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Archive for the ‘Hall o’ Fame’ Category

Killin’ them softly (with a smile)

Posted in Baseball, Boys Basketball, Football, Hall o' Fame, tagged , , , , , on April 16, 2020| Leave a Comment »

Gavin Knoblich, born to be a star. (Photos by JohnsPhotos.net)

Gavin Knoblich was as solid as they come.

Some athletes blaze hot for a bit, arcing high into the skies, while sometimes crashing back down.

But there is something to be said for the guy who shows up game after game, practice after practice, season after season, the very definition of steady.

In the moment, those players sometimes get overlooked a bit.

Take a step back and look at the whole picture, though, and their worth is magnified tenfold.

Five years from now, 10 years, 20 years, Wolf fans will reflect on what the lanky, affable Knoblich quietly accomplished, and they will know the truth – he was one of the best we ever had.

This was a kid who got stronger, and taller, and more talented, as he worked his way through CMS and then CHS, but two things never, ever changed as he grew into a man.

First, he never failed to give us all he had.

Gavin wasn’t always the one who got to amass the big stats, but he was utterly indispensable.

He did the dirty work, he fought for every moment, he always backed up his teammates, he was the glue every team has to have.

And secondly, he did it all while remaining the same genuinely nice guy from start to finish.

Gavin could flex with the best of them, if he wanted to, but look at sports photos over the years, and he’s smiling in almost every single one, whether it’s a portrait or he’s on the rampage.

Put him on a football field, and he used his length and soft hands to become a top-notch receiver, pulling in passes over the outstretched arms of defensive backs who couldn’t control him.

Touchdown, incoming.

When the Wolves went on defense, Gavin hit with intensity, wrapped people up, refused to let foes escape or evade.

He was a genuine two-way terror, but one who also, after big wins or tough losses, always had the grace to immediately go hug mom Mariah and pose with lil’ sis Ryanne for photos.

Gavin’s prep sports career carried over to the basketball court, where he was a rebounding machine with an often-sweet touch on his jumper.

He could stroke it from three-point land when given the chance, but, again, he often sacrificed the spotlight to set up those around him.

That he made the extra pass, always looked for the open teammate, jumped into the fray to fight for loose balls and absorb elbows swung at his head, marked him as a valuable part of the Wolf attack.

And that selflessness carried over to the final stop on his sports arc, the baseball diamond.

No matter the position he played, Gavin was a rock for the CHS hardball squad.

But it’s somehow appropriate that his most enduring moments came when he was buried under the protective gear of a catcher, crouched behind the plate, joking with the umpire, then whipping throws to second to nail dead-on-arrival runners.

“They run, I gun. They lose, I win. Every time.”

Gavin was on the receiving end of some of the more memorable throws in recent memory, whether he was pulling in lasers from Joey Lippo, or Kyle Rockwell, or a dozen others.

Some times, though, the CHS catcher was the one rockin’ the arm.

During one tense battle with Chimacum, a 1-0 Wolf win to move into first place, every play mattered twice as much as normal.

Or, at least it seemed that way.

At one point, Coupeville hurler Matt Hilborn cracked off a third strike, only to have the ball hit Knoblich’s mitt at an odd angle and skid away.

The Cowboy hitter dropped his bat and tried to get his feet churning, looking for a free base, but, behind him, Gavin shocked the world.

Exploding out of his crouch, Knoblich scrambled to the backstop, snared the ball on a hop, whirled and launched a moonshot of a throw (all while rocking/falling backwards, thus greatly increasing the difficulty of the maneuver).

Up, up, up, the ball went, then it plunged out of the sky, plopping right into the outstretched glove proffered by Wolf first baseman Julian Welling, arriving a half-second ahead of one extremely-agitated runner.

The umpire pumped his fist, the Wolves went crazy, and Gavin?

He turned around, picked up his discarded mask, smiled at his mom in the stands, then went right back to work.

Like a boss.

I feel for Gavin, who, like the other senior athletes in the CHS Class of 2020, won’t get a final season this spring.

