Coupeville Sports

The man abides. (Photo by JohnsPhotos.net)

He’s not going anywhere. Not just yet.

Amidst a swirl of possible budget cuts as area schools deal with financial shortfalls, one proposal — to remove Willie Smith as Coupeville High School/Middle School Athletic Director and hand his duties to an assistant principal — has been discarded.

In an email sent out Monday, Coupeville Schools Superintendent Steve King said things have changed in the past two weeks.

After learning about the most recent teacher resignation and with our current Athletic Director, Willie Smith, being willing to serve as AD with one less release or prep period, we are excited to announce that Mr. Smith will continue as our 2023-2024 athletic director.

Release or prep periods have the most significant financial implication for our current model, as a secondary teacher’s teaching period costs approximately $11,000 – $20,000, depending on the teacher’s experience level.

We are thankful that Mr. Smith is willing to continue his work as AD with two release periods instead of three.

Smith, who is the President of the Northwest 2B/1B League, has been a teacher, coach, and AD — for varying lengths of time — since arriving in Coupeville from the wilds of Sequim in the mid ’90s.

Under his leadership, the 2022-2023 school year has been one of the strongest in school history for Wolf athletics.

Every high school team, varsity and JV, earned a team GPA of 3.1 or better, with three sports — girls’ cross country, boys’ track, and girls’ tennis — winning state academic titles.

The Wolves sent football and girls’ cross country teams to the state championships in the fall, with baseball slated to play at state this weekend.

Coupeville also qualified members of its boys’ cross country and track and field teams for the big dance, with girls’ tennis players still in the hunt for state berths as well.

When the proposal to cut Smith’s AD duties was announced, public response was swift and loudly in opposition to the move.

Numerous other athletic directors spoke out against the possible change in articles which ran here on Coupeville Sports, and you could sum it all up in the words of Friday Harbor AD Brock Hauck.

“It’s a terrible idea.”

And now, it’s an idea no more.