Hyperbole alert. It’s the greatest team (in any sport) in Coupeville High School history — the record-setting 1969-1970 boys’ basketball squad. (Photo courtesy June Mazdra)
Now, if this whole Hall of Fame thing was happening in real life, and there were plaques or busts being handed out by local civic leaders, these guys would have been the first inductees.
But Coupeville High School’s athletic history lies largely covered in cobwebs, and it took me some time to track down info.
Having done that finally, we can, with the 33rd class inducted into the Coupeville Sports Hall o’ Fame, welcome the “Greatest Team in Any Sport in the History of the Town” to these hallowed digital walls.
From this point on, the 11 players, coach and two managers who made up the 1969-1970 CHS boys’ basketball team will be found at the top of the blog under the Legends tab.
And, if efforts in the coming weeks pay off and championship banners from the past rise in the CHS gym, their legacy will once again loom large over their school’s current basketball court.
Now, I am prone to hyperbole, yes.
The use of the double exclamation points in most headlines is testament to that.
But I will be danged if there has ever been a better team in the history of Cow Town, in any sport.
No, they didn’t earn a state tourney banner (losing two hard-fought games to extremely tough competition), but, as they romped to a 20-4 record, they hurt teams in a way no other Wolf squad ever has before or since.
Ripping through an 18-2 regular season (with two four-point losses to perennial powerhouse La Conner), Coupeville threw down 100+ points FOUR times, with what has to be a school-record 114 against Watson-Groen.
Now, let’s stop a moment and remember our history.
If you’re a young gun, this will seem a foreign concept to you, but in ’69’-’70, they scored all those points WITHOUT the benefit of a three-point line.
Jeff Stone, Corey Cross and Co. could have put the ball up from beyond the half-court circle and it still would have counted for just two points, and yet those Wolves scored like no other team in the history of the school.
Plus, you know, short shorts, which supposedly can cause circulation problems (and cold thighs), so they overcame that, as well.
In the postseason, they knocked off Skykomish and Darrington for a district title, something no Whidbey Island school (much less just Coupeville) had ever done before.
Facing off with Darrington, Stone rained down 48 points, a number which has stood untouched for almost 50 years.
The future Oak Harbor High School teacher/coach/Athletic Director tickled the twines for 644 points as a senior (also a school record — by a mile), accounting for almost a third of his team’s point total.
Overall, the ’69-’70 Wolves outscored their foes 1,836-1,155 over 24 games. That divides out to 76.5-48.1, which means they won, on average, by nearly 30 points a game.
At a school which had little to no prior reputation in the prep sports world, that squad sent shock waves through the state and kicked off a very successful run by the boys’ hoops program which lasted well through the ’70s.
Four more trips to state by CHS boys’ hoops squad, two of whom won a game while there, have followed that first visit, but none topped the guys who set the path.
If I accomplish nothing else during my time at Coupeville Sports, we will see league and district title banners raised in the CHS gym for the ’69’-70 squad, and it will happen while the players are still here to see it happen.
For the moment, I offer this, induction into my little digital Hall.
Inducted, together, as a team. As the greatest team to ever wear the red and white.
Bob Barker (coach)
Pat Brown
Corey Cross
Tim Leese
Ralph Lindsay
Glenn Losey
Mike Mallo
Pat O’Grady
Tim Quenzer
Jeff Stone
Randy Stone
Jim Syreen
Bob Mueller (manager)
Geoff Stone (manager)
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