
Dominic Coffman (left) and Jonathan Valenzuela celebrate during their junior hoops season. (Photo by JohnsPhotos.net)
They are part of an elite fraternity.
Having earned their ticket to a state championship event this spring, Coupeville High School seniors Dominic Coffman and Jonathan Valenzuela are the first Wolf boys to go to the big dance in three sports in more than three decades.
The duo both started for a CHS football team which clashed with Onalaska this fall – the first Wolf gridiron squad to make the state playoffs since 1990.
Jump back to their junior campaigns, and Valenzuela and Coffman came off the bench for a Coupeville boys’ basketball team which carried a 16-0 mark to state.
When Brad Sherman’s program broke through in the winter of 2022, winning league and district titles before vying with top-seed Kalama and Lake Roosevelt at state, it was the first such trip for the school’s male hoops stars since ’88.
Now, this spring, Valenzuela is one of Coupeville’s top hitters for a baseball team slated to play Toledo Saturday in Castle Rock.
The last visit to state for the Wolf diamond dogs was 2014.
Coffman is slated to be in Yakima May 25-27 for the state track meet, where he will compete in the high jump and 4 x 100 relay.
Last year he qualified in the same events — though the season finale was in Cheney — bringing home a 2nd place medal for his work with the relay squad.
While Valenzuela and Coffman are the first Wolf boys to make it to state in three sports in quite a while, Coupeville’s female athletes have done it several times during that time frame.
Allison Wenzel, who graduated in 2018, went to the state basketball tourney as a sophomore, made it to volleyball’s big dance as a junior, then PR’d in the discus at state as a senior.
Before that, Wolf girls earned state berths in volleyball, basketball, and softball during the 2001-2002 school year, with numerous players such as Ashley Ellsworth-Bagby, Sarah Mouw, and Tracy Taylor appearing on all three teams.
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