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Falcon diamond guru retires

Posted in Baseball, tagged American Legion, baseball, retirement, state tourney, SWHS Falcons, Tom Fallon on May 4, 2026| Leave a Comment »

South Whidbey High School baseball coach Tom Fallon (right) is retiring after a long, successful diamond career. (Shelli Trumbull photo)

It’s been a good run.

After decades of wearing a South Whidbey High School baseball uniform, first as a player than a coach, Tom Fallon delivers his final lineup card to the ump Monday afternoon.

The Falcons host Sultan in a 4:00 PM game, bringing their season to a close.

For Fallon, who graduated from the school in 1987, it also marks a time to reflect on a lifetime spent on the diamond.

“I would like to thank all of the coaches I’ve got to compete against or share the dugouts with,” he wrote on Facebook.

“All of the volunteers that have helped thru the years.

“The student athletes that have worked so hard to compete and learn and grow.

“The parents for supporting the kids and program.

“It’s truly been an amazing 42 years of being a Falcon player and coach. GO FALCONS!!! And tight lines and long drives.”

Fallon became a paid coach for SWHS in 2000 and jumped to head coach in 2013.

He was tabbed as the Cascade Conference Coach of the Year after his first and second seasons at the helm of the Falcons, with South Whidbey advancing to state in 2014.

Then, in 2015, Fallon led the Falcons to a 2nd place finish at the 1A state tourney, with his squad beating Seattle Christian, Cascade Christian, and Cashmere to advance to the championship game.

South Whidbey came up just short in that royal rumble, falling 6-4 to Hoquiam, but still brought home an impressive chunk of hardware.

Aong with being the high school coach in Langley, Fallon also coached American Legion teams in the summer which often included Coupeville players joining their South Whidbey rivals to thrash off-Island squads.

While the Falcons and Wolves have had an often-intense rivalry over the years in many sports, Fallon’s longest-tenured CHS counterpart, Willie Smith, speaks glowingly of his former dugout compatriot.

“Very good guy and coaches the right way!!” Smith said. “Tom has always been a coach that has held a high level of accountability and excellence at South Whidbey.

“I always looked forward to games with Tom because even though we were rivals I always felt mutual respect and believed that he did an excellent job of coaching the game the right way.

“He and I had, and still have, a good relationship, because we both enjoyed the competition but understood that it was a game, played by 15–18-year-old kids that hopefully enjoyed the game as much as we did.

“South Whidbey has been very fortunate to have a coach with Tom’s integrity, class, and high level of knowledge and I wish him nothing but the best as he moves forward.”

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Vikings ace frustrates Wolves

Posted in Baseball, tagged baseball, CHS Wolves, Coop Cooper, Northwest League, Orcas Island on April 29, 2026| Leave a Comment »

Coop Cooper and company need to regroup before facing league leader Mount Vernon Christian next week. (Jackie Saia photos)

Joe Stephens had a pretty impressive game Wednesday afternoon on the sun-drenched Coupeville prairie.

Unfortunately for Wolf Nation, he plays baseball for Orcas Island and not CHS.

Thus, when Stephens whiffed 16 batters in 6.2 innings of work, plus belted an over-the-fence home run, it led to the visiting Vikings collecting a 9-2 win and a season-sweep of their two-game series with the Wolves.

Now stuck in a three-game losing skid, Coupeville falls to 7-3 in Northwest 2B/1B League play, 9-7 overall, with two games left on the regular season schedule.

Those come May 5 and 7, when the Wolves, who sit a half-game up on Orcas (7-4) in the battle for second place, square off with league leader Mount Vernon Christian (8-0).

When Coupeville takes the field against the Hurricanes, they’ll be hoping for a higher-charged offense than the one on display Wednesday afternoon.

Held to just two hits by Stephens, the Wolves also got five batters on board thanks to walks, but were outdone by Orcas, which had eight base knocks and 11 free passes.

Six errors in the field didn’t help either for Steve Hilborn’s squad.

Still, the game was tight for two innings, with the teams knotted up at 1-1, before Orcas began to pull away.

Aiden O’Neill thumped a three-bagger against Orcas.

Coupeville got on the board in the second thanks to the big bat and fleet feet of Aiden O’Neill, who socked a triple to right field before stealing home to send the crowd into a tizzy.

That was where the offense stalled out for CHS however, as Orcas tacked on two runs in the third and a game-busting four in the fourth to go up 7-1.

The tally which broke the tie was a home run belted over the left field fence by Stephens, who was intentionally walked the next three times he came to the plate.

The Wolves finally got a run back in the fourth, with walks to Chase Anderson and Camden Glover starting a brief rally, but a prime opportunity failed in the fifth, with Stephens picking up an inning-ending strikeout to escape a brief bases-loaded jam.