Life isn’t always fair, whether it throws a pandemic at us, or a war, as it did for many who saw prep sports careers end early after Pearl Harbor.

But today, tomorrow, or years from now, when Wolf fans look back and remember Gavin, they won’t fixate on what could have been.

Instead they will remember what was.

And that image will be of Gavin, fighting to his last ounce of sweat, always, while never forgetting to enjoy the moment and share it with those who love him the most.

I have no doubt he made his mom, and dad Clint, proud.

It’s a sentiment likely shared by his coaches, his teammates, and those who watched him play.

I can’t give Gavin his senior baseball season back, but I can give him this moment, as we induct him into the Coupeville Sports Hall o’ Fame.

After this, if you pop up to the top of the blog, you’ll find Gavin camped out under the Legends tab.

He earned it every step of the way, with his spirit and his attitude, with big plays and with small moments.

He won’t be forgotten.

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I believe in Avalon Renninger

Posted in Hall o' Fame, tagged , , , , , on April 13, 2020| Leave a Comment »

Avalon Renninger, Hall o’ Famer. (Photos by JohnsPhotos.net)

I believe in Avalon Renninger.

There is something special about her.

She’s tough. She’s resilient. She’s scrappy. She’s undeniably brilliant.

But, maybe most of all, she is a bright, shining beacon for all Coupeville athletes – an example of someone who seemed to enjoy every moment she had in a Wolf uniform, and someone who did everything she could to make sure all of her teammates got to experience that same joy.

Avalon, one of the true headliners in the CHS Class of 2020, has been a class act every step of the way.

Put her on a soccer pitch, on the basketball hardwood, or on a tennis court, and she gave her all, every single time out.

Raining down buckets all day long.

I never saw Avalon go at half-speed, never witnessed her cheat herself or her team, never noticed her playing with anything other than full effort and wild abandon, no matter the score.

And I saw her play a lot of games over the past six years.

Once she pulled the uniform on, Avalon, one of the most genuinely kind people you will meet, became a crackling ball of energy unleashed.

On the soccer pitch, she led the Wolf girls program to its first-ever playoff win this past fall, a captain willing her squad to glory through words and actions.

But, to get there, Coupeville had to come up big late in the regular season, such as in a 1-0 win at home against Sultan.

Mollie Bailey was untouchable in goal that day, while Mallory Kortuem beat the howling wind and a hyped-up Turk defense to score the lone goal.

But it was Avalon, right there in the middle of the action on every play, who lit the fuse.

Her refusal to ever give in is captured in these paragraphs from the story I wrote that day:

Much like Renninger, the pluckiest of plucky players, the calm, cool, and eternally serene captain who got crunched in the face (fairly accidentally it seemed), and added her blood to the mix of fluids to decorate the Coupeville pitch over the years.

“I thought it was snot,” she told her dad after the game, as she moved her nose gingerly. “It was NOT!!”

Still, Renninger proved why she is among the most-revered of all Wolf athletes, anchoring her squad through the facial pain.

Afterwards, as she headed for the parking lot, her voice a mix of tiredness, pain, and pride, she remarked, “Yep, going home and doing some homework and getting some sleep. Maybe just some sleep … sleep sounds good.”

Avalon always led the celebration when teammates, such as big sis Sage, scored.

When we talk about Avalon and her prep sports career, we can talk stats.

She departs as the #5 scorer in Wolf girls soccer history, having rattled home 12 goals while raising her scoring totals across each of her four seasons.

On the basketball court, she followed a similar path, raising her scoring totals each of the three years she saw varsity action, while operating as the kind of “glue” player who contributes in so many more ways than just making the nets pop.

Swing out to the tennis court, where she teamed with Tia Wurzrainer, and Avalon was a consistent threat, a left-handed assassin with sweet groundstrokes, a serve which had some nicely nasty zing, and a willingness to play all day long.

The duo came up behind Payton Aparicio and Sage Renninger, who were a #1 tandem across four seasons, then inherited the top slot as juniors.

