Coupeville Sports

Well, that escalated quickly.

Feelings are frayed right now on both sides of the Hayley Newman story, which is understandable. She has great support and some loud detractors.

I cover Coupeville sports. I don’t normally wander off into South Whidbey sports. What I do know about the Newmans is that they have a long family tradition of athletic excellence and have always been at the forefront of Falcon sports.

I chose to post my article about Hayley quitting the South Whidbey High School girls’ basketball team because, with her being the #3 scorer in the Cascade Conference and it looking like the Wolves and Falcons would face off in the playoffs, it was news to my readers.

I still feel that way, especially as we count down the hours to that game (Wednesday 7 PM in Langley).

The two squads split their regular season games. Tonight is a loser-out district playoff battle royale for the very soul of the Island.

Or something like that. I tend to blow things out of proportion.

As the story took off (it now has more than 1,000 page views and is the #3 most-read story on my site, out of 592 articles), the comment section also began to kick in.

At first, I was pleasantly surprised. The comments were eloquent essays from both sides of the argument.

Whether the writers thought Hayley was courageous for making a stand (a position I back) or pissed that she had deserted her team at a crucial point of the season, they made their points and kept the personal mud-slinging to a minimum.

Oh, how naive I am…

While the crayons didn’t come out as quickly as they did when I irritated Sultan (20 seconds) or ATM (12 minutes), they did eventually show up.

The First Amendment, it’s a hell of a drug…

But, there is a point which we’re not going past. If you drop allegations of people in the community having affairs or make references to teen girls sucking things other than lollipops, I am going to have to delete or edit your comments.

It’s really easy to sit behind the computer and rant and rave. I do it all the time.

But remember, these are real people, people in your communities, that you are smearing.

I hope that people give Hayley the benefit of the doubt. I hope that people can see both sides of the issue. I kind of hope I don’t have pop bottles thrown at my head tonight when I show up at the SWHS gym to cover the playoff game…

Most of all, I hope people remember one thing. Whether South, Central or North, we ARE Whidbey. We are NOT Sultan.

Stay classy, Whidbey.

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So it comes to this.

Two teams enter the arena Wednesday and only one will exit with games left to play.

But when the Coupeville High School girls’ basketball squad travels to Langley to face off with Island rival South Whidbey (7 PM tip-off), there will be more than just a loser-out district playoff game on the line.

Sure, on the surface, the stakes are easy.

Lose and you’re done. Win and you advance to play the loser of King’s/Blaine in another loser-out game Friday. Win that one and you play Saturday for third place and a spot at tri-districts.

But this is Coupeville/South Whidbey, so it’s more.

It will be a battle for the very soul of this Island.

Now, Madi Boyd and Ellie Greene and their Falcon teammates seem like very nice young women, bright, intelligent, athletically talented. If they win, I will root for them in their coming games, as, above all, you always want Whidbey teams to kick the snot out of non-Whidbey teams.

But, Wednesday night, Boyd and Co. will have to be viewed as the bad guys, the Evil Empire, the oppressors of everything that is good and wonderful.

You made your rumpled bed, South Whidbey. Now prepare to cry into your pillows.

You (or your parents) chose to live in Hippieville, when you knew Poopville was the better choice.

We are the county seat of government, we are the second oldest town in the state, we have Mussel Fest, we have better school colors, we possess The Bucket (ooh! shot to the ribs!!), we have a bowling alley, we are where Isaac Ebey got his head lopped off and … well, I could go on for days now, couldn’t I?

And you, South Whidbey, what exactly are you?

You’re a couple of towns loosely held together, boasting stores that open and close whenever the owners decide to crawl out of their Yurt.

Your biggest historical marker is a phone booth and you’re best remembered for that time when the FBI came by and shot up a bunch of Neo-Nazi’s.

We have a ferocious beast as our school mascot. You have a beady-eyed bird that probably eats its own poop from time to time.

We still have all our players (ooh! shot to the ribs, 35 times!!).

And yes, you may be more mature than we are, but no one asked, OK?

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