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Sit down, Klahowya! You’ve been dethroned!!

Posted in 1A Olympic League, tagged , , , , , , on May 6, 2017| Leave a Comment »

Bow Down to Cow Town. (John Fisken photo)

The coup is complete. All hail the new regime.

Coupeville, the smallest school in the 1A Olympic League, has officially upended Klahowya, the largest (by far) to “win” the 2016-2017 school sports year.

With just one league softball game remaining for each school, the Wolves have won 51 varsity league games across the 10 sports they play, while the Eagles have 47 wins.

Port Townsend (28 wins) and Chimacum (23), which each have two league softball clashes yet to play, round out the field.

Out little un-scientific study covers volleyball, football, softball and baseball, as well as boys and girls basketball, soccer and tennis.

We don’t worry about track, where it’s largely about individual achievement and nearly impossible to track win-loss records when you face 20+ schools at some meets.

And this is Coupeville Sports, and not, say the Klahowya Gazette, so golf, cross country, swim, wrestling, bowling and gymnastics won’t count until CHS adds those sports. Which is probably never.

So, if we look at the “core 10,” there’s been a three-year progression.

Year one of the 1A Olympic League (2014-2015) Klahowya (which had 445.07 students in the 2016-2020 WIAA classification count) won 52 varsity games to Coupeville’s 40.

In year two, the Wolves (all 227 of them) closed the gap to 45-42.

And, now, in year three, Coupeville finishes on top, even with its girls tennis team, which is 15-0 all-time in league play, unable to play two of three matches against Chimacum because of never-ending rain.

The difference?

Every one of Coupeville’s 10 varsity teams in this study won between two (football) and the maximum nine (girls basketball) games, while Klahowya girls basketball, wracked by injuries, suffered through a win-less league season.

Along with being the kings (and queens) of the varsity wins battle, the Wolves also finish with the most league titles for a second straight year.

Klahowya won that battle 5-2 in year one, while Coupeville and the Eagles each won four titles in 2015-2016.

We’re giving the Wolves a win by asterisk, though.

Why? While the schools shared the baseball crown with 7-2 records last spring, Coupeville carried a #1 seed into the playoffs, having won two of three head-to-head.

Hey, I said this wasn’t the (non-existent) Klahowya Gazette…

In year three, the Wolves are a clear winner, however.

CHS has four titles (volleyball, girls basketball, girls and boys tennis) and are still in play for a share of the softball crown.

The Eagles sit with three (girls and boys soccer, baseball) and are out of the softball race.

With every sport except softball having wrapped up league play and headed to the postseason, here’s an up-to-the-moment look at spring sports standings:

Olympic League softball:

School League Overall
Chimacum 6-1 8-3
COUPEVILLE 6-2 15-2
Klahowya 3-5 7-7
Port Townsend 0-7 0-12

Olympic League baseball:

School League Overall
Klahowya 8-1 10-5
COUPEVILLE 6-3 11-8
Chimacum 4-5 6-7
Port Townsend 0-9 0-14

Olympic League boys soccer:

School League Overall
Klahowya 9-0 13-2-1
Port Townsend 6-3 8-7-0
COUPEVILLE 3-6 4-11-1
Chimacum 0-9 2-12-0

Olympic League girls tennis:

School League Overall
COUPEVILLE 4-0 6-3
Klahowya 3-3 5-9
Chimacum 0-4 0-7

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Little school, big success!!

Posted in 1A Olympic League, standings, tagged , , , , , on April 29, 2017| Leave a Comment »

   Maggie Crimmins and her Wolf tennis teammates captured their third-straight league title this week. (John Fisken photos)

Zack Nall (20) and CHS boys soccer are off to the playoffs May 4.

We’re coming down to the wire.

As spring sports head toward the regular season finish line, Coupeville, the smallest school in the 1A Olympic League, continues to hold off Klahowya, the biggest, in two important categories.

With baseball, girls tennis and boys soccer titles clinched (softball is the last holdout as Chimacum and Coupeville continue to fight), the Wolves have won four team titles during the 2016-2017 school year.

CHS has brought home girls and boys tennis, volleyball and girls basketball championships, compared to Klahowya winning girls and boys soccer and baseball.

