The late, great Tom Roehl (top left) is joined by (clockwise from top right) Joe Kelley, Rob Fasolo, Matt Helm, Ron Bagby, Willie Smith, Dustin Van Velkinburgh and Brad Sherman.
2001 was not a landmark season for Coupeville High School football.
Despite featuring several of the best players to ever wear the red and black, the Wolves closed their season with four straight league losses and finished 3-6 overall.
But, for one night, deep in the heart of Concrete on Oct. 5, 2001, Coupeville put on a performance which has stood the test of time.
As a tribute to longtime CHS assistant coach Tom Roehl, who passed away on this date in 2003, I’m looking back and recreating (as best I can) one of the games of which I think he would have been extremely proud.
I wasn’t there for the game, and I didn’t write about it at the time, as I was deep in my prime Videoville years then.
So, to do so, I’m using Coach Roehl’s own notes and stats from that night.
The season had opened with a loss to King’s, and then, just four days after 9/11, a second defeat on the road at Tacoma Baptist.
It was then the Wolves seemed to catch fire, ripping off back-to-back home wins over Charles Wright and Life Christian before traveling into the heart of the wilderness.
Eight years after This Boy’s Life had hit theaters and introduced the world to Leonardo DiCaprio (as a video store fanatic, I had already witnessed his immortal debut in 1991’s Critters 3…) the eyes of the nation were back on Concrete.
Well, maybe not the whole nation, but certainly Wolf Nation.
The stats for the first half are deceptive, with Wolf QB Brad Sherman piling up 112 yards through the air, as Coupeville led the yardage battle 147-114.
Yet they still trailed 14-8 at the break.
Sherman, who rightfully holds the CHS career passing records regardless of what the big board in the gym may currently say (stats don’t lie), gave Coupeville its only first-half points.
First the junior signal caller dropped a 15-yard scoring strike into the hands of senior tight end Joe Kelley, then Sherman rambled in on a two-point conversion run.
And yet, it wasn’t quite enough.
Now, I’d like to think there was a fiery halftime speech, either from head coach Ron Bagby (or maybe easily excitable, and always quote-worthy, assistant coach Willie Smith?) and the Wolves came flying out of the locker room looking for blood.
Don’t know why. Wasn’t there. And 15 years later, I doubt many of the players would remember.
If this was a movie, the speech would have touched on a nation rebuilding itself after the defining tragedy of the era, maybe a call to arms to show the hicks how football was played back on The Rock.
Whatever was said, whatever was done, it worked.
The second half was a defensive masterpiece, as the (possibly) amped-up Wolves completely shut down Concrete’s ability to move the ball.
After giving up 99 yards on the ground in the first half, Coupeville held the Lions to -12 after the break.
Concrete tried to run the ball 17 times in the second half and time after time Kelley, Mike Smart, Schuyler Porter, Rob Fasolo and Co. smacked the runners silly, driving them backwards.
And, while they were doing that, Coupeville’s version of a battering ram, one Daniel McDonald, was churning.
After rushing 13 times for 50 yards in the first half, McDonald went for 149 on 19 carries after halftime, leaving him one yard shy of 200 for the game.
To which I say to the stat keeper of the time, come on, man, you couldn’t have subtracted one yard from JD Myers (8 carries for 17 yards) and given McDonald an even 200?
Even without that extra yard, the 5-10, 170-pounder, who always ran like a bigger dude, crashed into the end zone three times in the second half.
The first, a three-yard burst in the third (followed by a PAT from Dustin Van Velkinburgh) pulled Coupeville within 17-15, while his next two — also identical three-yard smash-mouth lunges — finally turned the game for the Wolves.
Sherman plunged in on two-point conversions after both fourth-quarter scores to cap what would be the final Wolf win that season.
Losses to Archbishop Thomas Murphy, Friday Harbor, Orcas and La Conner would leave the Wolves at 1-4 in the final league standings.
But the Concrete win, a night when Coupeville stood tall and smacked a program known for toughness, will be the enduring legacy of 2001 Wolf football.
Looking through the stats, there are many key players, and not just the ones we’ve already listed like Kelley and Smart, who combined for 27 tackles.
Matt Helm collected seven tackles, pulled down a team-best 51 yards as a receiver and returned four kicks for 62 yards.
Austin Porter had six tackles and two sacks, Scott Fisher pilfered an interception, Brian Fakkema snagged a 34-yard heave from Sherman and Van Velkinburgh was on point with his kicks all night.
Was it the greatest win in school history? Probably not.
Was it the best-played game in school history? Doubt it.
But it was a win, the kind of victory where a thousand little moving parts all come together at the right moment to swing the day in favor of the good guys.
It was surely a great moment for those guys when they climbed on the bus for the long ride back to Whidbey, and it remains a great moment a decade-and-a-half later.
Tom Roehl devoted a lot of years and a lot of time, sweat and hard work to local kids, helping them better themselves as athletes and people.
As we remember him today, and every day, remember him the way I am sure he looked that night on the bus — wearing a huge smile.
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