Coupeville Sports

Jack Porter heads off to retrieve The Bucket. (Bailey Thule photo)

It’s been six years.

No current Coupeville High School football player knows what it’s like to hoist The Bucket, as the Wolves have dropped four straight rivalry games to South Whidbey.

Toss in a pandemic-marred 2020 season in which the next-door neighbors didn’t play, and you have to go back to Sept. 1, 2017 for the last time CHS had bragging rights.

That night Hunter Downes tossed touchdown passes to Hunter Smith and Sean Toomey-Stout, while Smith also broke off an 89-yard scoring run.

With Cameron Toomey-Stout picking off a pair of passes, and Jake Hoagland and Jake Pease recovering fumbles, Coupeville won 18-0, one of only two times when the big game has been a shutout.

The last Wolf team to claim The Bucket. (David Stern photo)

The Wolves, who won four of six Bucket games to kick off the Coupeville Sports era (2012-today), get another crack at the trophy this Friday, Sept. 8.

CHS heads down to Langley, with a 7:00 kickoff for the non-conference rumble.

Both teams enter play at 0-1, with Coupeville falling 28-25 on the final play of the game against Klahowya, while South Whidbey got smacked 35-20 by Friday Harbor in its opener.

Seniors Uriel Liquidano (63), Jacob Martin (32), and Clay Reilly (2) celebrate in 2016. (Photo by JohnsPhotos.net)

For those who don’t know, this bucket we speak of is exactly what it sounds like.

Painted with Wolf colors on one side and Falcon colors on the other, it has been awarded to the winner of the rivalry game since athletic directors Willie Smith and John Patton created it in 2008.

Complete with a dent on one side, courtesy a South Whidbey coach unhappy about a loss, The Bucket lives at the winning school and is brought out for the game.

The “original” bucket once held licorice, but was filled with water by a Coupeville student, who dumped it on the South Whidbey crowd at a volleyball match, setting off a near-riot.

Looking to turn a negative into a positive, Smith and Patton transformed the weapon of mass hydration into a trophy.

Since then, Wolf coaches Tony Maggio and Jon Atkins have coached Coupeville to two wins apiece in The Bucket game, while current CHS head man Bennett Richter gets a second crack at making Falcon Nation cry.

Tony Maggio led Coupeville to two wins in the rivalry game. (Shawn Walstad photo)

For those keeping track, the history of The Bucket game:

2009 — SW 28-6
2010 — SW 33-7
2011 — SW 35-0
2012 — CHS 18-13
2013 — SW 57-33
2014 — CHS 35-28
2015 — SW 27-14
2016 — CHS 41-10
2017 — CHS 18-0
2018 — SW 48-20
2019 — SW 35-7
2020 — No game
2021 — SW 33-7
2022 — SW 47-28