Port Townsend took boys basketball and Chimacum is trying to hold on to its top dog status in softball.

With football’s title having gone to interloper Cascade Christian after the Olympic League joined up with the Nisqually League for that sport, it appears Coupeville will win the most team titles for the second straight year.

Klahowya, two games back of Chimacum with three to play in softball, would have to jump both Coupeville and the Cowboys to claim the title and tie the Wolves 4-4.

At the same time it’s primed to win the most team titles for a second year, Coupeville is also on the cusp of another distinction.

With seven league games left for each school this spring, CHS has 48 varsity wins this school year across the 10 sports it plays.

With a 48-44 edge on Klahowya, the Wolves are trying to boot the Eagles from the roost.

KSS held a 52-40 advantage in 2014-2015, then CHS cut that to 45-42 in 2015-2016.

Standings through games played Friday:

Olympic League softball:

School League Overall
Chimacum 5-1 7-3
COUPEVILLE 4-2 13-2
Klahowya 3-3 7-4
Port Townsend 0-6 0-11

Olympic League baseball:

School League Overall
Klahowya 7-0 9-4
COUPEVILLE 5-2 10-7
Chimacum 2-5 4-7
Port Townsend 0-7 0-12

Olympic League boys soccer:

School League Overall
Klahowya 8-0 12-2-1
Port Townsend 5-2 7-6-0
COUPEVILLE 3-6 4-10-1
Chimacum 0-8 2-10-0

Olympic League girls tennis:

School League Overall
COUPEVILLE 4-0 6-3
Klahowya 2-3 4-9
Chimacum 0-3 0-6

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It’s a battle!!

Posted in 1A Olympic League, tagged , , , , , on April 23, 2017| Leave a Comment »

   Someone is listening, as CHS softball has rolled to an 11-1 record. (John Fisken photo)

The race tightens.

When you add up baseball, soccer, tennis and softball, Klahowya has picked-up 14 varsity league wins this spring, while Coupeville (which has played two less games) has nine.

That five-win bulge has allowed the Eagles to narrow the school year race from 32-24 to 41-38.

Port Townsend has 26 wins across the core 10 sports during the 2016-2017 school year, while Chimacum has 19.

With 17 league games left (if rain allows everything to be played), Coupeville is attempting to interrupt Klahowya’s two-year reign atop the 1A Olympic League.

The Eagles ruled the 2014-2015 school year 52-40, then narrowly held off the Wolves 45-42 in 2015-2016.

Can Coupeville ride hot streaks in softball and tennis to hang on, or will Klahowya’s strength in baseball and soccer be enough to fuel a come-back win?

Stay tuned…

Standings through games played Saturday:

Olympic League softball:

School League Overall
Chimacum 4-0 6-1
COUPEVILLE 3-1 11-1
Klahowya 1-3 4-4
Port Townsend 0-4 0-7

Olympic League baseball:

School League Overall
Klahowya 5-0 6-3
COUPEVILLE 2-2 7-7
Chimacum 2-2 4-4
Port Townsend 0-5 0-7

Olympic League boys soccer:

School League Overall
Klahowya 6-0 9-2-1
Port Townsend 4-2 6-5-0
COUPEVILLE 3-4 4-8-1
Chimacum 0-7 2-9-0

Olympic League girls tennis:

School League Overall
COUPEVILLE 1-0 2-3
Klahowya 2-1 4-6
Chimacum 0-2 0-5

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It’s the thrill of victory!!

Posted in 1A Olympic League, tagged , , , , , on April 20, 2017| Leave a Comment »

   CHS girls tennis, sparked by players like McKenzie Bailey, has been dominant over the past three seasons. (John Fisken photo)

It’s not always about wins and losses, except when it is.

There are many ways to look at the success or failure of a high school sports program — titles, players who move on to compete in college, improvement shown by the current players, size of the fan base and on and on.

But ultimately they play games to decide a winner.

And while we can argue all day long in favor of other things, that’s what sits there in black and white forever.

I acknowledge there are a lot of hidden factors in win/loss records.

Who did you play, for one?

