A young, inexperienced roster gave CHS girls’ hoops coach David King a few early palpitations, but then… (John Fisken photos)
“We got this!!”
“Alright, alright, alright.”
Best in a decade.
Having advanced further than any Coupeville High School basketball team since 2006 — the regional round of the state tourney — the 2015-2016 Wolf girls are still basking in the afterglow.
They rolled to a 16-6 record, went 9-0 in league play (for the second straight year), successfully defended their league crown, had three of the league’s top six players (including MVP Makana Stone) and took their coaches and fans on a wild ride.
And frankly, a lot of it was surprising, as no one really knew how Coupeville would respond to losing six key players to graduation.
Two Wolf starters, and eight of the 11 players to see action, had never played a second at the varsity level prior to this season.
How did they do it?
For that, let’s turn to the guy at the heart of things, CHS coach David King, and let him guide us through what it was like to pilot the whirlwind.
Coming into the season we didn’t know how many players we would end up with or how the pieces would fit together after losing most of the varsity team from last year.
We had the returning MVP of the Olympic League and a couple of players that had never played before. And a whole lot of in-between.
There are many bright moments we had throughout the season.
Here are a few that jump out at me regarding a couple of JV players and how the players performed.
1. We had one player, Brisa (Herrera), who last year was the one being directed on how to do things and at an early season practice this season stepped out and directed one of the new players on the proper way to set up for defense.
That means what we are showing and teaching is sticking and they are comfortable enough to help each other.
2. We asked Ashlie (Shank) to come in and run the JV team from the point guard position when the swing players weren’t available.
Talk about a tough job and having to learn a whole new position.
But like every player this season, not once did she complain about it, she did the best anyone could have asked for.
3. Every week we had players step out of their comfort zone and make strides in doing something they probably didn’t think was possible. Or when players finally “get it” and the things just seem to click.
4. We weren’t the tallest or most talented team, but we were a team that played for each other.
That’s just a few of the reasons we had a successful season.
Our season was one of travel, going game-heavy in a short amount of days (six games in 10 days) or having long breaks in between games (10 and 11 days off).
The players did not complain once with the schedule.
JV played hard all season long.
Players had to get used to playing with each other and also playing multiple positions. The fight and determination we saw every game was great.
Players did not want to lose and gave effort every time on the court. Each player improved from the beginning of the season until the last game.
For the varsity team, we lost a close game to start the season against South Whidbey. Then two days later headed to Friday Harbor for a tournament and some team bonding.
Two things came out of this; we won the tournament by beating Overlake and getting another shot at South Whisbey in the championship game.
The other thing was an identity of what kind of team we would become this season. We needed the team bonding with only having two returning varsity players from the year before.
In January we were in our final stretch of the regular season with six straight league games.
We knew each of the three teams would bring their best games at us, wanting to knock us off and be the first to claim a league win against us.
But our players were up for the challenge and won all six to go 9-0 in league.
We finished the regular season at 15-4, never losing more than one game in a row.
We never lost by more than eight points, and in the four losses only lost by a total of 17 points.
Not too bad for an almost new varsity team that played most of the season six deep.
Heading into the first district game we didn’t bring our best game.
Maybe it was the first playoff game jitters. We also weren’t ready for the speed or how physical the game was played.
But once we started to play our game we settled in and made a good comeback in the fourth after being down 13. It was something we could build on.
We then faced a Seattle Christian team that had two very good outside shooters. We had a day to prepare for them.
Even on the game day, we made one slight adjustment to our defensive strategy that paid of big for us.
Normally Makana would guard one of their best players, but instead we moved Kailey (Kellner) over and this allowed Makana to play their six-foot-plus post players.
We had Lauren Grove match up with the player that knocked us out of districts last year.
And when she wasn’t on her we slid Kyla (Briscoe) in there, with Tiffany (Briscoe), Mia (Littlejohn) and Lindsey (Roberts) — who was sick in both games — playing great help defense.
This team executed perfectly on the defensive end.
It’s a good thing because our offense was not going anywhere fast. It took us seven minutes and 40 seconds before we scored our first points.
Then in the second we exploded on offense and never let up until the final buzzer.
That win put us into the regionals of state against Cashmere.
The regional game didn’t go as planned. We ran into a very talented team who had had success over the years and had experienced this type of atmosphere.
We got a taste of what it’s like in a big game like that. Knowing this group, if and when we get back there they will be prepared to play.
Despite the loss at regionals, this team did some special things throughout the season.
Players played to their strengths. Put the team above individual accolades and came ready to play each and every game.
One thing this team did that other teams in the past had not done consistently was to play to our tempo on offense.
This group figured out how to play with quickness on offense, but at the same time play in control and with a purpose. By doing this our offensive had a rhythm and it was fun to watch.
Amy and I enjoyed teaching and coaching this group of players.
We will miss the presence of Makana, however that just means others get the opportunity to step up for next year and take on a bigger role.
We have returning players that are ready and willing to take on the challenge of expanding their game that will keep us on the upward trend we are headed on as a program.
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