Coupeville Sports

Bob Barker, old school style. (Photo courtesy Jeff Stone)

Modern-day Curt Youderian, with daughter Corynn. (Photo courtesy Corynn Youderian)

Bob Barker spent 31+ years at Coupeville High School, working as a teacher, coach and Athletic Director, affecting countless lives over the years.

A 1959 grad of what would become Western Washington University, he led baseball and basketball (both boys and girls) teams at CHS, taking three to state.

Hailed by his former players as “the best coach I ever had” and “one of the three or four people who shaped who I am today,” his impact lingers long after his retirement.

In this series, Barker responds to my questions as only he can, eloquently and passionately.

Today’s question: “If you had to pick a highlight from your coaching career, what would it be and why?”

David,

In response to your final question:

I have already mentioned several highlights, concerning championships, district tournaments, and state tournament entries, etc.

However, there is one that I have not yet mentioned and it concerns the boy’s 1973 – 1974 basketball team.

Out of the 12 years that I coached boys varsity basketball, it is the only team that lost more games than it won. 

Now, one might make the assumption that it was a year and team, that as coach, I would be most likely to forget.

Actually, just the opposite of that is true as I have fond memories of that team and take great pride in its accomplishments.

The team consisted of four seniors, Steve Bisset, Les Jacobson, Rick Keefe and Curt Youderian.

If my memory serves me, Curt had dropped out of sports for a couple of years and decided that as a senior he would like to give it another try. 

At 6-foot-1, Curt was our so called “big man.” 

Junior Scotty Franzen was probably our most experienced player. 

In addition we had three sophomores, Randy Keefe, Bill Jarrell and Mark Bissett, who all would later play big roles in getting Coupeville entries into state basketball tournaments in 1975 and 1976.

We knew at the beginning of the season that scoring was not going to be our strong point so we spent a great deal of time on practicing our defensive schemes. 

There isn’t a lot of glamour to defense and it takes a lot of hard work and effort. 

But defense kept us in most games and due to the positive leadership demonstrated by the aforementioned seniors and the development of the sophomores I found this to be one of my most enjoyable years in coaching.

Sincerely,

Bob Barker