finish in boys’ basketball, where they were a basket away from losing their title, only to rally for four straight wins, that would seem to indicate a possible late surge ahead for Klahowya.

The Eagles are the defending champs in baseball and boys soccer.

But I wouldn’t count out Coupeville.

The Wolves are the defending league champs in girls tennis, and should return almost their entire squad.

And, in softball, where Chimacum slid in to snatch a title a year ago, the Wolves will be reuniting the squad which stormed to an undefeated season and a trip to state at the little league level two seasons ago.

With big bopper freshmen Veronica Crownover and Sarah Wright (and new CHS coach Kevin McGranahan) once again teaming with Hope Lodell, Lauren Rose, Katrina McGranahan and Co., the Wolf softball squad could be the surprise team of the spring.

As the next three months play out, the mythical league win title is very much up for grabs.

For the moment, though, if you want to know where the power resides, look no further than Cow Town.