While they didn’t match the totals of their Vikings rival, Wolf pitchers Glover and Anderson did combine for 10 strikeouts, with both seniors picking up five K’s while on the mound.

Wednesday stats:

Chase Anderson — Two walks
Camden Glover — One walk
Riley Lawless — One single
Aiden O’Neill — One triple, one walk
Trent Thule — One walk

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Wolves rally, Vikings escape

Posted in Baseball, tagged baseball, Chase Anderson, CHS Wolves, Orcas Island, road trip on April 27, 2026| Leave a Comment »

Trent Thule gets his bench riled up. (Jackie Saia photo)

The Wolves dug themselves a hole, twice, yet almost made it all the way back.

Unfortunately for the Coupeville High School baseball squad, a late rally fell just short for the second straight game, with Steve Hilborn’s team nipped 14-11 Monday afternoon on Orcas Island.

The loss drops CHS to 7-2 in Northwest 2B/1B League play, 9-6 overall, with a rematch against the Vikings set for Wednesday in Cow Town.

With three conference clashes left to play, the Wolves sit in second place in the NWL, a game-and-a-half back of Mount Vernon Christian (8-0) and a game-and-a-half up on Orcas (6-4).

Monday’s royal rumble was a fairly close affair, with Coupeville winning the hit battle 8-5, Orcas edging the Wolves 14-12 in drawing walks, and both teams committing three errors apiece.

But the Vikings spent most of the day out in front on the scoreboard, forcing their visitors to play catch-up.

Carson Grove got CHS on the board first in the top of the first, sacrificing his body by being plunked by a pitch before coming around to score on an RBI single to left off the bat of Chase Anderson.

Orcas responded quickly, however, plating four runs in the bottom half of the opening frame, before pushing across three more in the second to take a commanding 7-1 lead.

Coupeville’s pitchers clamped down after that, tossing three consecutive scoreless innings, while the offense chipped away at the deficit.

Chris Zenz (left) and Chase Anderson combined to smack four hits on Orcas Island Monday. (Julie Wheat photo)

Anderson, having reached base on catcher’s interference in the third, scored on a passed ball, while Leo Rodriguez zipped for the plate in the fourth thanks to an Orcas error.

The Wolves sliced the margin to 7-5 in the fifth, capitalizing on big hits from Anderson and Riley Lawless, but then things went wrong in the bottom of the sixth.

Using a string of walks and two well-placed hits, the Vikings suddenly relit the pilot light on their offense, scoring seven runs to turn a tense tilt into a potential blowout at 14-5.

CHS was not ready to go down easily, though, and launched its own run-scoring barrage while facing its final at-bats in the top of the seventh.

Anderson smacked a leadoff double, followed by four walks — with Aiden O’Neill and Coop Cooper being drilled — before Chris Zenz and Rodriguez popped back-to-back RBI singles to pull Coupeville within 14-9.

The Wolves weren’t done, forcing home two more runs thanks to bases-loaded walks to Grove and Anderson, and had the bases juiced with just one out.

Orcas needed a hero to stop the bleeding and found it, though, with Joe Stephens coming out of the bullpen to whiff both of the batters he faced, ending Coupeville’s rally a few runs short of a complete celebration.

Four pitchers combined to toss six innings for CHS, with Anderson, Cooper, Glover, and Grove sharing mound duties.

Cooper emerged as top dog, whiffing eight Vikings across 4.1 frames.

Monday stats:

Chase Anderson — Two singles, one double, one walk
Coop Cooper — One single, two walks
Camden Glover — One single, one walk
Carson Grove — Two walks
Riley Lawless — One single
Aiden O’Neill — One walk
Leo Rodriguez — One single, two walks
Malachi Somes — One walk
Trent Thule — Two walks
Chris Zenz — One single

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Action intensifies, stakes grow

Posted in Baseball, Girls Tennis, Softball, tagged baseball, CHS Wolves, girls tennis, Northwest League, Softball, standings on April 26, 2026| Leave a Comment »

Wolf track star Kenneth Jacobsen goes for a run. (CHS Yearbook photo)

It’s not the final lap, but we’re getting closer.

As Coupeville and its Northwest 2B/1B League rivals head into the last week of April, the battle for conference titles heats up, with the postseason coming up quickly.

Both softball and baseball have key series against Orcas Island up next on the schedule, hitting the road Monday before hosting games Wednesday.

That home game for softball will be Senior Night for Wolf catcher Teagan Calkins as well.

Meanwhile, girls’ tennis hosts Friday Harbor in a league clash Wednesday, while track and field travels to Bellevue Saturday for the BCS Invitational, which is the final regular season meet.

As the calendar heads towards May, here’s where things sit through April 26:

Northwest League baseball: