Coupeville Sports

Coupeville Middle School cross country coach Elizabeth Bitting, winner of the “CHS/CMS Top Fall Coach” poll.

Bitting (back, second from right) has always been a pro at hitting the tape first.

I love it when a plan comes together.

In a blatant bid to spike my page views, Coupeville Sports launched the “CHS/CMS Top Fall Coach” poll Saturday morning, a battle royal in which the winner would get a warm glow in their chest, and not much more.

Spoiler alert: it worked. It worked really, really well.

The 48-hour poll-tacular gave me a strong Saturday, then carried me Sunday to the single-biggest day in the history of the blog.

Yep, you pound out 6,405 articles across six years and two months, and all it takes is a poll to break my little corner of the internet…

So, a big thank you to the 21 Coupeville coaches, and their rabid fan-bases, who went toe-to-toe for 48 hours. My page view counter appreciates you all!

And in the end, who was the other winner, you ask?

After a back-and-forth brawl in which at least five different coaches made sustained runs, the final hours turned into a showdown between CHS cheer coach BreAnna Boon and CMS cross country guru Elizabeth Bitting.

First one was ahead, then the other, then back to the first, then back to the second, as the war raged on across time and space.

In the end, as the 9 AM Monday deadline clicked past, it was Bitting who triumphed, finishing with 7,987 votes to her friendly rival’s 7,295.

She joins football assistant coach Ryan King and track head coach Randy King, both winners in polls from previous school years, in the pantheon of coaching poll champs.

Rounding out the top five this time around were three CHS assistant coaches — football’s Bennett Richter (4,036) and Tyson Boon (1,891) and cheer’s Hailey Bell (1,652).

And hey, while only one coach could be the big champ (of a prestigious, but totally non-existent award), they all helped Coupeville Sports’s bottom line.

Which makes them all the real MVP’s.