Coupeville Sports

Jessica Caselden, local girl made good. (Photo courtesy Kassie O’Neil)

Wolf softball players are speaking out and speaking up. (Photo by JohnsPhotos.net)

“The students at Coupeville would be devastated.”

With proposed budget cuts swirling, one calls for the school’s athletic trainer position to be eliminated.

The potential loss of Jessica Caselden, a CHS grad who returned to her hometown to teach and work with athletes, is not being well received by Wolf athletes.

CHS softball players, past, present and future, have fired the first shots across the bow, sending a series of impassioned letters to the school board in support of Caselden.

The young athletes, who range from high school seniors to middle schoolers, speak glowingly of an eternally upbeat, whip-smart young woman who gives them a role model, a fervent supporter, and a reassuring voice of calmness when dealing with injuries.

Caselden, who haunted the aisles of Videoville growing up, hanging out with brother Jack and dad Willie, is part of a tight-knit group of former Wolf student/athletes who have returned to Coupeville in recent years.

Like Kassie (Lawson) O’Neil, Mandi (Murdy) Black, and others from that group, Jessica is first-rate in every way.

As a school, as a community, as Wolf Nation, we are immeasurably better with her being back in Cow Town.

I agree with our softball players, 1000%.

This is not the way.

Jessica Caselden needs to be retained.