Jake Tumblin, takin’ care of business. (John Fisken photo)
What part of “you already lost” do you not understand?
What began as a simple thing — the vote for the Everett Herald’s Prep Football Player of the Week — has transformed into an epic battle between the plucky town that could, and its supporters everywhere, and the big town that’s going down.
There are seven players nominated, but it long ago became a two-man battle between Coupeville’s Jake Tumblin and Marysville Pilchuck’s Deion Stell.
Jake ran for 315 yards, scored four touchdowns, picked off a pass, recovered a fumble and took a knee at the one-yard line on what could have been another touchdown, to set up fellow senior Raymond Beiriger for the only score of his high school career.
Stell, a very good player, ran for … 75 yards.
When the voting kicked off Sunday morning, Jake took the lead and held a 40-vote margin for some time, then got swamped and fell behind by 350+ votes. But then, he rallied and shot past Stell and held a 150-vote lead.
An email from Herald prep sports editor Aaron Swaney, sent Tuesday morning, states:
Voting ended yesterday so it seems Jake won the fan vote for player of the week.
Except, the Herald hasn’t actually frozen the vote and Marysville (2012 census population of 62,402) has now shot Stell back ahead 1,468-1,344 (no one else has more than 199 votes), while Coupeville (2012 census population of 1,865) is like, “What? We won! Give us a freakin’ break!!”
So, we’re playing Chicago rules, then?
I call on every man, woman and child on Whidbey Island, especially Oak Harbor fans, who have no love for Marysville, to vote, vote, vote.
One Whidbey, united, kickin’ Marysville’s fanny.
Or, email the Herald at aswaney@heraldnet.com and ask him to acknowledge on the web site that Tumblin won.
This is not over, Marysville. We got the equivalent of votes from 72% of the town. You got 0.02%.
You already lost.
Coupeville Sports 