Remember the good times. (Shelli Trumbull photos)
Keep on working.
Don’t stop believing.
This is a difficult moment.
Baseball gives and baseball takes, and we don’t always get what we want, as players, as parents, as fans.
A season of such accomplishment ended before anyone could fully comprehend it, two tough playoff losses that, depending on how you respond, will either haunt you or drive you forward to even higher accomplishments.
I hope that the Coupeville High School baseball team, all 13 players who could return next year, takes the lessons in, but does not hang their heads, does not think of themselves as losers, does not spend an off-season buried in regret.
The majority of you have been to the mountaintop before. You were the best this state had at your age group in 2010. And you have taken great leaps and bounds at the high school level.
Playing as raw freshmen and sophomores against senior-laden teams, you won five games in two seasons. This year you won 10.
You rallied at death’s door, a shrug of the shoulders away from having your game called in freezing rain and ungodly wind against Nooksack Valley. Ten of the most miserable, enthralling innings later, Morgan Payne went face-first into the mud at home with the winning run and the celebration was on.
And then you did it again the next Saturday, rallying to shock Port Townsend.
You stared down Lakewood, one of the biggest schools in the Cascade Conference, and played a flawless game on the last day of the season to clinch a #1 seed and the school’s first home playoff game in five years.
You took two of three from South Whidbey. You swept three from Sultan. You beat every team in the league, except ATM, and they were 17-1 and you pushed them harder than just about anyone.
The ATM coach knows how good you are, and he paid you two compliments. First in going to the bullpen to bring in the best pitcher in the league to seal a win and secondly in what he said to your coaches.
He realizes his program exists in a separate world of private school money and access to college-bound players at every position. Coupeville, the smallest public school in the league, has the players it has and doesn’t ask for any favors, and he respects that.
Losing Drew Chan will hurt more than you realize. He was only one player, but he is the epitome of what a senior leader should be.
He’s not the tallest, the fastest, the strongest, the most talented. But he never, ever stopped coming, in basketball or baseball.
He honored his uniform as much as any Wolf I have seen in 23 years of covering sports on this Island.
But here’s the thing. You will be THE veteran team next year. If all 13 stay together, you will have seven seniors, five juniors and a sophomore.
The team that won a state title will walk onto the field next spring not as a raw group of rookies, but as men on a mission.
Take in the lessons you learned this year. Work. Prepare. But do not fall into the abyss of grief over how this season ended.
There are more good times ahead. You are too talented, too much of a cohesive team, not to do more.
Remember the big things. The way Josh Bayne looked after he jacked a home run over the left field wall. The smile on Aaron Curtin’s face as he stood at second, pumping his fist after delivering a game-winning hit.
Remember the small things. Morgan Payne making web gem after web gem. Ben Etzell striking out batter after batter. Joey Edwards and Cole Payne coming off the bench to do whatever was needed.
You had a great season. It ended too soon, but that doesn’t wash away the positives.
Remember. Work. Believe.
Next season is less than a year away.
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