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Escalle, Messner bring the heat in tough loss!!

Posted in Girls Basketball on January 13, 2013| 1 Comment »

Bessie Walstad eyes a potential rebound and the two defenders she's about to flatten. (Shelli Trumbull photos)

Bessie Walstad eyes a potential rebound and two defenders she’s about to flatten. (Shelli Trumbull photos)

A Mount Vernon Christian player is blissfully unaware she’s about to meet a defensive move known simply as … Hammer Time! Much crying ensued…

Attack the basket!

Three small words and three very important ones for a basketball coach. Which is why Coupeville High School girls’ coach David King can take away a huge positive from Saturday afternoon’s otherwise frustrating non-conference loss at Mount Vernon Christian.

While the tired Wolves, playing their third game in five days, fell 52-39, the play of hard-charging Lauren Escalle and Breeanna Messner gives King confidence as Coupeville returns to Cascade Conference play.

“A bright spot was seeing Lauren start to attack the basket instead of just settling for a jumper after two hard dribbles by her defender,” King said. “Lauren played her best overall game of the season, defense and on the offensive end.

“Bree has stepped up over the past few weeks and has been a steadying influence on the court, making good decisions and attacking the basket,” he added. “She is starting to look for her shot more.”

Escalle popped for 11 and Messner singed the nets for 10 as Coupeville dropped to 5-9. The loss capped a rough week in which the Wolves took 1A power King’s to the wire, then got pounded by 2A juggernaut Cedarcrest.

Coupeville, powered by Messner, opened strongly and led 12-10 after the first quarter.

Then, Mount Vernon Christian ramped up its press and the Wolves panicked a bit, allowing their hosts to reel off a 17-8 run.

“We moved the ball well on offense in the first and had five players score,” King said. “In the 2nd MVC started pressing and our turnover woes returned. Our pattern is to get out of our tempo, start rushing and throwing the ball away.”

Never one to back down, Coupeville rallied in the third, with the scoring spread out team-wide. Messner rung the bell for four, Escalle knocked down a huge three-point bomb and Bessie Walstad and Hailey Hammer each chipped in with three apiece.

The comeback couldn’t quite get over the top, though, and it was an old foe that ultimately blunted their efforts. Missing all eight of their free throws in the fourth quarter, the Wolves watched the game slide away.

Walstad backed up Escalle and Messner, hitting for seven, while Hammer went for five. Jai’Lysa Hoskins (four points, eight rebounds) and Amanda Fabrizi (two points, seven rebounds, six steals) also brought their A-game.

The Wolves, who return to league play with a home game against Lakewood Tuesday, Jan. 15, were down two players, with freshman phenom Makana Stone and steady senior Rhiannon Ellsworth both out. To fill the gap, sophomore Kacie Kiel made her varsity debut in the fourth quarter.

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“I can put my game face on!!”

Posted in Girls Basketball, Middle School, Volleyball on January 12, 2013| Leave a Comment »

Valen Trujillo

Trujillo during volleyball season.

They are the words any basketball coach lives to hear.

“My strengths are defense! I can put my game face on!”

As Coupeville Middle School 8th grader Valen Trujillo prepares for the start of her second basketball season (“Yes, I’m a rookie!”), she already has the proper mind-set in place.

Recognizing she still needs to work on her offensive skills, she is determined to make an impact for the Wolves through hustle, hard work and getting up in someone’s face.

A three-sport athlete (she’ll turn out for track in the spring) Trujillo views basketball, where she flops between wing and post, as a nice way to fill her extra hours.

“I wanted to stay in shape and wanted to try basketball out!,” Trujillo said. “It seemed very fun! Also, many of my good friends are also doing the sport.”

Since volleyball ended, she has continued to work out after school with friends Carlie Rosenkrance, Mattea Miller, Savanna Dohner and Tiffany Briscoe (“They are such great motivation during the workouts!”).

The first day of basketball practice is Jan. 22, and with it will come a change in focus, as she tries to add new skills to her hoops game.

“Shooting is my weakness. Last season I never attempted to shoot the ball,” Trujillo said. “But that’s going to change this year! My goals are to work on my skills and improve to the best of my abilities.”

If basketball goes anything like volleyball, she’s sure to be a hit. She and Briscoe paced the Wolf squad all season and are both looking forward to making the jump to high school volleyball next season.

“Volleyball is my favorite sport!!,” Trujillo said. “I just have found a passion for it. Also, I have my “partner in crime,” Tiffany Briscoe.”

She singles out an epic season-ending match against Langley (“The match was neck and neck. We went into overtime; the game points went into the 30’s.”) as a team highlight and was especially pleased with the growth she showed in her serving game.

As an individual, my highlight was getting my over-hand serves down,” Trujillo said. “Also, dives, hustling and digs are some of my favorite things to do in games.”

With a large group of family and friends to call on for support, Trujillo, who sings at her church and wants to learn the guitar, has plenty of role models.

