Marc Aparicio, now the baseball coach at CHS, played on the ’87-’88 Wolf boys’ basketball team, the last one to make it to state. (John Fisken photo)
It has been 10,404 days since a Coupeville High School boys’ basketball team last played in the state tourney.
When the Wolf hoops squad exited the floor Thursday, Mar. 3, 1988, after taking a 77-46 loss to Bridgeport, it brought an end to one of the best seasons in program history.
And yet, now, 28 years, five months and 24 days later, it’s a team largely forgotten.
Which is a shame.
Even with the brand spanking new Wall of Fame which went up in the CHS gym this week, the ’87-’88 boys’ basketball players remain largely out of the spotlight, as they came a game short of sharing a league title.
Still, this was a team which went 17-2 in the regular season under coaches Ron Bagby, Sandy Roberts and Cec Stuurmans, undefeated in non-league play and 10-2 in Northwest B League action.
They split with La Conner, winning the second match-up in overtime, giving the eventual league champs (11-1), who finished 5th at state, their only league loss.
What killed Coupeville was an eight-point loss at mid-season to Friday Harbor, the third-best team in a seven-team league.
A very balanced squad — four Wolves (Timm Orsborn, Dan Nieder, Brad Brown and Joe Tessaro) averaged double figures — CHS split four games at Tri-Districts (which it hosted), then went 0-2 at state.
A 55-35 loss to NW Christian (Colbert), followed by their defeat at the hands of Bridgeport, sent the Wolves to the showers at 19-6.
Which stands with pretty much any boys basketball squad in school history.
The program has seven league titles, spread out from 1970 to 2002, one district title (1970), and is 2-10 in five trips to state.
While ’87-’88 can’t claim any of those eight titles, its win total is among the best single-season performances by a Wolf boys squad.
And, until a modern-day crew gets its act together, the players on that roster — Orsborn, Nieder, Brown, Tessaro, Chad Gale, Marc Aparicio, Morgan Roehl, Andrew Bird, Tom Conard, Tony Ford and Brandy Ambrose — stand as the last CHS boys hoops stars to punch a ticket to the Big Dance.
Going through boxes crammed full of random paperwork that were rescued from a back room in the CHS gym complex, I stumbled over a complete stats breakdown for ’87-’88.
In honor of their achievements back then, and their enduring legacy, let’s take a look, shall we?
The stats:
| Player | GM | FG | 3PT | FT | OREB | DREB | AST | TO | STL | PF | PTS | PPG |
| Gale | 25 | 95 | 35 | 42 | 59 | 42 | 45 | 49 | 57 | 225 | 9.0 | |
| Brown | 24 | 71 | 26 | 33 | 14 | 32 | 61 | 91 | 47 | 49 | 253 | 10.5 |
| Nieder | 24 | 102 | 14 | 65 | 35 | 72 | 91 | 84 | 58 | 70 | 311 | 13.0 |
| Orsborn | 25 | 138 | 71 | 91 | 142 | 28 | 44 | 39 | 65 | 347 | 13.9 | |
| Tessaro | 25 | 114 | 32 | 103 | 127 | 14 | 54 | 24 | 79 | 260 | 10.4 | |
| Ford | 15 | 35 | 10 | 38 | 31 | 8 | 21 | 10 | 26 | 80 | 5.3 | |
| Conard | 23 | 30 | 4 | 15 | 32 | 21 | 36 | 18 | 18 | 64 | 2.8 | |
| Aparicio | 25 | 22 | 4 | 16 | 30 | 18 | 47 | 22 | 30 | 48 | 1.9 | |
| Ambrose | 13 | 2 | 2 | 9 | 5 | 15 | 6 | 12 | 4 | 0.3 | ||
| Bird | 12 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 2 | 7 | 1 | 4 | 0.3 | |||
| Roehl | 11 | 2 | 6 | 7 | 1 | 6 | 1 | 4 | 0.4 | |||
| TOTALS | 25 | 613 | 40 | 254 | 365 | 545 | 291 | 450 | 275 | 406 | 1600 | 64.0 |
And PS, Marc Aparicio, if you’re wondering where your letter certificate is for that year, it was buried in the back of a file cabinet.
You want it back, you know where I am.
Coupeville Sports 
If you ever want the entire background on that club……………I’ve got ALL the inside stuff! If you ask Cec or Sandy or….Bag’s who was the glue and after 26 years it shouldn’t be political anymore they will tell you Timm Orsborn! No Timm, No State……fact. Ask Marc…………especially about the beginning of the season when several on the team (starters) got suspended for drinking and Timm bailed them out at Granite Falls. Hell, the AD and Bags even talked about canceling the game because some of the starters were disciplined. That’s just one tidbit. You have NO IDEA what BS went on within that club and “the parents”! Still pisses me off to this day! Besides, the ONLY reason Timm ended up at Coupevile to lead that team was because of Matt Thacker! He was the real coach. After the season was over I told Bagby that my dog could’ve sat on that bench that year and went 17-2.
Bottom line! Kids like Marc, Joe, Chad and Timm made it happen……….trust me. The Everett Herald sportswriter called me and asked if he could do an article about the club that I had written to him about comparing the team to “Hoosiers”. It should’ve been in the top 3 in the State with coaching and discipline but small town BS got in the way. Got it all, if you ever want to write the truth about the team. Mike Orsborn…..Timm’s dad