Coupeville Sports

Carolyn Lhamon and CHS girls soccer jump to the Northwest 2B/1B League this fall. (Photo by JohnsPhotos.net)

OK, this one is a bit simpler.

Mostly.

When Coupeville High School bounces from 1A to 2B next school year, most Wolf sports programs will relocate from the 1A North Sound Conference to the Northwest 2B/1B League.

Boys tennis is its own convoluted story, but that’s a tale for another time, as we’re focusing on soccer right now.

And, unlike the CHS boys, who switch from spring to fall, and inherit a complicated string of new foes, the Wolf girl booters get a pretty straightforward new agenda.

For one thing, they stay in the fall, as always.

Plus, the Wolf girls will play the same group of schools they’ll see in other sports, with two small exceptions.

Concrete and Darrington don’t field girls soccer teams, but the other six schools in the NWL do, making for a compact schedule.

The Wolves will face off with fellow 2B schools La Conner, Chimacum, and Friday Harbor in home-and-away set-ups, while also playing 1B Mount Vernon Christian and Orcas Island.

MVC is the defending league champ, and finished second at the 1B/2B state tourney last fall, dropping a 1-0 squeaker to Davenport in the championship game.

Before that, La Conner and Friday Harbor shared the previous seven league titles listed on the NWL web site.

La Conner won in 2012, 2015, 2016, and 2017, while Friday Harbor topped the field in 2013, 2014, and 2018.

As its sits now, the Coupeville girls have a 13-game schedule, while the Wolf boys have 16 rumbles planned, so it’s entirely possible more games will pop up as we get closer to September.

Currently, the three non-conferences games come against two former North Sound Conference rivals — Sultan and CPC-Bothell, and one newbie – Eastside Prep.

There’s also the lingering question of who will be running things from the sideline.

Kyle Nelson currently coaches both girls and boys soccer at CHS, but in different seasons.

With both programs operating at the same time, as 2B boys soccer plays in the fall and not spring, it’s unknown whether he will juggle teams or whether Coupeville would add a new head coach for one of the teams.

As it stands, there are only two dates on the schedule (Sept. 15 and Oct. 27) where both CHS soccer teams play on the same day.

Both of those feature one team on the road, and one at home.

Much can change in five months, and, let’s face it, no one really knows if we will even be back to sports action by fall, depending on how the coronavirus pandemic ebbs and flows.

Thinking positively, this is what we have set for now:

2020 CHS girls soccer schedule
(* = league game):

Sat-Sept. 12 — @Cedar Park Christian-Bothell (3:00)
Tue-Sept. 15 — @Sultan (7:00)
Thur-Sept. 17 — Mount Vernon Christian (6:00) *
Thur-Sept. 24 — @Orcas Island (4:00) *
Tues-Sept. 29 — @Friday Harbor (4:00) *
Thur-Oct. 1 — @Mount Vernon Christian (3:30) *
Tues-Oct. 6 — La Conner (6:00) *
Thur-Oct. 8 — Eastside Prep (6:00)
Tues-Oct. 13 — Chimacum (6:00) *
Thur-Oct. 15 — @La Conner (4:00) *
Thur-Oct. 22 — @Chimacum (6:45) *
Tues-Oct. 27 — Friday Harbor (6:00) *
Thur-Oct. 22 — Orcas Island (6:00) *