Daniel Olson channels Pete Maravich on opening night. (John Fisken photo)
Daniel Olson has no fear.
Jump back to when he was in kindergarten and first grade and every time he came in my video store, he would storm behind the counter, yank out the seat and take over the computer and cash register.
They were his from that point until the moment his parents forcibly removed him to the car when they were ready to go home. If they could catch him.
Skip forward to Monday, when my former “assistant manager” was making his middle school basketball debut, and Olson might be a little taller and a little older, but his ability to run the room is still firmly in place.
Dropping three-pointers like the reincarnation of “Pistol” Pete Maravich — including one that arced through the net in unison with the third-quarter buzzer — Olson exploded for 20 points on visiting Chimacum.
Toss in 14 from Jake Mitten, who dominated in the paint, and the duo outscored the Cowboys by themselves, sparking Coupeville’s 7th grade squad to a 60-30 rout.
The Wolves came out on fire, cooled off a wee bit in the middle, then torched the joint again in the fourth, giving legendary coach Randy King another notch on the plus side of the career win/loss ledger.
Attacking from all sides, Coupeville flustered Chimacum in the early moments, turning several steals into breakaway buckets.
The few times the Wolves didn’t immediately convert, they controlled the boards, with Mitten standing tall in the middle while Matthew Kelley and Sage Downes slid through to snatch away loose caroms.
Olson and Dakota Eck fought for loose balls, and Coupeville spread the offense around on its way to posting a 20-6 lead after eight minutes of play.
If the Cowboys were entertaining any thoughts of rallying before halftime that faded quickly, as the Wolves stretched the lead out to 20 and never looked back.
Chimacum looked more aggressive in the second half, even cutting the lead down to 13 at one point.
Coupeville responded with a 7-1 run to end the quarter, with Chandler Weil hitting a short jumper and Downes slicing to the hoop for a layup after the Cowboys lost control of a rebound.
The final nail, though, came as Olson, one eye on the clock, brought the ball across mid-court.
A dribble, a head fake, his defender lurched back and the unflappable one rose up and banked the ball neatly off the backboard for a crowd-pleasing trey, the ball spinning through the twine as the clock roared and his teammates rushed him.
His eyes pure ice, the long-range assassin just nodded, content in the knowledge he had drained the shot almost exactly the way he had described it to older brother Ben the night before.
And once he was feeling it, Olson got more and more adventurous, nailing two more three-point bombs in the fourth quarter, each one coming from another step or two further out.
If the clock hadn’t run out, he might be out lofting them up from the parking lot about now.
Coupeville’s balanced scoring attack featured Olson (20), Mitten (14), Kelley (10), Downes (8), Eck (4) and Weil (4), while Michael Laska, Gage Powers, Ben Smith and James Mayne all saw playing time as well.
