Drew Chan, one of the Wolves who put their body on the line every game last season. (Shelli Trumbull photo)
Last season wasn’t fun.
A new coach, an almost completely new team, a key player lost to injury at the start of the season, a serious lack of numbers on the bench — life wasn’t especially easy for the Coupeville High School boys’ basketball team.
I’ve seen this before, though, and it can get better.
Two decades ago, during Randy King’s first year as coach, he was handed virtually a freshman team and they took some horrific beatings on their way to a similar 0-20 season.
I sat in that same gym and watched as a jerkwad rival coach had his team do a full-court press until the final buzzer, rolling past 100 points on the scoreboard as the Wolves struggled to even get the ball in-bounds.
But that team, led by Virgil Roehl, who, as the Wolves best player, took a non-stop licking and kept on ticking, never stopped. With players like Ryan McManigle, Brandon Huff, Kit Manzanares and Boom “Best Last Name Ever” Phomvongkoth, the Wolves got better, stronger, faster, tougher and they hurt some people over the next three seasons.
And it can, and will, happen again.
The Wolves have talent, with big men Nick Streubel and Caleb Valko, hard-charging Carson Risner and the triple-threat of Drew Chan, Gavin O’ Keefe and Aaron Curtin. Injuries have haunted Kole Kellison, but there is always hope, with youngsters like Joel Walstad and Aaron Trumbull on the way.
That core group is strong, they will succeed — but they need help.
They need a bench, so they don’t have to play entire games with six players. They need support. They need whiny-ass classmates to suck it up, stop bitching and, if they really, truly believe they’re ballers like they say, to put their bodies on the line, instead of blowing hot air.
It’s easy to slag those who are busting their humps. It’s easy to move to another town, while your daddy stays behind, to play for a “better” team. A team that is going to have an awkward moment or two if and when it next plays Coupeville.
There are many excuses. Many reasons to take the winter off. Some are legitimate. Others not so much.
It’s simple.
The male population of Coupeville High School needs to step up and take a collective gut-check over the next three weeks. Man up, turn out for basketball and help Chan, Streubel and Co. to continue to build something the town will all look at and be proud of, or shut the hell up.
Every blowhard thinks they can sink a twenty-footer or make an outlet pass between defenders. Whining about how you’d play if only the “team was any good” is weak and it makes you look like the scared little boys you really are.
Either do it or don’t do it.
But if you don’t do it, don’t piss all over the ones who are in there fighting. And don’t jump on the bandwagon later when they succeed without you.
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