In scheduling, did you punch upwards and maybe absorb losses against bigger schools, AKA “moral victories”, or punch downwards against smaller schools and fluff up the ol’ record a bit?

Did you have one great year and that was enough to balance out some weaker campaigns, or were you consistent, but maybe never reached the mountain top?

A lot of ifs, ands and buts, and to go through all of them would require much more patience and research on my part (and a lot more rambling for you to read).

For the moment, here’s what we’re going with.

I went back through the entire run of the 1A Olympic League, which began with the 2014-2015 school year and is currently heading towards the finish line on Year 3.

I went with each team’s complete record, league and non-league, through games played Apr. 19, 2017.

Spring is obviously not done and winning percentages will change, but, in three of four sports (baseball, girls tennis and boys soccer), the all-time front runner can’t be caught this year.

Softball, which is the closest sport in the Olympic League by far, could change. If so, we’ll talk about that another day.

I went with 10 of the 11 sports Coupeville plays (track win/loss records from dual meets are arbitrary and worthless), so no swimming or wrestling or gymnastics.

And what did I find?

Klahwoya girls soccer, which won a state title in 2015 behind the 1-2 punch of Izzy Severns and McKenzie Cook, has been the most successful program in any sport.

Hardly surprising.

But, as good as the Eagle booters have been, they do not boast the biggest advantage over their league rivals.

When you compare records, both Coupeville girls tennis and girls basketball have a far bigger edge over the second-best school in the league in their sport when you compare winning percentages.

Another interesting tidbit?

Klahowya, which has the best winning percentage as a school, owns the best record in four sports (girls and boys soccer,  volleyball and baseball).

That allows the Eagles to edge out Coupeville (girls basketball, girls and boys tennis), Port Townsend (football, boys basketball) and Chimacum (softball).

But, Klahowya also has the worst record in both girls and boys basketball.

Port Townsend (3) and Chimacum (5) split the other cellar dwellers, while Coupeville is the lone school NOT to have any of its programs mired in last-place.

And one final bit of quirkiness.

In boys basketball, Coupeville and Chimacum have virtually the exact same record over the past three seasons. Same losses and the Cowboys have just one more win.

And yet Chimacum won back-to-back league titles before falling to Port Townsend this winter, piling up league wins while the Wolves were far better against non-conference foes.

You just shrug your shoulders and move on, I guess.

Records from Sept. 2014 to Apr. 19, 2017:

Volleyball:

School W/L Win Pct.
Klahowya 32-19 .627
Chimacum 21-27 .438
COUPEVILLE 18-27 .400
Port Townsend 12-30 .286

Football:

School W/L Win Pct.
Port Townsend 24-7 .774
Klahowya 18-10 .627
COUPEVILLE 9-21 .300
Chimacum 2-27 .069

Girls Soccer:

School W/L Win Pct.
Klahowya 46-10-3 .805
COUPEVILLE 20-21-5 .489
Port Townsend 8-34-3 .211
Chimacum 8-32-1 .207

Boys Tennis:

School W/L Win Pct.
COUPEVILLE 14-16 .467
Klahowya 16-22 .421
Chimacum 2-30 .063

Girls Basketball:

School W/L Win Pct.
COUPEVILLE 46-19 .708
Port Townsend 19-39 .328
Chimacum 20-42 .323
Klahowya 12-46 .207

Boys Basketball:

School W/L Win Pct.
Port Townsend 27-34 .443
Chimacum 20-41 .328
COUPEVILLE 19-41 .317
Klahowya 12-47 .203

Softball:

School W/L Win Pct.
Chimacum 31-19 .620
Klahowya 29-19 .604
COUPEVILLE 24-24 .500
Port Townsend 0-37 .000

Girls Tennis:

School W/L Win Pct.
COUPEVILLE 23-9 .719
Klahowya 12-24 .333
Chimacum 7-22 .241

Baseball:

School W/L Win Pct.
Klahowya 40-10 .800
COUPEVILLE 25-28 .472
Chimacum 14-30 .318
Port Townsend 1-38 .026

Boys Soccer:

School W/L Win Pct.
Klahowya 40-9-4 .792
Port Townsend 19-20-3 .488
COUPEVILLE 11-27-2 .300
Chimacum 4-32 .111

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Rise of the Wolf!!

