Coupeville Sports

It remains one of the enduring moments in prairie sports history.

Thirteen Coupeville boys and four coaches shocked the baseball world in 2010, knocking off all-star teams from bigger towns, rallying for win after win to claim a state title.

In the finale, on Saturday, July 24, the Central Whidbey Little League Juniors (13-14) squad scored three runs in the bottom of the seventh to force extra innings, then one more in the tenth to beat West Valley 10-9.

The winning run came when Aaron Trumbull lashed an infield single, plating Jake Tumblin.

It was the first-ever state title for a team coming out of District 11 (Skagit and Island counties), and the team largely stayed together afterwards.

Eight of the 13 players would go on to play four years of baseball at Coupeville High School, and every one of the players owns a diploma from the school.

As the 10-year anniversary approaches, head coach Chris Tumblin looks back fondly on one of his favorite summers:

The 2010 season was such a fun time as a coach and I have so many fond memories.

My wife Shannon had one word for that team – “family”.

The players were like a team of brothers but the parents were as much a part of the family as they were.

They never complained when I asked them to make sure the kids were there at least two hours before the game started to make sure we were able to get them ready to play.

The marathon practices that were officially over but continued because the players still wanted to have more batting practice.

The unwavering support they gave to the coaches and the players during home, away, and playoff games was second to none.

As you know the league president was Bob Martin. That guy went above and beyond my expectations, especially when we went to state.

I remember sitting with the umpires and league officials before the games started, going over each kids eligibility paperwork and finding a problem.

Sitting in Spokane I thought we were not going to have all our players eligible, but Bob went to work and got the needed paperwork by fax or email or carrier pigeon; I’m still not sure how, but we played with all players.

I always felt more at ease when he was there and he was always there.

One of the things that was always mentioned by the other coaches, umpires and parents of the other teams was how respectful our players were.

We had a team of confident players and they never talked trash or were arrogant; they played a sport they loved and they always played till the last out.

They never got behind and lost the will to win, never dwelled on a bad at-bat, never stopped believing that this was their season.

Having coaches that were having as much fun as the kids was also a plus.

Ramon (Villaflor), Brad (Trumbull), and Mike (Etzell) were fun to work with.

Taking time to coach takes a lot of time out of our schedules, missing work, first to get to the field and last to leave and all the meetings in between.

I can’t thank them enough for their commitment.

We played a lot of great games, and I was pleasantly surprised when we ran the winners bracket to the championship game.

That last day was very hot and we played a doubleheader but we lost the first game.

During intermission they were giving free chili dogs to the players and I wouldn’t let our players have any because you are what you eat and I didn’t want them to play like a team of chili dogs.

We went back to the hotel; I asked for a conference room and sat them down at a table and told them to figure out what happened.

To talk it over as a team and figure what they need to do to turn it around and then all the coaches left for the next 30 minutes.

When time was up we gathered the kids and went back to the field; they obviously had a plan.

We know what happened during the final game — several lead changes, extra innings, the other team coach and parents complaining about how hard our parents were rooting with every pitch.

The last two plays stick out in my head more than anything else.

Jake got in a pickle between second and third base with two outs in the bottom of the 10th; I thought the inning was over, but he ran it out and made it to third.

Aaron Trumbull at the plate hit a high bouncer between the third-baseman and short; there wasn’t even an attempt to throw Aaron out at first and Jake easily scored.

Let the celebration begin.

I can’t begin to express how lucky I was to be able to be a part of that season; we were the underdogs from the beginning.

People asked us how many teams we were pulling from to make the all-star team; they never believed me when I said we only have one and that we only had one stop light in the entire town.

We won that season not only because of the players on the field, it was also due to the support of a community!