Coupeville Sports

King’s is, for now, the king.

The private school thorn in the side to Coupeville is ranked number one in Class A in the first Associated Press poll of the new football season. Sitting at a pretty 2-0 heading into a televised Thursday night Cascade Conference clash with Archbishop Thomas Murphy (ranked first in the state in 2A), the Knights have opened with wins over Lynden and Port Angeles.

King’s is highly rated by others as well, with national high school sports web site maxpreps.com ranking them as the 14th best team in the entire state. ATM is at #22, while Coupeville gets a little less respect, coming in at #285 currently.

Senior quarterback Billy Green, who has committed to Brigham Young University, has tossed nine touchdowns in two games, as King’s has romped to 85 points of total offense.

Coupeville will get a first-hand chance to see Green and the high-flying King’s offense — which will hopefully have cooled-off a bit by then — when the Knights come to Whidbey Friday, Oct. 19.

In a magical world, that night will provide the upset of the year for Washington state high school football.

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“I must destroy you.”

Alex Schmakeit is a philosopher.

The Coupeville High School sophomore is also a winner, having helped spark the Wolf JV football team to a 27-14 thrashing of Bellevue Christian Monday — the first win by any CHS squad in the 2012-2013 school year.

But, about that philosophy and deep thoughts. After the game, in which Schmakeit was a holy terror, crushing his foes with a resounding 18 tackles (“They kept running my gap, so I juked their tackle and filled the hole and there he (the ball carrier) was.”) Schmakeit posted the following to Facebook: “For ages, packs of wolves terrorized vikings. We have repeated history, boys!!”

For a school that was unable to field a JV team for much of last season, due to a lack of warm bodies, it was an especially sweet win and one that could herald the start of something even bigger.

“Nice to see a win,” said Coupeville varsity coach Tony Maggio. “More to come soon, trust me.”

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Jake Tumblin is starting to project.

Project as a potential college football player, that is. At least according to the talent connoisseurs at Northwest Elite Index, a web site devoted to covering and ranking high school football players in Washington and Oregon.

NEI.com has tabbed Tumblin, a 5-foot-9, 160-pound running back for Coupeville High School, as one of the best juniors at his position, saying “Really like the way this kid runs the ball. Has great speed and vision.”

Tumblin, who played quarterback for the Wolves as a sophomore, converted to a slot position this year with the team adopting the Wing-T offense. After sitting out the season’s first game, he ran for 57 yards and caught a nine-yard pass in his first action against Port Townsend.

The Northwest Elite Index rankings are based more on future than present, with an emphasis on who is believed to have the most viable shot at playing at the next level.

Bellevue’s Bishard “Budda” Baker, currently being recruited by at least eight Pac-12 schools, including both Washington and Washington State, as well as national powers Notre Dame and Boise State, is currently ranked as the top junior running back in the state.

You can see highlights of Tumblin’s sophomore season at:

http://www.hudl.com/athlete/385900/highlights/7454640

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Bryce Fleming is off to a scorching start, having scored four touchdowns in just two games.

Bryce Fleming has a love affair going on with the end zone.

The Coupeville High School junior scored his fourth touchdown of the still-young season Friday night, using an eight-yard dash to pay dirt to provide one of the few bright moments for a Wolf team that couldn’t get past the double-whammy of penalties and fumbles.

Haunted by a steady stream of flags and a disturbing propensity for coughing up the ball, Coupeville fell 24-6 to visiting Port Townsend in a non-conference tilt. It was a somewhat surprising, and very disappointing, turn of events, given that the visitors had arrived bearing the cross of a 20-game losing streak.

Now 0-2 under first-year head man Tony Maggio, the Wolves will need to regroup and figure out what works as they prep for a non-conference road battle at Lynden Christian this Friday, Sept. 14.

Holding on to the ball will be a huge priority for Coupeville, which put the ball on the ground six times against Port Townsend, losing four of them. Tack on eight penalties for 80 yards and an apparent touchdown called back and it made for a long night for the red and black.

Apart from the self-inflicted injuries, however, the Wolves matched up well with their foes on the stat sheet. Coupeville compiled 174 yards rushing and threw for 63 more, while Port Townsend tallied 131 on the ground and another 99 through the air.

Making his first start behind center, Wolf quarterback Korbin Korzan completed four of 11 passes for 63 yards, doling out completions to Wade Schaef (25 yards), Aaron Wright (18), Riley Boyd (11) and Jake Tumblin (nine).

Brett Arnold led the ground crew, chewing up 64 yards on 11 carries, while Tumblin (57 yards), Fleming (49) and Danny Savalza (18) helped carry the load.

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