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Archive for the ‘Cheer’ Category

Kaela Hollrigel and Co. are washing cars for a good cause Saturday. (John Fisken photo)

Kaela Hollrigel and Co. are washing cars for a good cause Saturday. (John Fisken photo)

Save your car before it looks like mine.

Avoid the ravages of prairie dust and Penn Cove moisture and preserve that show room gloss, all while helping out Coupeville’s loudest and proudest.

Coupeville High School cheerleaders will be camped out at Windermere Realty Saturday (right across from the Elementary school on S. Main) from 12:00-2:00 holding a fundraiser car wash.

Swing by and let them take hose and scrub brush to your ride, and you’ll be helping the team’s veterans raise funds for their graduation night festivities.

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(Sylvia Arnold photo)

   They’re going to hold their breath until your donation helps us honor CHS cheer’s 4th place finish at state in 2011. (Sylvia Arnold photo)

OK, cheer fanatics, I’m looking at you to put us over the top.

We are in the home stretch to restore 116 years of Coupeville High School sports title history to the gym walls, but need a little push to get over that finish line.

When I started this project, which will replace the 15 or so banners currently hanging at CHS with a display which will honor 112 titles won by Wolf sports teams and individuals, it was a daunting task.

But we’ve gotten there, step by step.

The Whidbey News-Times granted me rare access to their archives to do the research, the Booster Club stepped up with a financial donation to kick off things and school officials have been extremely helpful along the way.

Having raised my portion of the cost thanks to very generous donations, we’ve been working with the Whidbey Sign Company and the plan is to begin installation next week.

But, like most projects of this breadth, there are always a few twists and turns and late plot developments.

With this one, it was a late-in-the-game request from the CHS cheer fans to see their state meet accomplishments, including a state title in 2006, be acknowledged.

There will always be an argument over whether cheer is a sport or an activity, but these titles were won when the Wolves were a competition cheer squad, and I agree they should be hailed along side cross country, softball and all the other sports.

But…

This late addition threw off our budget, and we are sitting $440 shy of what we need as I type this.

So, I’m asking the cheer fans to do what baseball fans or track aficionados have done, step up and join us.

Skip your Starbucks for one day. Pull together the loose change from the couch. Chip in to preserve the history you, or your sister, or your daughter, accomplished.

Together, as one nation, Wolf Nation, we can make the impossible happen.

For more info or to donate, pop over to:

https://www.gofundme.com/2bzt6x76

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Birthday buddies Taichen Rose (top) and Gaby Halpin. (John Fisken photos)

Birthday buddies Taichen Rose (top) and Gaby Halpin. (John Fisken photos)

They are two of the best and brightest we have.

Taichen Rose and Gaby Halpin, who share a birthday today, are part of a band of young women who are at the forefront of Wolf sports.

Strong, competitive yet compassionate, intelligent, ready to help lead the future, they are a dynamic duo.

Both go their own way in the sports world, with Taichen, a junior at Coupeville High School, running the soccer pitch.

Teaming up with older sister May, the younger Rose gives the Wolf booters big energy and supreme effort.

A scrappy defender who learned her skills under the leadership of Jenn Spark, Taichen will be counted on to play a big role for this year’s team as it tries to shut down rival snipers.

Is she up to the job? Absolutely.

Rose is a winner, on and off the field,  the kind of bright young woman who is well on her way to astonishing the world with all of her achievements.

Halpin is a year younger, yet has already had a huge impact on Coupeville as well.

You don’t end up a cheerleader unless you have at least a smidge of school spirit and an outgoing attitude.

Gaby takes that and pushes the dial to 11.

She burst on the high school scene last year and immediately claimed the stage as her own, an exuberant ball o’ fire who was as loud ‘n proud as any Wolf cheerleader, maybe ever.

Through football and basketball, Halpin provided vocal and mental support to her classmates, embracing her teammates and looking very much like the future cheer captain I am sure she is destined to be.

The birthday duo both provide snapshots of the best Wolf Nation has to offer.

Happy birthday to you both. May the best be yet to come.

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Mica Shipley

Mica Shipley (Submitted photo)

Mica Shipley knew early on she wanted to be a cheerleader.

