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Archive for the ‘Girls Soccer’ Category

Tori Wellman, kickin' butt and takin' names.

Tori Wellman, kickin’ butt and takin’ names.

Already a gamer in the early days.

Already a gamer in the early days.

She is the unsung warrior.

Coupeville High School senior Tori Wellman, who celebrates her birthday today, is one of those young women who is skilled at everything they do, but don’t always get the full attention they deserve.

Wellman, who can, and has, played every sport you can name (softball, basketball, cheer, BMX racing, gun shooting and horse riding, to name but a few), made her biggest impact on the soccer field.

Playing for both the Wolves and with the GU18 Whidbey Islanders select squad, she was always a key piece of the puzzle.

A hard worker, a scrapper (“I’m not afraid to take out a girl every once in awhile”), a hustler, she made the uniforms better by wearing one.

I can’t say that I know her all that well, but everything I have seen of Tori, on and off the field, speaks of one thing — quiet grace.

Plus she let me use one of her photos for a Throwback Thursday one time, which was super cool of her. So, there’s that, too.

Tori is a class act, day in and day out, and her parents, Josh Wellman and Leona Lidral, should be very proud of the young woman they shared with Coupeville.

Happy birthday, Miss Wellman, and may life continue to reward you.

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"I gotta be me..." (Wendy McCormick photos)

“I gotta be me…” (Wendy McCormick photos)

"Gotta be free!!"

“Gotta be free!!”

And one for the Christmas card to Gramma...

And one for the Christmas card to Gramma…

It’s all about the photo.

You can run 2,000 words on their progeny and parents will be like, “nice…,” then you run one photo and they run around in circles, screaming like they’ve gone mad.

So, being reasonably smart, I give you not one, but three youth soccer photos from Wendy McCormick.

Some of the girls featured may one day make the jump from these fields to wearing the red and black for Coupeville High School. Some won’t.

But, at this moment, they all got their picture on Coupeville Sports. So, that’s something.

Cue the running and the screaming and the hootin’ and the hollerin’ from the parents in three, two, one…

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Marisa (left) and Lucas EWtzell, the early years. (Kristi Etzell photo)

Marisa (left) and Lucas Etzell, the early years. (Kristi Etzell photo)

Lucas with dad Mike Etzell.

Lucas with dad Mike Etzell.

Marisa, hard at work on the soccer pitch. (John Fisken photo)

Marisa (left), hard at work on the soccer pitch. (John Fisken photo)

Coupeville’s Wonder Twins turn 17 tomorrow.

Marisa and Lucas Etzell will celebrate their birthdays in different countries, but the bond between the siblings never fades.

Both strong athletes — Marisa is a standout CHS soccer player and state meet veteran as a track runner, while Lucas is a Gold Medal-winning basketball player in the Special Olympics — they join older brother Ben and younger brother Nick to form a fearsome foursome.

They each have their own style.

Marisa is quiet but strong, able to hold her own with three brothers, while Lucas can talk to anyone, anytime and works his way through a crowd like a politician on the campaign trail, glad-handing everyone in sight.

They are both making an impact on the world, and it begins with their bond with each other.

May they celebrate many more birthdays together.

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Jenn Spark

Jenn Spark delivers a thunderous kick earlier in the season. (John Fisken photo)

This is the way the season ends, not with a whimper, but a proud scream of joy.

Capping a nine-game unbeaten run, the Whidbey Islanders GU18 select soccer squad fought to a 0-0 tie against a very talented Pacific Sound United team in Everett Saturday.

The 7-0-2 finish left the team, which brought together booters from Coupeville, Oak Harbor and South Whidbey, with a sterling 8-2-2 record.

The only two losses came early in the season to what proved to be the top two teams in the league.

The Islanders will now have two months off, with tryouts for the next team in mid-May.

Whidbey will lose two high school seniors — Oak Harbor’s Selena Medina and Coupeville’s Tori Wellman — but could return almost its entire roster if things work out.

The current team played with a collective fire all season, making its name with a stingy defense and a high-flying offense.

And while that offense couldn’t get one into the back of the net Saturday, the defense more than held its own.

With starting goaltender Kenzie Perry off on vacation, Morgan Zylstra slid into net and recorded her first complete game shutout of the season. Helping her out was the back wall that refuses to give an inch.

“Our back four — Alyssa Cross, Jacki Ginnings, Jenn Spark and Paige Waterman — proved, again, to be the best in the league,” said Islander coach Sean LeVine.

The Islanders came hard in the second half, flooding the Everett side of the field. Jacalyn Hefflefinger, Bailey Olson, Becca Pabona and Medina ripped off shots on goal, but the net gods were not of a giving nature in the end.

Still, keeping the unbeaten streak alive for the final 75% of the season is something for the entire team to be proud of accomplishing.

“You are my favorite sports team on the planet!,” LeVine told his team. “I enjoyed this season more than any other!

“We improved, had fun, and had you seen by colleges,” he added. “That is a successful season!”

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Micky LeVine, urban legend.

Micky LeVine, urban legend.

Micky LeVine will knock a girl out.

Now, you may be surprised to hear that, since the Coupeville High School junior seems like a pretty easy-going young woman who usually is wearing a smile.

Add on that she seems like a devoted older sister to younger siblings Jae and Izzy, and she doesn’t fit the classic profile of a brawler.

But mess with one of her soccer teammates, and the petite one will unleash the wrath of freakin’ God upon your head.

Her enduring moment on the pitch — and she’s had a ton of big ones playing for both CHS and the Whidbey Islanders GU18 select squad — came when she felt one of her girls had been unnecessarily roughed up by a rival team.

Out came the fists, like Wolverine popping the claws, and LeVine offered to drop-kick the entire other squad, and the ref as well, into tomorrow.

Rarely has a yellow card been more appreciated by a player’s coach and teammates.

Interesting fact: the other team immediately stopped trying to push the Islanders around.

And thus a nickname was born.

Well, at least in my mind, it was. Who knows if anyone else calls Ms. LeVine “Two Fists?”

They should, though.

Today, as she celebrates her 17th birthday — rumor has it that her arrival forced mom Joline to skip out early on an episode of “Days of Our Lives” — Micky is a justly-celebrated soccer and tennis standout.

She’s a bright, shining star who deserves her moment in the spotlight.

Just don’t get between her and her birthday cake, that’s all I’m sayin’. Cause she has two fists, and she knows how to use ’em.

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