Eileen Kennedy, seen here during cross country, was one of Coupeville’s top track and field athletes in May 1993. (David Svien photo)
Big hits, fast times, big arguments.
There was a lot going on in the world of Coupeville sports 27 years ago, as we ambled through the month of May, 1993.
I was in the middle part of my run as possibly the youngest Sports Editor in Whidbey News-Times history, a bumpy ride which began in ’92, when I was a 21-year-old who refused to go to college, and wrapped up in ’94.
My departure from the ranks of the ink-stained wretches was followed by an epically stupid decision to go toil on the mussel rafts in Penn Cove, then sweet respite with a 12-year run behind the counter at Videoville.
Oh, and that exit from the WNT?
It came mere seconds before Zenovia Barron and Willie Smith arrived at CHS, ready to revolutionize girls basketball on the prairie.
So, yeah … timed that especially well, David, you idiot.
But I was still in place at the newspaper in mid-1993, and I have the old sports sections to prove it.
Leafing through them the other day, I was taken back to a time when the biggest story was the ongoing dispute over Coupeville students being allowed to play soccer at Oak Harbor High School.
CHS didn’t have its own pitch programs back then, and wouldn’t for awhile.
So, with daughter Marnie headed to high school, Ernie and Carol Bartelson, who were, respectively, the Coupeville Superintendent and the OHHS girls soccer coach, applied for the creation of a unified program.
Something Wildcat Athletic Director Joyce Foxx fought every step of the way.
There were arguments, counter arguments, appeals, reversals, and then, finally — as May 1993 crested on the horizon — the Oak Harbor school board overruled their AD and approved the program.
A year-and-a-half later, with Marnie Bartelson leading the team in scoring, and CHS newcomer Amanda Allmer a one-season wonder at goalie, the Oak Harbor/Coupeville squad claimed 4th place at the 4A state tourney, best finish in program history.
Not that I was around to see it happen live, as I spent November 1994 celebrating my one-month anniversary in the video store biz, trying to keep the store popcorn machine from catching on fire, while also shooing the occasional pesky squirrel back out into the parking lot.
But, back in 1993, I was still trying to balance coverage of Oak Harbor and Coupeville sports in the pages of the WNT, much to the delight of Oak Harbor fans.
I kid.
Back before email, when people were ticked off at the Sports Editor, they had to go old-school and write me a letter.
Which they did. Often.
In their minds, Oak Harbor, as the bigger burg, ruled, and I drooled when I dared to treat Coupeville as an equal.
And here we are, 27 years later, and I still haven’t listened. I’m a slow learner, apparently.
In ’93, CHS fielded softball, baseball, track, and girls tennis teams in the spring (remember, no soccer at that time), with the diamond queens leading the way.
The Wolf softball sluggers, led by senior Joli Smith and freshman Courtney White, finished 12-8 for coach Tom Eller, while playing at Rhododendron Park.
Coupeville narrowly missed the playoffs, but found a superstar in White, who pounded out nine triples and seven doubles.
She was backed up by a solid senior class of Smith, Kari Iverson, Susie Mathis, Gina Dozier, and Jenni Hays, as well as fast-rising younger stars like Natalie Slater, Mika Hosek, Sara Griggs, and Mimi Iverson.
The defining May moment came against Bellevue Christian on the 12th, when Smith tallied four RBI, including a go-ahead two-run home run in the top of the seventh in an 8-4 victory.
A three-sport star who also played volleyball and basketball for the Wolves, the future Coupeville Sports Hall o’ Famer had a talent for coming up big in crucial moments, and remains, to this day, one of the best I have ever covered.
Meanwhile, out on the tennis court, the Wolves sent singles players Lupine Wutzke and Kiersten Yager and the doubles duos of Megan Gale/Cheng Kang and Jenni Biller/Iris Binnewies to districts.
Wutzke claimed third place, just missing out on a trip to state, but Chet Baker’s squad had its best May moment back on the 4th, when it bounced Blaine in a wild affair.
Storming from behind, the Wolves rode a win at third doubles from Kang and Jee Hae Lee to snatch away a 3-2 win at home.
While Coupeville’s baseball team didn’t have the same success as the softball squad, finishing just 5-15 for coach Mike Rice, the Wolf diamond men did have their moments.
Especially when they faced Bellevue Christian.
Coupeville’s final two wins of the season came against the Vikings, and both featured big-time performances from Wolf pitchers.
On April 28, Keith Currier whiffed eight batters en route to a 9-0 win, the only shutout earned by a CHS hurler in the ’93 season.
The lanky senior fireball chucker also racked up a pair of hits at the plate, with Keith Dunnagan and Jon Crimmins each adding two base-knocks to the cause.
But wait. That happened in April, and we’re talking about May in this story.
Well, the story ran in the May 1, 1993 edition of the News-Times, so I say it counts.
And it’s my blog anyway. What are you going to do? Write a letter to the editor?
Anyways … Coupeville followed that up with a much-closer 8-7 win over BC on … sweet sassy molassy … April 30.
OK, that was my 22nd birthday, and hey, the CHS baseball season ended May 3, so we don’t have a lot of May to work with here, and the story ran in the May 5 paper.
We’re good.
In that final win Cody Lowe was the man of the moment, saving his seventh and final strikeout of the afternoon for the exclamation point.
Clinging to a one-run lead, the bases loaded with two outs in the bottom of the seventh inning, the Wolf hurler was behind 3-1 on the count.
Not a problem, as Lowe reared back and whipped back-to-back perfect pitches, ending the game on a called third strike.
“On the last pitch everything stood still for a moment,” Rice said afterwards. “Then the umpire went ‘strike three!’ and everybody started celebrating.
“It was nice to pull one out like that.”
While every CHS spring sport enjoyed some degree of success in ’93, it was track, with the smallest roster, which probably stood tallest.
The Wolves, coached by Julie Klapperich and Kirk Sherill, featured just six girls and 11 boys that season, with five Coupeville athletes advancing to districts, and two to state.
Kit Manzanares and Suzanne Steele made the trip to Eastern Washington for the 1A championships, with Manzanares bringing home 8th place finishes in the 100 and long jump.
Steele, who led the CHS girls by earning 137 points during the regular season (Marissa Slater and Eileen Kennedy followed with 85 and 76, respectively), competed in the high jump, but didn’t medal.
Other Wolves who shone brightly that spring included Virgil Roehl, Ryan McManigle, Maricar Salimbangon, Ray Shelly, and Elke Kegler.
And then, in the final edition of the News-Times in May 1993, a paper which hit doorsteps on Saturday the 29th, there’s a small story about the Coupeville Middle School track team.
These days, I write about 7th and 8th graders all the time here on Coupeville Sports. Back then, with two high schools to (sort of) balance, not so much.
But there it is, with future Hall o’ Famer Jerry Helm, then a brash 7th grader, claiming 2nd in the hurdles, along with 3rd in both the high jump and 200.
Right below that, it says Novi Barron (long jump, 1st).
So I did type her name at least once in my newspaper days.
I never saw her play in person, but have been told many times by those who played, coached, or cheered her, that Novi was the best athlete to ever walk the hallways at CHS.
If I knew then what I know now, would I have hung on longer at the News-Times, like a semi-responsible adult?
Just as she began to singe the net as a Wolf freshman basketball player, I sank into the world of VHS tapes in need of rewinding, gumball machines in need of stocking, and Reese’s Pieces in need of eating.
I missed the show, and, by the time I came back around to writing about sports, Novi was gone.
What could of been, in a different life.
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