Everything changes | Coupeville Sports

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I really don’t know what to say…

Posted in Everything changes, tagged arrest, broken back, Central Whidbey Little League, CHS Wolves, Paul Schmakeit on August 8, 2015| Leave a Comment »

Paul Schmakeit (4) in happier days. (Chelli Trumbull photo)

Paul Schmakeit (4) in happier days. (Shelli Trumbull photo)

Five years ago, give or take a week or two, Paul Schmakeit was on top of the local sports world, part of something truly special.

As he and his teammates on the Central Whidbey Little League Juniors squad celebrated winning a state title — the first and only one ever owned by a Coupeville team — the future was bright.

And it stayed that way for some time, with future wins, personal growth and milestones.

Not all 13 of the Coupeville players on that squad continued to play baseball for all four years at CHS, but all 13 graduated and have begun to go out in the world.

As a group, they remain young men we were all justifiably proud of.

Today, a chunk of that joy has been forever dimmed, as Schmakeit sits in police custody, the central figure in a crime that is shocking in many ways.

The buzz that filtered across the Island is matched almost beat-for-beat in the police report.

Even knowing that, reading today’s article in the Whidbey News-Times (http://www.whidbeynewstimes.com/news/321097001.html), it’s hard to reconcile with the image I have of Paul, which is of an an easy-going, genuinely friendly, super-polite guy who always had a smile.

I realize things change, people change, and sometimes (allegedly) stupid decisions spiral into truly awful outcomes.

Doesn’t make them any easier to accept.

There are no winners, only losers in this story.

Multiple families are shattered, by the events of that day and by the fallout which will continue.

And what can I say?

I hope that the man who is paralyzed wakes up one morning and is able to walk again.

I’ve never met him, as far as I know, but some of his closest friends are people I do know, people for who I have a healthy respect.

I hope that Paul, his family (who I have a great appreciation for) and his friends — the athletes I cover on a daily basis on this blog — find a way through this.

That atonement is made. That lives can be rebuilt.

There is great darkness now, but I want to believe, always, that there is hope.

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I’m selling my DVDs (and that’s OK)

Posted in Everything changes, tagged Bottle Rocket, DVDs, movies, sale, Videoville on June 25, 2015| Leave a Comment »

A small (very small) smidgen of my vast DVD empire. (David Svien photo)

Passions change.

For a great deal of my life, movies were my obsession.

I worked 15+ years in video stores, watched 10,000+ films (and then stopped counting) and spent much of my time trying to convince the world to see “Bottle Rocket,” then dodging the stuff thrown at me after people disagreed with my recommendation.

Dear people: I was right. You were wrong. Praise be to Owen Wilson’s crushed-in nose!

Since leaving the video store biz in 2009, I have watched a ton more movies, but didn’t actually own a single DVD until a couple months back.

Out of the blue, a friend cleaning out her house gifted me with a chunk of films and TV shows, and then, on a lark, I started to rebuild a collection from other people’s gifts and me running amuck and buying chunks of DVDs.

No movies, and then you look up one morning and the entire duplex is DVDs as far as the eye can see.

2,700 of them.

About that same time, I left my “real” job at Christopher’s on Whidbey after three years, unable to deal with the daily pain the dish pit inflicts on anyone foolhardy enough to enter its tropical climes.

It wasn’t the restaurant that drove me away, but the type of job.

Andreas, the chef/owner, bent over backwards to accommodate me and allow me time to cover games and make Coupeville Sports the vibrant, hyperventilating, low-paying thing it is.

But I couldn’t take the near-constant buzz in my fingers and the aching pain in my right shoulder any more (I don’t think I whined as much when I was washing dishes at 17 … OK, I probably did) and, sure enough, three weeks out, almost all of that is gone.

Of course, even as my pain recedes, so does the already-limited amount of money in my wallet.

My bills are fairly slim ‘n trim (no cell phone, no booze, cigs or Netflix, embracing a cruddy car — all that helps), but I do have one or two that have to be paid.

My landlord, for one, may appreciate I feed his cats, but that only carries so far.

So it was, last week, when something in my personal life hit me like an unexpected semi truck to the forehead and made me stop and reconsider things.

I’m not going in to what that was, but no, I am not sick if that’s what you’re thinking (just the opposite).

The particulars don’t really matter (it’s personal and will stay that way) but I have emerged with a new clarity and a new refusal to sink back into a dark hole as I have done in the past and thought about, for a long moment, doing again.

I don’t want to go back and get a “real” job. I want to do the one thing I do really, really well, and that is to write.

Will Coupeville Sports pay my limited bills? We’ll see.

I greatly appreciate those who have donated to me in the past, and those who have praised my efforts or offered words of encouragement.

If you feel like doing so, there’s a DONATE button on the top right of this page.

Whether it’s $1 or whether you decide to swoop in and fully fund me (I’ll try not to hold my breath…), every bit keeps us careening towards the three-year anniversary (Aug. 15) and our 4,000th article (not that far away actually).

But if you don’t feel like it, don’t, just go on reading for free.

Either way, I’m going forward, fully committed to Coupeville Sports and streamlining my life.

And that means all my DVDs go.

It was nice to have them back for a bit, to live in a video store again (seriously, my duplex is currently all bookcases, with DVDs lined up from “Abandon” to “Zu Warriors.”)

But, it’s not necessary. And I don’t need the constant temptation to buy more.

I lived that life for a long time, and I enjoyed it, greatly.

