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I am … Iron Woman!!

Posted in Baseball, Boys Basketball, Boys Soccer, Boys Tennis, Cheer, Football, Girls Basketball, Girls Soccer, Girls Tennis, Softball, Track, Volleyball on May 29, 2013| Leave a Comment »

Breeanna Messner, Coupeville High School’s only four-sport athlete. (Shelli Trumbull photo)

Nick “The Big Hurt” Streubel (Nanette Streubel photo)

Madeline Strasburg (Shelli Trumbull photos)

McKayla Bailey

Breeanna Messner was the hardest-working athlete at Coupeville High School this year.

Unlike the olden days (say, the ’80s and ’90s), when virtually everyone played three sports, only 18 Wolves played for three sports teams in 2012-2013.

Heading that list was Messner, the only three-sport athlete to also be on the CHS cheer squad, which meant she juggled two teams in the fall. A key contributor for every one of her teams, the junior proved you can be good at a lot of things (old school style) as opposed to fanatically playing just one sport (new school style).

At a small school like Coupeville, you wish more athletes would make that all-year commitment.

But, proving 2013 is a lot different than 1983, only TWO seniors played three sports, and not a single male athlete completed what used to be viewed as the “standard” season — football, basketball, baseball.

While there are legitimate reasons some couldn’t, or wouldn’t, do so (injuries, academic issues, no desire to play basketball, Coupeville’s only winter sport), we have come here today to hail those who did put out the effort, season after season.

With an eye to the future, the fact 13 of the 18 athletes were freshmen or sophomores speaks well for a possible resurgence of what was once taken for granted — the multi-sport athlete. Or it just means they haven’t burnt out yet.

The 2012-2013 Iron Men and Women of CHS:

Seniors:

Caleb Valko (football, basketball, track)
Bessie Walstad (volleyball, basketball, softball)

Juniors:

Ben Etzell (tennis, basketball, baseball)
Breeanna Messner (volleyball, cheer, basketball, softball)
Nick Streubel (football, basketball, track)

Sophomores:

McKayla Bailey (soccer, basketball, softball)
Aaron Curtin (tennis, basketball, baseball)
Hailey Hammer (volleyball, basketball, softball)
Oscar Liquidano (football, basketball, soccer)
Carson Risner (football, basketball, track)
Madeline Strasburg (volleyball, basketball, softball)
Monica Vidoni (volleyball, basketball, softball)

Freshmen:

McKenzie Bailey (volleyball, basketball, tennis)
Miranda Engle (volleyball, basketball, tennis)
Jared Helmstadter (tennis, basketball, track)
Dalton Martin (football, basketball, track)
Samantha Martin (volleyball, basketball, tennis)
Makana Stone (soccer, basketball, track)

P.S. — If Coupeville considered cheer a sport (which it should, but doesn’t), six girls would join the three-sport club:

Sydney Aparicio (cheer, volleyball, softball)
Lauren Escalle (cheer, volleyball, basketball)
Amanda Fabrizi (cheer, volleyball, basketball)
Julia Felici (cheer, basketball, softball)
Jai’Lysa Hoskins (cheer, basketball, track)
Iris Ryckaert (cheer, volleyball, tennis)

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Always bet on Black!!

Posted in Girls Basketball, Happy birthday, Where are they now?, Whidbey's Best on May 22, 2013| Leave a Comment »

Lexie (left) and Brittany Black.

Stylin’.

The early days.

She is the best.

As she turns 26 today, Lexie Black (born with an E, so it stays there, lil’ missy!) the former Coupeville High School basketball star (she still holds a record for the most blocks in a 1A state playoff game), college hoops stud, superb barista, even-better journalist, international supermodel in the making and Milla Jovovich doppleganger, is still off-the-charts awesome.

From her days as a youthful scalawag behind the counter at Videoville to that moment when she embraced all six feet, two inches and stopped slouching and finally stood straight and proud, she was, and is, a shining example of what Coupeville can produce.

She will tell you she doesn’t know what you’re talking about, but you can’t go through life and not realize at some point why everyone around you thinks you’re awesome. Now she just has to accept it.

Once upon a time I thought about calling this blog Lexie Black’s Block Party, which would have been the coolest blog name ever, even if no one understood it.

For young Wolf basketball players now, especially ones who have height and size and long arms like Lexie, I wish that they would commit to playing the game the way she did.

As half of the immortal Black ‘n Blue Sisters, with sidekick lil’ sis Brittany running on the wing, Lexie owned the paint. As sweet and likeable a person as you will ever meet off the court, she thrashed folks on the hardwood.

She believed every shot was hers to reject and every rebound was hers to haul in. She would not back down. Ever.

It is quite simple why the most sustained run of excellence any sports program has had at CHS in the past 20 years came from girls’ basketball.

With the Black sisters, Ashley Ellsworth-Bagby, Tina Lyness and others, the Wolves believed they were going to state, never doubted it, and followed through, year after year.

The current generation could do the same, if they played like Lexie.

