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Danny Savalza and Kena Knott celebrate Coupeville beating South Whidbey this season and bringing The Bucket home.

Danny Savalza and Kena Knott celebrate Coupeville beating South Whidbey this season and bringing The Bucket home.

Amanda d'Almeida gets some tips from Wofl tennis guru Ken Stange during her final district tennis tourney. (Dan d'Almeida photo)

     Amanda d’Almeida gets tips from Wolf tennis guru Ken Stange during districts. (Dan d’Almeida photo)

Bessie Walstad (left), one of two CHS seniors with Maria Rockwell, delivered two huge doubles Friday. (John Fisken photo)

     Bessie Walstad (left), seen here with fellow senior Maria Rockwell, was a captain in all her sports. (John Fisken photo)

Drew Chan swingin' for the cheap seats.

Drew Chan swingin’ for the cheap seats. (Shelli Trumbull photo)

It was a banner night for the seniors.

The Class of 2013 claimed all four major sports-related honors announced Thursday night by Coupeville High School Athletic Director Lori Stolee.

The memory of Danny Savalza and Amanda d’Almeida will live on in the hallway leading into the CHS gym, where their framed photos will join past winners of the school’s highest athletic honor, the Athlete of the Year.

d’Almeida was a three-time district doubles champ in tennis and made a great final run as a singles player this spring, while also leading the Wolf girls’ soccer team in the fall.

A 4.0 student, she has accepted a scholarship to play soccer at Carleton College in Minnesota.

Savalza played football and soccer, but his impact was also felt off the field. The leader of the Wolf student cheering section, he could rally an entire gym, clad in his (unwashed) thrift store dress and Bow Down hat.

Joining them in hauling away awards were Bessie Walstad and Drew Chan, who were selected for the Cliff Gillies Student Awards.

The honor, named for a longtime principal and executive director of the Washington Interscholastic Activities Association, go to student/athletes who combine “scholarship, citizenship and participation.”

Walstad was a team captain in volleyball, basketball and softball, while Chan performed the same duties in basketball and baseball.

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We really broke the budget on our trophy...

We really broke the budget on our trophy…

Thursday night Coupeville High School will hand out its Male and Female Athletes of the Year. A week later we’re gonna top ’em.

Over the next week, you, my fervent followers, are being called on to vote for the first-ever winner of the “Coupevillesports.com Athlete Supreme.”

To be eligible, you had to play for Coupeville High School in 2012-2013, and, after much heated debate (between me, myself and I, and yes, fisticuffs were involved…), here are your 12 candidates. But, just in case you think I’m a complete moron, I also am offering a 13th slot for write-ins.

So, think I was wrong to leave out Amanda d’Almeida, Madeline Strasburg, McKayla Bailey, Brett Arnold or someone else? Your voice can still be heard.

The winner will be announced Friday, June 7 at 10 AM. Why? I don’t know, it just sounds official that way.

The nominees:

Aaron Curtin — #1 player on tennis team. Key basketball player. All-Conference honorable mention as baseball pitcher.

Ben Etzell — Went to districts in tennis. Second leading scorer in basketball, despite missing a chunk of time at start and end of season. First Team All-Conference as a baseball pitcher.

Austin Fields — Medalist five times during golf season. Went to state for third straight season.

Christine Fields — Strong soccer player. Claimed 15th at state golf tourney, a year after finishing 8th as a freshman.

Hailey Hammer — Starter in volleyball, basketball and softball. First Team All-Conference for softball, Second Team for volleyball.

Breeanna Messner — School’s only four-sport athlete (volleyball, cheer, basketball, softball) and a star in all of them.

Makana Stone — Strong soccer player. Battled for team scoring title in basketball despite missing games with illness. Made her high school track debut by winning first 32 races. Broke school records in 200 and as part of two different relay teams. Finished 5th at state in 4 x 200. Named First Team All-Conference in four separate track events.

Nick Streubel — One of two best offensive linemen in league during football. Team’s leading scorer in basketball. Went to tri-districts as a track thrower.

Madison Tisa McPhee — Strong soccer player who battled injuries. Undefeated in 100 and 300 hurdles all the way up through two final postseason track meets. Broke school records in 300 hurdles and as part of 4 x 200 relay team. Only Wolf to win two medals at state track meet. First Team All-Conference in three events.

Jake Tumblin — Led football team in virtually every offensive category; led baseball team in steals while anchoring defense as catcher.

Caleb Valko — Team leader and captain in football and basketball. Threw shot put and discus in track. Gave great smack talk.

Bessie Walstad — Captain for all three of her sports (volleyball, basketball, softball). Leading scorer in basketball. Second Team All-Conference in volleyball.

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Breeanna Messner, Coupeville High School's only four-sport athlete.

Breeanna Messner, Coupeville High School’s only four-sport athlete. (Shelli Trumbull photo)

Nick "The Big Hurt" Streubel. (Nanette Streubel photo)

Nick “The Big Hurt” Streubel (Nanette Streubel photo)

Rising star Madeline Strasburg. (Shelli Trumbull photos)

Madeline Strasburg (Shelli Trumbull photos)

McKayla Bailey

McKayla Bailey

Breeanna Messner was the hardest-working athlete at Coupeville High School this year.