But times, and priorities, change.

Writing is my calling, always has been, with being a (Penn Cove) beach bum coming up closely behind.

Selling my movies, as I have already started to do (I’m having an epic $1 blow-out sale Saturday) makes sense (and, hopefully, a few dollars and cents).

It is time to live very simply, almost (but not quite) off the grid, doing what makes me happy, even if it barely covers the bills.

And I’m OK with that.

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Bleachers be gone!!

Posted in Everything changes, tagged Basketball, bleachers, CHS Wolves, gyms on June 18, 2015| 1 Comment »

Now where am I supposed to sit?

Shed one solitary tear for every butt crushed by these babies.

Hey, I think I can still see the grooves my rear left behind on that one…

And then they were no more.

In these exclusive pics, snapped by a mysterious photo bug, we see what the Coupeville High School gym would look like without bleachers.

It’s not magic, though.

The ‘1820s-era bleachers (OK, maybe they weren’t that old, but still…) behind the home bench finally gave up the ghost during basketball season.

Now, with school out, the offending, we-refuse-to-ever-open-again bleachers are gone, soon to be replaced with shiny, happy new butt-crushers.

My tender rear will remember the old bleachers semi-fondly, while hoping the new ones come with heated seats and a vibrating massage setting.

To dream the impossible dream…

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Goodbye, Cascade Conference!!!

Posted in Everything changes, tagged Cascade Conference, CHS Wolves, Lori Stolee, Olympic League on January 27, 2014| Leave a Comment »

Wolf freshman Tiffany Briscoe and teammates will move into a new league next season. (John Fisken photos)

Coupeville High School Athletic Director Lori Stolee (left) worked behind the scenes to find the Wolves a true 1A league. (John Fisken photo)

CHS Athletic Director Lori Stolee (left) worked behind the scenes to find the Wolves a true 1A league.

Things are about to get a lot more competitive.

Coupeville High School Athletic Director Lori Stolee confirmed Monday that the school will leave its current league, the 1A/2A Cascade Conference, in the fall.

When the 2014-2015 school year kicks off in September, CHS, the smallest 1A school in the state, will join Port Townsend, Chimacum and Klahowya in a new four-team 1A division in the Olympic League.

The state re-classifies schools every two years, and Coupeville missed out on dropping to 2B, and possibly returning to its old stomping grounds in the Northwest League, by one-tenth of a student.

With that door closed, school officials moved forward when they were approached by the other three 1A schools, who were interested in pulling together a new league of comparatively-sized schools who would have limited travel.

While the Wolves will still be the smallest school, with 225 students currently in grades 9-11, the move will greatly reduce the size difference that Coupeville has faced in its current conference.

Chimacum has 237 students, Port Townsend 327 and Klahowya, which is located in Silverdale, has 455. The Eagles are dropping from 2A to 1A under the next two-year classification count.

In the Cascade Conference, the next-smallest schools — 1A King’s and 2A Archbishop Thomas Murphy, private schools that can award scholarships — sat at 368 and 369 students.

2A schools Cedarcrest (691), Lakewood (554) and Granite Falls (491) were all double the size of Coupeville, while Sultan (428), which will drop to 1A next year, and 1A South Whidbey (398) weren’t far off.

The sport most affected by the size difference has been football, and a temporary agreement to allow CHS to skip playing Cedarcrest, Lakewood and ATM the past two years was about to run out.

That would have meant returning to sending a 30-man roster dotted with undersized freshmen against schools that field varsity teams of 60-70 players filled primarily with weight room-tested junior and seniors.

“Couldn’t be happier. It is what is best for the kids,” said Wolf football coach Tony Maggio. “We should at least be able to compete in the Olympic League, and, for the most part, play teams close to our size.

“I think most the coaches were on board with the switch.”

The move will take Coupeville out of District 1 and move it to District 3. Scheduling is still being worked out, but, with four teams, the Olympic League would be guaranteed a postseason berth for each sport.

While nothing it set in stone, it’s believed football, volleyball and soccer will play each new league school twice a season, while baseball, softball and basketball will face off three times each.

Schedules can be filled in with many of the same non-conference 1A or B foes Coupeville currently faces, such as Meridian, Nooksack Valley, Friday Harbor and Mount Vernon Christian.

If the Wolves face a 2A school, either from the 2A division of the Olympic League or somewhere else, it will be the exception instead of the rule going forward.
Those games would also no longer affect Coupeville’s efforts to make the playoffs.

Stolee said she hopes to continue to schedule games with South Whidbey to keep the Island rivalry strong.

CHS baseball coach, and former Athletic Director, Willie Smith is one of many on board with the move.

“Well, I am actually excited for the change,” he said. “It will, of course, present some challenges with scheduling, but from the time I was the AD until now, I have advocated for a 1A league.

“Competitively, I think we will do well,” he added. “Klahowya is a bit of an unknown, but Chimacum and Port Townsend are both comparable to us in size of programs, so it should be a good fit.”

Regardless of which league Coupeville calls home, the Wolves also need to continue to build athletes from the ground up if they wish to add new league title banners to a gym wall that has not seen any new additions in the last decade.

“We will need to do a better job of getting our feeder programs back on track,” Smith said. “But we would need to do that whether we were in the Cascade, 2B, or in any other league.

“I think we’ve put ourselves in a very good situation now,” he added. “If we lay the foundation for our programs, we can be successful once again.”

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