Posted in 1A Olympic League, tagged , , , , , , on February 8, 2017| Leave a Comment »

Emma Smith

   Emma Smith and CHS volleyball won a league title in the fall, picking up eight conference wins along the way. (John Fisken photos)

Jakobi Baumann

   Jakobi Baumann was part of a Wolf tennis team which successfully defended its league title.

The champ is staggered, down, but not necessarily out.

Winter was rough for Klahowya, which got just two league wins combined from its varsity boys and girls basketball squads, thanks in large part to a combination of injuries and bad luck.

That’s allowed Coupeville to surge ahead in the standings at the two-thirds point of the 2016-2017 school year, boasting the most combined varsity team wins of any 1A Olympic League school.

If the Wolves can hold fast through the spring — where they are the defending league champs in baseball and girls tennis — they would unseat the Eagles, who have ruled the roost in the league’s first two years.

To get these totals, I look at 10 of the 11 sports in which Coupeville vies with its conference rivals.

That means skipping track, which is the only one of the 11 not to be a true head-to-head team sport.

Track is an individual sport conducted in the guise of a team sport, with meets typically involving a jumble of schools from different classifications. Any attempt at keeping track of a team win-loss record is a waste of time.

And this is Coupeville Sports, so if the Wolves don’t field a team (wrestling, swim, gymnastics), it would be equally pointless for me to consider that sport.

So, what I do look at is regular season league varsity wins in football, volleyball, girls and boys soccer, girls and boys tennis, girls and boys basketball, baseball and softball.

A season-by season comparison:

2014-2015:

Klahowya 52 wins/5 league titles
Coupeville 40/2
Chimacum 23/2
Port Townsend 20/1

2015-2016:

Klahowya 45/3
Coupeville 42/4
Chimacum 26/2
Port Townsend 22/1

2016-2017 (fall and winter):

Coupeville 32/3
Klahowya 24/1
Port Townsend 22/1
Chimacum 13/-

All-time:

Klahowya 121/9
Coupeville 114/9
Port Townsend 64/3
Chimacum 62/4

Now first, if you’re counting football, volleyball, girls soccer, boys tennis and girls and boys basketball, you might think I missed a title this year.

I didn’t, though, as the Olympic League united with the Nisqually League for football, and when the 8-team gridiron conglomerate anointed its champ, the crown went to outsider Cascade Christian.

Looking at the numbers, here’s what I see happening over the first two-and-two-thirds years of our conference.

In the early going Klahowya, which is the second-largest 1A school in the state with 445 students in the last WIAA classification count, got off to a strong start.

To the surprise of probably many, Coupeville, which is the smallest school in the league (227 students to PT’s 278 and Chimacum’s 250) hung tough, then quickly realized it could do more than just that.

While KSS has nearly double the student body of CHS, after years of facing down large 2A schools and private school powerhouses in the Cascade Conference, any fear factor evaporated quickly.

In year two, every other school’s win numbers went up, at Klahowya’s expense.

Plus, in a huge psychological boost, Coupeville doubled its league titles in year two, repeating in girls basketball and tennis, while taking baseball and boys tennis away from the Eagles.

That trend is continuing in year three, as boys tennis and girls basketball repeated (the hoops squad is 27-0 all-time in league play), while volleyball snatched another title away from Klahowya.

As we head into the spring, Coupeville’s greatest strength is girls tennis, which has swept titles in both years, going 11-0 in league play.

Klahowya can counter with boys soccer, also a two-time champ, and 12-0 all-time.

The two sports which could decide things are the ones played on the diamond.

Chimacum is a two-time defending softball champ, but the Eagles have the league’s best player in standout junior hurler Amber Bumbalough.

The Wolves, who got off to a great start last year, then spiraled a bit at the end, boast a lineup stacked with young talent like Katrina McGranahan, Hope Lodell, Sarah Wright and Lauren Rose.

Baseball went to Klahowya in year one, then Coupeville surprised in year two.

The Wolves lost key players to graduation in CJ Smith and Cole Payne, while Port Townsend, which went win-less in 2016, is seeing a noticeable uptick in all boys sports across the board this year.

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