“My parents have taught me how to never give up and to finish what you started. Also, my parents taught me to have sportsmanship,” Trujillo said. “I have a great group of friends and they give me such support and make it enjoyable along the way!”

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Friday night in America: Hoop Dreams edition!!

Posted in Fashionable Fans, Girls Basketball on January 12, 2013| Leave a Comment »

There is action on the court and action off the court.

Every high school basketball game encompasses more than just the flow of the game. Everywhere you look there are a billion smaller stories being played out, from the ticket takers to the concession stand moms to the guy keeping stats.

Legendary former coaches (Denny Zylstra, Larrie Ford, Randy King) mingle with precocious kids barely old enough to walk, but able to run dizzying circles around the court at halftime to the delight of the visiting fans (a quick shout-out to Drake, irrepressible lil’ nephew of Wolf hoopster Julia Felici).

Current coaches work the stands, meeting and greeting, parents swap stories and that one angry guy who everyone wants tossed from the gym sits grumbling in the corner.

Friday night in America. Pick a gym, any gym — it’s a universal story.

But this one, shot by Robert Bishop, plays out in Coupeville, so it’s better than your story.

Facts are facts.

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Madeline Strasburg is the new Hunter Hammer!!

Posted in Girls Basketball, Page Hit Queen on January 12, 2013| Leave a Comment »

Everyone in the joint is looking one way, except Strasburg, who has found her cameraman. (Robert Bishop photos)

“Hey, I know you!!!”

Hunter Hammer didn’t become the Page Hit King by accident.

The former Coupeville High School basketball sensation — a one-man, six-foot-seven wrecking crew who annihilated foes and laughed (oh, how he laughed) — also knew, uncannily, whenever the camera was on him.

He had a radar, a sixth sense for the click and whir of the photographer at work and always managed to position himself at the right place at the right time.

Many have come for his title since he graduated, though all Hunter has to do is throw some new pics up online and the internet melts down.

Danny Savalza, Caleb Valko, Brett Arnold — all contenders certainly.

But I give you the one who could take them all down some day, because, she, like Hunter, has that special sense for where the camera is at all times, without letting it interrupt her take-no-prisoners style of play.

Ladies and gentlemen, Madeline Strasburg!

Gird your loins, Hammer Time, she’s coming for your title.

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Hoskins goes down swinging hard in tough hoops loss!!

Posted in Girls Basketball on January 11, 2013| Leave a Comment »

Jai'Lysa Hoskins, in one of her rare quiet moments Friday night. (Robert Bishop photos)

Jai’Lysa Hoskins, in a rare quiet moment Friday night. (Robert Bishop photos)

“Who has two thumbs and is gettin’ kind of tired of all these turnovers? This guy!!”

First Jai’Lysa Hoskins started. Then she tore up the joint.

Getting the call in place of a sick Makana Stone, Hoskins contributed a little bit of everything Friday night in a game Coupeville High School girls’ basketball coach David King would probably otherwise like to forget.

The senior post pumped in six points, swatted away several shots, including one she rejected fairly emphatically in the first quarter and continually sacrificed her body clawing for rebounds and loose balls. Unfortunately, with a quick, brutal Cedarcrest squad in town, it wasn’t enough to save the Wolves.

The visiting Red Wolves, fighting for the top spot in the Cascade Conference, pressed relentlessly and turned a staggering amount of steals into breakaway buckets as they rained pain down on their hosts. By the time they called off the attack in the fourth quarter, a running clock was on and they were nearly home free with a 68-23 win.

The loss dropped Coupeville to 5-8 overall, 3-5 in league play. They will get a chance to immediately bounce back as they travel off-Island Saturday to play a non-conference game at Mount Vernon Christian.

Things looked decent at the start, as Amanda Fabrizi pulled off a dandy drive down the baseline, shedding two defenders and coming up from under the basket with a beautiful swooping move for a quick score.

Then, things just kind of fell apart for an extended period of time.

While Coupeville had started the game busting Cedarcrest’s press with ease, that quickly became more of an issue, and an onslaught of tipped passes, bobbled balls and bam-bam-bam buckets left the Wolves looking up at a 27-4 deficit early in the second quarter.

After a timeout to calm down, the Wolves responded with their best extended period of play, keyed by dead-eye Breeanna Messner taking the in-bounds pass and drilling a high, arcing shot from behind the three-point stripe.

With Messner hitting for five of her team-high seven points and Hoskins and Lauren Escalle chipping in with a pair of free-throws apiece, Coupeville limited the visitors to just a 12-9 advantage over the final six minutes of the first half.

The mini-surge carried over to the start of the second half, as Hailey Hammer worked her way into the paint for back-to-back buckets.

Then, things just kind of fell apart for an extended period of time, again, as Cedarcrest, whose only league loss has been to Archbishop Thomas Murphy, closed the game with a 27-6 run.

Messner (seven), Hoskins (six) and Hammer (four) paced the Wolf scorers, while Escalle, Fabrizi and Bessie Walstad each chipped in with two points apiece.

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