Jason McFadyen with daughters Kate (left) and Pearl.
The Four Amigos — back (l to r) Ben Biskovich, Frank Marti, front (Sean Dillon, McFadyen).
It is one of the most memorable images in Coupeville High School sports history.
The photo, from late 1990, shows Wolf football coach Ron Bagby tilting into the wind, watching perhaps the greatest gridiron squad in school history fall in a home playoff game.
The look on his face is one of hope fighting with resignation, and it defines what was a 20+ year career.
CHS was undefeated and ranked fifth in the state going into that playoff game, due in no small part to senior quarterback Jason McFadyen.
A captain who lettered in four sports (football, basketball, track and baseball) while winning numerous awards before graduating in 1991, he remains one of the best to ever carry the Wolf logo into battle.
25 years later, one moment remains firmly lodged in McFadyen’s memory.
“The game that stands out the most is the game at Concrete,” he said. “They were Coupeville’s biggest rival until we switched leagues in the early/mid ’90s.
“Unless I’m mistaken, until we beat them that year no Wolf team had done so — and we beat them handily.”
While he sparkled on the gridiron, the hard-court is where McFadyen’s heart has always lived.
A team captain, he was named First-Team All-Conference as a senior and was the team MVP his final two seasons. His defensive prowess was legendary, twice netting him a position on the league’s All-Defensive team.
“I just always loved it, from my childhood days of shooting hoops till midnight in my backyard with my best friend, Chad, to the days when I “found” a key to the gym and was able to shoot late at night there,” McFadyen said.
And yet, as the years have passed, he has discovered that, as much as he loves basketball, football is the sport that leaves the deepest ache.
“Funny thing is, I thought I’d miss basketball the most after high school, but the sport I missed the most was football,” McFadyen said. “You can play basketball at anytime, join leagues, open gym, but you’ll probably never play full-contact football again…”
McFadyen had a chance to return to his old court this past weekend, when he played on the title-winning team in the annual Tom Roehl Roundball Classic.
Getting a chance to play in the alumni tourney, and honor one of his former coaches, is special for the former Wolf star.
“Coach Roehl was a good coach and an even better person — you can see that in the kind of kids he raised,” McFadyen said. “You don’t really appreciate people at a younger age, but looking back he was definitely someone who deserved respect and appreciation from the kids he coached.
“More speed! Anyone who played for him will recognize that classic quote and repeat it in their best Coach Roehl voice.”
All of his coaches had a big impact on his life, but maybe none more so than Bagby, who ran both the football and basketball programs at the time.
“He always pushed me to be better and work harder,” McFadyen said. “That wasn’t always something we agreed on, but he was the coach, so agree or not, he was right. To this day we remain close friends.
Not that the two didn’t have their moments. But now, years down the road, McFadyen can see what his coach was trying to accomplish.
“One day senior year I got to basketball practice and he was all over me when I didn’t dive for a ball that I could have gotten and he lost it. I mean, it was practice!,” McFadyen said. “For the next two weeks it was like I couldn’t do anything right; he was constantly riding me.
“Finally, we were at Watson Groen and he cornered me in the locker room after the rest of the team had gone out for warm-ups. He asked me what my problem was; I replied, you’re all over me for no reason! What’s YOUR problem, coach??
“He said, “I expect more from you than I do everybody else. Right then, at that moment, I got it. I have never thanked him for that, but I need to.”
But, even with strong coaches, most of life’s lessons came from home, where parents Jack and Carmen McFadyen raised Jason and big sis Aleshia (McFadyen) Mitten.
Along with his All-League honors and MVP awards, McFadyen was an Honorable Mention Academic All American, a US Army Reserve National Scholar Athlete and a member of the National Honor Society.
That dual success, mixing athletics and academics, sprang from the lessons learned from his parents.
“The real mentors in my life were my parents. They taught me responsibility, showed me love, and what it means to be a good person, and eventually a good parent,” McFadyen said. “There wasn’t one game they weren’t at; even if it meant taking off work to drive to Darrington to sit in the rain to watch me play, they were always there.
“I believe I am a good father because of my parents, because of the parents they were.”
McFadyen is now raising two young daughters of his own, eight-year-old Pearl and seven-year-old Kate, and passing on those same lessons.
A licensed Realtor for 12 years, he has worked for Windermere, first in Redmond then back on The Rock that he once fervently sought to escape.
“I was always the guy who wanted to get the Hell off the Island the day after high school and didn’t see myself ever coming back,” McFadyen said. “But, once you get off the Island, you realize there’s no better place to live and raise kids than back home … so I moved back home.”
He’s now happily entrenched on Whidbey with his daughters and “the woman who owns my heart,” Annie Cash.
McFadyen runs Windermere’s property management division, which has taken Best of Whidbey two years running.
He has also served on the Realtor board of directors and the Island County Housing Board and is in his second term as President of the Greater Oak Harbor Chamber of Commerce.
When not working, he stays busy with the women in his life.
And, if his offspring choose to follow in his athletic footsteps, he will be there for them the way his parents were for him.
“We enjoy time on our boat, traveling, golf, and whatever else the girls may think up that day,” McFadyen said.
“I would support my daughters should they decide to get into sports. Both are athletic, and I have coached their T-ball teams,” he added. “But if they decide to get into something other than sports, I will support them completely.”
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