“I’ve been doing All-Star cheer since I was six,” she said. “I started because I was so mesmerized by all that was going on and I wanted to do that.”

Shipley will be moving to the next level this fall, when she enters Coupeville High School as a freshman.

A two-sport athlete (she also competes in track and field), she has embraced the opportunity to join the Wolf cheer squad.

“My favorite thing about cheer is tumbling and flying,” Shipley said.

She credits her mom with having “a huge impact in my life” and enjoys spending time with family and friends when she’s not busy with cheer.

“My mom is such an inspiration in my life,” Shipley said. “She is an inspiration because she never gives up and she encourages me to do the same.

“I got hurt very badly a while back and I was going to give up on cheer and if it wasn’t for my mom I wouldn’t be the person or cheerleader that I am today.”

In school, Shipley looks forward to her creative writing class, while away from the classroom she tries to spend as much time at the beach as possible.

While the battle over whether cheer should be viewed as a sport or an activity will probably rage on forever, there is no doubt how the Wolf frosh feels on the subject.

“I think that cheer is a sport, because even though we are not competing against a team we are doing just as much, maybe even more work then the football players,” Shipley said. “For example, we have to lift people in the air, which takes a lot of strength and conditioning.”

There’s also the intensive amount of work the Wolves put in under coach Cheridan Eck.

“We also have to tumble, which means a lot of practice and we have to learn all the cheers perfectly and we have to do jumps which takes a lot of stretching,” Shipley said. “So, even though we do not go against anyone, we practice like we are.

“We are going against ourselves to get better and better each game,” she added. “In my opinion, that’s a sport.”

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Mckenzie Meyer: Master of all she surveys.

  Mckenzie Meyer: Master of all she surveys. (John Fisken and Deb Smith photos)

Meyer and Madison Rixe

   Wolf track and field teammate Madison Rixe approves of Meyer’s electric socks. (Fisken photo)

Where do we start with Mckenzie Meyer?

Probably with the fact she is freakin’ brilliant. That’s always a good kick-off to things.

The Coupeville High School junior, who I have known since the day she was born, which was 16 years ago today, is mega-smart, but in more than just a “read a few books and memorized a couple of facts” way.

As good an athlete as she is (in cheer, soccer and, sometimes, tennis), as talented a musician as she is, as friendly and outgoing and compassionate and kind and strong as she is, it’s Mckenzie’s brain which is truly taking her places.

She showed it from an early age, back when she was running around Videoville as a wee one, and every time you turn around these days, she’s being flat-out brilliant.

There are smart people, there are ones who go beyond that and then there are the rare few where you know, without a doubt, that they are on a rocket trip to success, and their brain is fueling the trip.

At some point we’re going to see her do stuff which revolutionizes the world, and, after we’ve pulled our jaws off the floor and reattached them, you know what we’ll say?

“Yep, knew it was going to happen.”

Cause she’s just that special.

Not that she will tell you that herself, as Mckenzie is Miss Modest when it comes to tooting her own horn.

Which is why I, as her self-appointed PR person, have taken it upon myself to lecture the world how awesome and amazing she truly is.

In the world I cover — sports — Meyer is an ideal teammate, the kind of young woman who screams louder for her friends accomplishments than her own.

She’s fun-loving, she’s funky and she seems to be having a heck of a time boppin’ through life, utterly devoted to her large, sprawling family and her friends.

And by friends I mean anyone who meets her, since she instantly welcomes people into her wide world of wonder.

The people I write about are a diverse bunch, and I readily admit, I play favorites sometimes.

Everyone does, and, as much as I might say I try to balance coverage and give everyone their shot, reality is reality.

But guess what? Some people just deserve to have the spotlight.

They’ve earned it, with their spirit, their actions and the way they approach things.

Mckenzie is on my Mt. Rushmore, and she’s in no danger of ever losing her spot.

She was pretty dang awesome as a little girl and she has merely become a deeper, more wonderful person as she’s worked her way up through the birthday chain.

If you know her, you know I speak the truth.

If you don’t know her, man, you are missing out. Get on that, post haste.

So, happy birthday Miss Meyer.

And just in case you missed the first 33 times I said it — thank you for being truly, wonderfully, amazingly awesome.

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