Unlike the olden days (say, the ’80s and ’90s), when virtually everyone played three sports, only 18 Wolves played for three sports teams in 2012-2013.

Heading that list was Messner, the only three-sport athlete to also be on the CHS cheer squad, which meant she juggled two teams in the fall. A key contributor for every one of her teams, the junior proved you can be good at a lot of things (old school style) as opposed to fanatically playing just one sport (new school style).

At a small school like Coupeville, you wish more athletes would make that all-year commitment.

But, proving 2013 is a lot different than 1983, only TWO seniors played three sports, and not a single male athlete completed what used to be viewed as the “standard” season — football, basketball, baseball.

While there are legitimate reasons some couldn’t, or wouldn’t, do so (injuries, academic issues, no desire to play basketball, Coupeville’s only winter sport), we have come here today to hail those who did put out the effort, season after season.

With an eye to the future, the fact 13 of the 18 athletes were freshmen or sophomores speaks well for a possible resurgence of what was once taken for granted — the multi-sport athlete. Or it just means they haven’t burnt out yet.

The 2012-2013 Iron Men and Women of CHS:

Seniors:

Caleb Valko (football, basketball, track)
Bessie Walstad (volleyball, basketball, softball)

Juniors:

Ben Etzell (tennis, basketball, baseball)
Breeanna Messner (volleyball, cheer, basketball, softball)
Nick Streubel (football, basketball, track)

Sophomores:

McKayla Bailey (soccer, basketball, softball)
Aaron Curtin (tennis, basketball, baseball)
Hailey Hammer (volleyball, basketball, softball)
Oscar Liquidano (football, basketball, soccer)
Carson Risner (football, basketball, track)
Madeline Strasburg (volleyball, basketball, softball)
Monica Vidoni (volleyball, basketball, softball)

Freshmen:

McKenzie Bailey (volleyball, basketball, tennis)
Miranda Engle (volleyball, basketball, tennis)
Jared Helmstadter (tennis, basketball, track)
Dalton Martin (football, basketball, track)
Samantha Martin (volleyball, basketball, tennis)
Makana Stone (soccer, basketball, track)

P.S. — If Coupeville considered cheer a sport (which it should, but doesn’t), six girls would join the three-sport club:

Sydney Aparicio (cheer, volleyball, softball)
Lauren Escalle (cheer, volleyball, basketball)
Amanda Fabrizi (cheer, volleyball, basketball)
Julia Felici (cheer, basketball, softball)
Jai’Lysa Hoskins (cheer, basketball, track)
Iris Ryckaert (cheer, volleyball, tennis)

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Anthony Bergeron looking silky smooth. It must be the socks. (Shelli Trumbull photos)

  Anthony Bergeron looking silky smooth. It must be the socks. (Shelli Trumbull photos)

Aaron Trumbull slashes to the basket.

Aaron Trumbull slashes to the basket.

Wiley Hesselgrave -- he's like a freakin' ballet dancer, he is.

Wiley Hesselgrave — he’s like a freakin’ ballet dancer, he is.

Dalton Martin will fly ... once he gets done with his wrestling match.

Dalton Martin will fly … once he gets done with his wrestling match.

"That's right. Fear the Wolf!"

“That’s right. Fear the Wolf!”

Not everyone goes airborne the same.

Some glide up in the clouds while others thunder through the paint.

But regardless of how you get up there, you have to have some hops to be successful in basketball. Unless you’re Larry Bird, and then you can fashion a Hall of Fame career while rarely leaving the ground.

Small news flash: none of the basketball players at Coupeville High School are Larry Bird.

But whether they’re getting air time or getting down and dirty on the floor, the young Wolves are rapidly showing impressive signs of growth during their SWISH season. The hard work they put in now should benefit them once next winter rolls around and they take the court clad in the traditional black and red.

Because, in basketball, you can only truly fly high when you’re willing to put in the ground floor work first.

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"It's a little hard to breathe this way. Perhaps I didn't fully think this out..." (Shelli Trumbull photo)

   “It’s a little hard to breathe this way. Perhaps I didn’t fully think this one out…” (Shelli Trumbull photo)

Some people like basketball.

Some people love basketball.

Some people live basketball.

Coupeville High School hoops player Isaac Vargas may BE a basketball, if this shot from a recent SWISH basketball game is to believed.

Now some naysayers and poo-pooers will tell you that ace photo whiz Shelli Trumbull just snapped the camera at the exact moment Wiley Hesselgrave passed the ball to his teammate and it’s an optical illusion.

Those people have no soul, no imagination, no belief in the wild, weird wonders of the world.

For as surely as we can believe in each and every scoop brought to us by The National Enquirer, we can firmly believe that Mr. Vargas has had his head replaced with a basketball.

I know it to be true in my heart of hearts and … why are you backing away from me while I’m talking…

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