Coupeville Sports

    Caleb Valko, seen here with his parents on Senior Night, will lead the Wolves onto the field one final time Saturday night. (Robert Pelant photo)

It’s awkward, I know.

You plan to go to Coupeville’s season-ending football game in Port Townsend this Saturday, but know next to nothing about their opponent, Chimacum.

What if there’s a lull in the conversation? What if someone asks you a question about that really fast running back? What if you want to scream something, but find yourself devoid of pithy facts that you can turn into a suitable insult?

That’s where I come in, with 18 random facts you can pepper your conversation with — just enough to make the person you’re talking to think you must really be a high school football buff … or have way too much time on your hands.

Your cheat sheet:

1) Chimacum is named for an Indian tribe that lived in the area until the late 19th century, yet…

2) Their sports teams are named the Cowboys. Well, there are no real wolves on Whidbey, either, so I’m not sure that matters.

3) The Cowboys will be the ones dressed in royal blue and white … and mud. The field is expected to be very wet, and Coupeville’s colors (red and black) are more forgiving of grass stains. So, they got that going for them, which is nice.

4) Chimacum’s coach, Shawn Meacham, is in his third year as head man at the school.

5) If you need to send him a letter after the game, the zip code in Chimacum is 98325.

6) Maybe you can talk about the Cowboys’ leading rusher, Melvin Thornton. He’s run for more than 1,100 yards and 12 touchdowns, but…

7) As a team, Coupeville, led by Jake Tumblin and Brett Arnold, actually out-rushes Chimacum, averaging 228.2 yards per game against 220.3 yards.

8) The Wolves are also better through the air, with Gunnar Langvold, Josh Bayne and Tumblin combining for 54.9 yards per game to 38 yards a game from Chimacum’s Alex Morris, but …

9) Chimacum has had better luck getting the ball in the end zone, outscoring the Wolves 201-147 this season.

10) The Cowboys defense has also been better, at least from a point differential basis, giving up 235 points to Coupeville’s 313, but…

11) You have to wonder about how Chimacum keeps stats, since maxpreps.com lists them as averaging 65.1 tackles per game, which seems kind of extreme for a 48-minute game. And a team that’s surrendered 200+ points.

12) If we were talking about 1A power Cashmere, which has stuffed teams 445-34 (yes, that’s right, 34 points in nine games) or 3A juggernaut Bellevue (450-59), then maybe. But Chimacum?

13) Still, you probably don’t want to get tackled by either one of Chimacum’s “big boys.” Cowboy linemen Bryce Clark and Dustin Finley are both listed at 300 pounds. And that’s before the pre-game meal.

14) Defensive back Drew Yackulic, though, was just 110 pounds when rosters were put out, and he’s probably sweated a few pounds away by now. That’s the kid you want to run at.

15) The ScoreCzar and his evil tramp of a computer, “Debbie,” lists Chimacum as the 37th best team in 1A football, while ranking Coupeville at #55, but…

16) That floozy “Debbie” may have a few wires crossed, as she puts South Whidbey (who the Wolves beat) at #39 and somehow thinks a King’s team that has drilled opponents 444-149 is only the 13th best team in 1A. Uh huh…

17) Further proof that “Debbie,” that harlot, is not thinking straight — in her 2A rankings she puts Capital at #4 and Tumwater at #8, despite the fact the T-Birds have already beaten the fancy lads from across town.

18) But back to Chimacum, whose most famous former resident may be Betty MacDonald, who based her best-selling book “The Egg & I” on her life on a chicken farm in the area. The book spawned The Ma and Pa Kettle series of movies, which made oodles of money (way) back in the day. Go ask your grandma.

So now you know (a lot of useless facts). And knowing is half the battle.

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   Who will be crushing Chimacum’s hopes and dreams this Saturday? These guys, Brett Arnold (40), Nick Streubel (68) and Co.!! (Nanette Streubel photo)

In a win for moms who work 9-5 weekdays, Coupeville High School has scheduled its final football game for Saturday, Nov. 3, and not Friday, as first expected.

That’s a big deal, because the game, against Chimacum, will kick-off earlier than normal due to its location at Memorial Athletic Field in Port Townsend (what with the ferry not wanting to wait around until the wee hours of the morning). The first ball will fly off a kicker’s toe at 5 PM.

There will be one conflict for local fans, however, as the game is set for the exact same time and date as the Guns vs. Hoses basketball benefit game being played at Coupeville High School. That bout, pitting firefighters against cops, is to raise funds for Coupeville Living Hope Foursquare church pastor Garrett Arnold.

The non-conference tilt between the Wolves (2-7) and the Cowboys (4-5) pits two schools that failed to advance in the playoffs.

Chimacum has wins over Bellevue Christian, Life Christian Academy, Vashon Island and Port Townsend. Coupeville faced two of those teams (Bellevue Christian and Port Townsend), losing both.

The Cowboys are a run-orientated team that averaged 220 yards on the ground per game this season. They are led by senior running back Melvin Thornton, who has rumbled for 1,100 plus yards (topping 200 in three separate games) and 12 touchdowns.

The game will be the final one for Wolf seniors Caleb Valko, Danny Savalza, Riley Boyd and Anthony Maggio. Fellow seniors Kole Kellison and Paul Schmakeit are out with injuries.

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  Jared Dickson (88) and Anthony Maggio (78) lead the Wolves into battle during Senior Night. The conditions were much rainier and less hospitable in Blaine. (Robert Pelant photo)

Hopefully Halloween is sweet for the Wolves, because huge chunks of the day before were pretty sour.

