Coupeville has a new stadium. We should name it in honor of the ol’ ball coach, Ron Bagby.
Coupeville High School football is in a bad place.
This is not meant as a criticism of any individual currently or previously involved in the program. But it is reality.
CHS Athletic Director Willie Smith is in the process of finding a new head coach, and that hire will be the third head coach in four years, and the fifth in the last nine seasons.
For next year’s seniors, guys like Matt Hilborn and Shane Losey, they will have spent most of their prep careers just trying to get comfortable with a coach, only to have him depart midway through the process.
The Wolves haven’t posted a winning record since they went 6-5 in 2005.
That’s 11 losing seasons in 12 years, with a 5-5 mark in 2014 the only mild bright spot.
But there is hope. Real hope.
Coupeville is not a school stuck in the midst of an epic losing skid. It is not Glascock County in Georgia, which lost 82 straight games from 1990-99.
The Wolves retain ownership of The Bucket, having drilled Island arch-rival South Whidbey in back-to-back seasons, and they have some very talented players set to return next fall.
Sean Toomey-Stout, AKA “The Torpedo,” was on his way to an All-Conference season on both sides of the ball as a sophomore before an injury against Vashon derailed him.
Ty Eck, a standout as a freshman, has returned to Cow Town after playing in Oak Harbor as a sophomore and Missouri as a junior, and is primed to have a stellar senior campaign.
Toss in Hilborn, Losey, Chris Battaglia, Andrew Martin, Dawson Houston, Ryan Labrador, Dane Lucero, Jake Pease and others, and the next CHS head coach will have plenty to work with.
But the program could use a boost, a feel-good injection, and I can think of three things to provide that.
Two are already in place, or will be.
A new coach, whether they come from the current staff or from outside the district, always provides new hope, even more so if they are someone who inspires confidence.
Willie Smith has pledged his next hire will be someone committed to CHS for the long-term, someone willing to put in not just the hours, but the years, to build the program from the ground floor.
Someone like second-year volleyball coach Cory Whitmore or first-year boys basketball coach Brad Sherman, who have both lit a fuse under their programs, and seem like they’re ready to prowl the prairie for decades.
The new football coach will start their season on the road Aug. 31 at Port Townsend, with their home debut set for Sept. 7 against Vashon Island.
That game will be the first football game played with Coupeville’s new stadium in place, which provides another jolt of energy.
Having much-larger stands, with a roof to block out the Whidbey rain and a press box to keep me snug as a bug (well, it’s important to me…), with that stadium on the same side as the parking lot, is HUGE.
And this is where I think CHS, its administration and its fans, should take advantage of the new stadium and use it to provide not one, but two, big jolts of energy to the Wolf football program.
It’s simple.
The field the Wolf gridiron giants, and soccer booters, and track and field throwers, play on, is named for Mickey Clark, a longtime local historian and all-around good guy.
It’s been that way for decades, and there is absolutely, positively, no reason to change it.
But…
With a simple, but very powerful, gesture, we can do more.
When the Wolves take the field against Vashon, the man on the PA system, most likely the aforementioned Willie Smith, should welcome everyone to … “Ron Bagby Stadium at Mickey Clark Field.”
Boom.
With one simple sentence, you honor Coupeville football’s past and you kick the future off in style.
Now, if you’re not from around here, you may be asking, “Who is this man they call Bags?”
He is Coupeville football.
Before our recent string of short-term coaches, Bagby prowled the sidelines for 26 seasons, until his retirement in 2009.
After showing up from the wilds of Forks, the man who once wore the shortest short-shorts since Larry Bird, a man who still owns records as a college football player, transformed the CHS program.
He led the Wolves to their only undefeated season in 1990, hosting a state playoff game at Mickey Clark Field with a squad boasting a 9-0 record.
Bags took numerous teams to the playoffs over the years, was in charge the last time the Wolves posted a winning record, and taught three decades worth of players how to never back down and never give in, regardless of the name on the jersey worn by the other team.
Plus, he coached track and boys basketball, where he remains the last guy to take that program to state (way back in ’88), and also did time as an Athletic Director.
While he currently declines the opportunity to coach, Bagby is still haunting Coupeville’s gyms and weight room as a teacher, which makes this even better.
It is always preferable to honor someone, to pay tribute to them for what they have accomplished and the lives they have affected, while they’re still around to blush.
You name the new stadium for Bags, hang a plaque, get wife Marie and his kids to force him to show up for a pre-game ceremony, and you make that first home game far more than just a game.
I have no doubt former players and coaches would pack the joint for that ceremony, which means we can create something similar to what happened when we did the 101-year anniversary event for boys basketball this winter.
The electricity, the joy, that flowed through our gym that night is like nothing I have ever experienced during my time covering sports here in Cow Town.
It was the past, the present and the future united, and it lit a spark under the Wolf boys basketball team like nobody’s business.
With the stands jammed, with the legends of the past transformed from names in old newsprint into living, breathing men reunited, the current Wolves fed off the energy and savaged Chimacum.
Beyond that one game, the experience continues to have an impact, and there is little doubt a similar night to honor CHS girls basketball will be on the docket for next season.
But, before we get there, we have this golden moment set for Sept. 7 — the start of a new home football season, the introduction of a new coach and a new team, and a shiny new stadium ready for the spotlight.
Bring back the greats of the past, from Ian Barron to Noah Roehl, from Casey Larson to Chad Gale and beyond, honor Bags, a man who made the Wolf football program feared and respected, and inspire the players of today.
It’s simple. It’s easy. It’s right.
“Ladies and gentlemen, and Wolf fans of all ages, welcome … to Ron Bagby Stadium at Mickey Clark Field.”
Just do it.
Want to let CHS administrators know how you feel? Sign our petition at:
https://www.change.org/p/david-svien-name-coupeville-s-new-stadium-for-ron-bagby
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