You can look like a super model, be a goofball off the court and freak people out once you step on the hardwood.

It’s called bein’ awesome. It’s called bein’ Lexie Black.

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We will destroy you!!

Posted in Girls Basketball, Middle School on May 20, 2013| Leave a Comment »

"I destroy basketball players like I destroy (Melissa Losey photo)

Mia Littlejohn shreds defenses like she eats her hamburgers … violently. (Melissa Losey photo)

You don’t mess with the Littlejohn girls.

Playing above their age limit again, the Coupeville duo of Mia and Kalia teamed up with an 8th grade hoops squad out of Oak Harbor to lay down the boom at a weekend basketball tournament in Burlington.

The scrappy pair, who play as if they stepped off a playground in Jersey (and that’s a good thing), helped Oak Harbor pound Burlington-Edison 40-28 and edge South Whidbey 29-26 at the 9th annual Tigers Classic.

Against Burlington, the Littlejohns helped spark a second-half comeback by causing a stream of turnovers. Then Mia put the knife in, big time.

“Both ladies provide tons of energy when they are on the court and wear down opposing guards,” said Scott Hay. “Kalia stepped in front of two passes against girls twice her size that slowed Burlington’s offense. Then big sister Mia dropped in a HUGE three-point bomb that just totally changed the game.”

The tourney-closing all-Island battle had the Littlejohns facing off with a familiar foe in 7th grader McKayla Hezel, a Langley phenom who played with a Coupeville team during the Tulip Festival in March.

South Whidbey used a barrage of treys to keep things close, but Oak Harbor put the game away with its pressure defense, keyed by the Littlejohns.

“Mia and Kalia helped turn the tide,” Hay said.

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The legend never fades!!

Posted in Girls Basketball, Happy birthday, Softball, Volleyball, Where are they now?, Whidbey's Best on April 11, 2013| 3 Comments »

“I played a little ball. Why? You feelin’ lucky, punk? Well, do you?”

The greatest basketball player in Coupeville High School history turns 29 today.

She wasn’t the tallest, or the biggest, didn’t have the greatest hops and wasn’t the best pure shooter this school has seen. But she didn’t need any of that.

She was a killer, cold-blooded, slice you off at the knees and leave you crying while she smiled the smallest of smiles. Off the court, she was among the nicest people to ever walk the face of the Earth, but on the hardwood she never stopped coming.

People looked at her, with her baggy shorts, slight build and (occasional) pigtails poking up skywards and thought she was a ballgirl, or, at best, a freshman they could easily steamroll.

Then the ball got tipped and she went after them like a wild dog let loose. She was relentless and that attitude carried to her teammates throughout her hoops career.

The greatest run of any sport in Wolf history was put together by girls’ basketball starting in the late ’90s, from Tina Lyness and Brianne King to the Black ‘n Blue sisters (Lexie and Brittany), which put up just about all of the banners that are in the CHS gym.

And at the heart of that run was lil’ Ashley Bagby-Ellsworth, tending counter at Videoville and charming customers by day and ripping out and feasting (metaphorically) on the hearts of her b-ball opponents by night.

She was something to see.

There were talented players before her (Marlene Grasser, Emily Vracin, Misty Sellgren) and there have been talented players in the red and black since she graduated.

There is even one coming (Coupeville Middle School 7th grader Mia Littlejohn, who attacks like she just stepped off a playground in Jersey) who so closely resembles Bagby-Ellsworth, it’s scary and enthralling, all at the same time.

But, no matter what they did in the past, or what Littlejohn and others will do in the future, the words Magic Johnson spoke to Larry Bird on his retirement night still linger, just with a name change.

“Ashley, you only told me one lie. You said there will be another Ashley Ellsworth-Bagby. Ashley, there will never, ever be another Ashley Ellsworth-Bagby.”

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Four Wolf foes earn All-State honors!!

Posted in Boys Basketball, Girls Basketball on April 1, 2013| Leave a Comment »

Morgan Payne faces pressure from future All-State player Spencer Novak (10) during a game at La Conner. (Shelli Trumbull photo)

Morgan Payne faces pressure from All-State player Spencer Novak (10) during a game at La Conner. (Shelli Trumbull photo)

The final basketball awards of the high school season trickled out Monday.

And while no Coupeville High School players were named when the Associated Press picked its All-State teams, a couple of the names were recognizable.

Four players who faced off with the Wolves (three boys and one girl) received kudos, two from inside the Cascade Conference and two from outside.

Beth Carlson of Archbishop Thomas Murphy was named to the 2A first team, while King’s Caleb Taylor earned second team status at the 1A level.

Spencer Novak of La Conner, who shot out the lights in a non-conference bout with Coupeville, was a first-teamer in 2B, while Isaac Reimer of Lynden Christian, who did diddly squat against the Wolves in a playoff game, apparently did much more in the regular season. He claimed a berth on the 1A first team.

Jason Todd of Jackson and Brittany McPhee of Mount Rainier, both 4A players, were honored as the state basketball players of the year.

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