Coupeville Sports

Nine weeks, nine potential wins.

Stay hungry, keep climbing.

That’s the advice second-year Coupeville High School head football coach Bennett Richter is passing down to his players.

The Wolves are coming off the program’s first league title and trip to state since 1990, having gone 7-2 last fall.

But, in just a few hours, all of that fades away and a new season officially begins.

Football is the first high school sport to open practices, with teams from across Washington state hitting the gridiron Wednesday.

Volleyball, soccer, cross country, and cheer follow, getting started Monday, Aug. 21.

Coupeville’s first competitive game of the 2023-2024 school year is a home football clash Sept. 1 against former league rival Klahowya.

Richter, using a photo shot by John Fisken, has crafted the handy-dandy gridiron schedule at the top of this story, ready to be printed out and taped to your frig.

Wolf football has four home games, and five road trips, though one of those is just next door to face South Whidbey in The Bucket Game.

So, call it 4.5 home games, and 4.5 road trips.

Homecoming is Oct. 13 against Forks, with Senior Night set for Oct. 27 against Friday Harbor, if you’re curious.

As Wolf coaches, players, parents, fans, and assorted writers watch the clock tick towards the return of prep sports, Richter offers one big reminder.

It applies both to his own football stars, and to athletes in any other sport at CHS.

And that message — stop reading this and go SIGN UP ON FINAL FORMS AND UPDATE YOUR PHYSICAL, if you haven’t already.

You can accomplish great things this school year, but first you have to do your paperwork, and do it early enough where you’re eligible to play immediately.