Playing in non-stop rain Tuesday night in Blaine that made it hard to hold onto the ball, the Coupeville High School football team fell 34-6 to Meridian in a game that, somewhat mercifully, was only a half.

The loss ended the Wolves playoff hopes (if they had won, they would have returned to the field to play another half, this time against Blaine), but they will pick up a final regular season game Saturday, Nov. 3.

Coupeville (2-7) will hop the ferry and play Chimacum (4-5) in a non-conference tilt at Port Townsend’s stadium at 5 PM.

Against Meridian, the Wolves fell behind early, trailing 13-0 after the opening quarter. It didn’t get much better from there.

Coupeville rotated three players — Jake Tumblin, Gunnar Langvold and Josh Bayne — through the quarterback position, but all three had trouble holding on to the slick ball, with one bobbled snap being picked up and returned for a touchdown by the Meridian defense.

Down 27-0, the Wolves, a run-orientated team, went to the air almost exclusively and Tumblin connected with Riley Boyd on a pair of dynamic throws.

On the first one, Boyd came back to the ball, then juked a couple of Meridian defenders out of their shoes on his way to a 40-yard catch-and run. Then he hauled in a big-time gut check of a catch, splitting two defenders and holding on to the ball for dear life as he got smashed from both sides.

Fellow Wolf receiver Wade Schaef also made a strong play, snaring a ball along the sideline a fraction of a second before he got knocked head-over-heels out of bounds. Undaunted by the blow, Schaef sprang back up, flipped the ball to the ref, then shot back onto the field, never missing a beat.

Langvold eventually connected with Wiley Hesselgrave on a short touchdown pass to get the Wolves on the scoreboard. After a two-point conversion fell just inches short, Coupeville successfully pulled off an onside kick, as Bayne dropped the ball into a gap and let a swarm of his teammates pound the stuffing out of the first Meridian player to touch the ball.

Unfortunately, the Wolves offense stalled, as running back Brett Arnold got lit up on a vicious hit that left him half covered in mud and limping gingerly, and Coupeville turned the ball over on downs.

From there, Meridian ran the clock out and retreated to the locker room to catch a few breaths before facing off with a fired-up Blaine squad whose fans accounted for the majority of the three-quarters full stands.

All the fans in the stands couldn’t help the host school, however, as Meridian stayed hot after its win over Coupeville, nipping the Borderites 15-14 to eliminate Blaine and earn the night’s one available berth to tri-districts.

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Ben Haight

Ben Haight has one weakness.

The Coupeville High School junior, an imposing force on the football field, a young man who not only hiked the arduous Chilkoot trail in Canada, but was tabbed “The Sherpa on Steroids” for his exploits on the trail originally used by gold rushers (more on that later), the founder of a small business (Whidbey EcoWood Products, which builds planter boxes from skids and pallets, recycling discarded wood), has been tripped up once.

By crafts.

Specifically a 9th grade crafts class where he was given an A-, the only stumbling block in his pursuit of a perfect 4.0 GPA. A National Honor Society scholar who wants to be a civil engineer, he carries a tough course load, including upper math, Spanish and college prep English. Just no more crafts.

“Ben is not much of a ‘crafts’ person,” joked mom Solea Kennedy-Metzger. “He is very logical and a serious student.”

He’s also a beast on the gridiron, where he patrols the lines for the Wolves and keeps his own counsel. A lunch pail-carrying guy who enjoys life in the trenches and leaves the trash talking to others.

“He is the quietest kid I have ever known,” said Coupeville coach Tony Maggio. “That makes him one of my favorite kids!”

A native of Juneau, Alaska (his dad is a police investigator there), Haight moved to the Island with his mom in 2008. After attending the Whidbey Island Academy and the Cedar School, he transitioned to public school as a freshman. Football, which he started playing at age eight, provided an immediate link with his classmates.

“My whole family was very into the sport of football when I started and they encouraged me to join,” Haight said. “I have stuck with it because I like the camaraderie between teammates and I enjoy the feeling of adrenaline that accompanies making a good play.”

He’s continually working on fine-tuning his skill set and building strength, an important part of holding his own as a lineman.

“I don’t think I have any particularly outstanding strengths in football, but I consider myself a fairly well balanced player as far as speed, strength, endurance and resilience,” Haight said. “For a lineman, my speed compensates for my lack of strength — in relation to the other linemen.

“I am constantly trying to become stronger as my position requires a significant amount of this quality, but aside from that I dedicate a lot of time to improving all of the abilities I need for this sport,” he added.

An avid video game player who is also a “Star Wars” buff and fan of TV shows like “Chuck,” “Monk” and “Psych,” Haight can handle himself on a shooting range, whether on Whidbey or in Alaska with older brother Theo. On the field, he remains proudest of Coupeville taking back The Bucket after a six-year drought.

“Our victory at South Whidbey was a great experience and one of the most exciting football games I have been involved in for a while,” Haight said.

Sharing the win with his teammates made it special, he said.

“All of my teammates, from 8th grade to this season, have been very supportive of me,” Haight said. “We all make sure to try to keep each other up, even in difficult times.”

That willingness to support his teammates, regardless of the situation, takes us back to Canada, where Haight carved out his own Forrest Gump-style legend last summer.

The 33-mile Chilkoot Trail, originally used during the Klondike Gold Rush, is littered with steep, slippery areas, and some of his hiking companions struggled with carrying their packs through those areas. Haight responded by hiking ahead, dropping his own pack, then running back and picking up the other hiker’s packs (and occasionally the hiker themselves) and hauling them out, again and again.

On the playing field or on the trail, Haight never leaves a fallen soldier behind. One more reason Coupeville coaches love the young man.

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