This spring was supposed to offer Avalon and Tia a final shot at glory, a chance to make a run at duplicating the trip to state once enjoyed by big sis and her playing partner.

But while the COVID-19 pandemic has denied them a final season in the spotlight, it does nothing to erase the legacy they will leave behind.

Sisters from different misters – forming a deadly doubles duo with Tia Wurzrainer.

When we remember Avalon, it won’t be for her stats anyway, as solid as they are.

We will remember her for how she was always the first to throw an arm around a younger teammate, pull them in to her, and ease their nerves or quietly light a fire under them.

She gave away penalty kicks late in her soccer career, handing them to freshman girls.

The choice didn’t come from a coach, but from Avalon herself, as she handed responsibility to those who would follow her, and built their confidence, one “You got this!” at a time.

A lot of people want to be leaders.

Avalon just was one, in the manner she conducted herself, in the way she stoked an always-burning fire in her own soul, which made everyone around her want to do the same.

As you probably figured out way back at the beginning of this story, we’re here today to induct Miss Renninger into the Coupeville Sports Hall o’ Fame, where she will join her sister.

After this, if you pop up to the Legends tab at the top of the blog, you’ll find her there, camped out with other big-timers.

This is hardly going to be the last award the multi-talented phenom will win, as she prepares for college and all the big-time accomplishments to come.

Avalon will head off into the outside world, but she will remain an enduring part of Cow Town’s heritage and history.

Gone, but never forgotten, flying down the pitch, scrambling on the hardwood, sliding across the tennis court.

Fighting with every last ounce of effort, beaming with joy (even when being rapped in the face with wayward elbows), a grin creasing her face, always looking for the best in everything.

“WE GOT THIS!!!!” she would tell anyone who would listen, and I never doubted her.

Why?

Because I believe in Avalon Renninger.

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Dang, Mallory!

Posted in Girls Soccer, Hall o' Fame, Track, tagged , , , , on April 4, 2020| Leave a Comment »

Mallory Kortuem commands the soccer pitch. (Photos by JohnsPhotos.net)

She sort of snuck up on me.

As her high school career has played out, Mallory Kortuem has been the quiet assassin, piling up records and awards while seeming content to reflect the spotlight onto her teammates.

The Coupeville High School senior, who should be enjoying one final trip around the track oval this spring, has never been one to scream and beat her chest in public about her accomplishments.

But dang, Mallory.

If you step back and look at the entire run of her prep days, it’s more than just merely impressive.

The youngest of Alex and Heather Kortuem’s children is legitimately one of the best athletes to ever pull on a Wolf uniform, ever. End of story.

That Mallory has always seemed like a super-quality person away from the pitch and oval as well, just makes it easier for those of up in the stands to hail her as one of the greats.

Momentarily at rest, Mallory hangs out with Sherry Roberts (left) and mom Heather Kortuem.

So, without further ado, we welcome her today to the Coupeville Sports Hall o’ Fame.

It’s not quite the same as getting to stand on the podium in Cheney in late May, hailed as a state champ, a path she seemed destined for before the coronavirus pandemic split the world into a billion pieces.

But, I hope it means something to her, at least a little.

As she goes forward into the world, ready to reach new goals and captivate her ever-growing legion of fans, Mallory can know that here on the blog she’ll live on in local lore, forever a prairie phenom.

Pop open the Legends tab up at the top of the page, and you’ll find her, a blur of speed and toughness, momentarily at rest.

Mallory has been at the forefront of two Wolf programs during her days at CHS, and it never seems like there was a moment where she was a raw rookie.

She always seemed like a grizzled vet, her cerebral skills matching her physical gifts, whether she was a new-to-the-scene freshman or an about-to-depart senior.

Put her on the soccer pitch and she could control a game from any position.

She had a deft touch with the ball and a wicked leg, and showed off an uncanny ability to spin around defenders and leave goalies grasping at air when she got to play up front.

If Wolf coaches had used Mallory in a traditional scoring position her entire career, I have little doubt she would be up at the top of the all-time CHS scoring list with players like Mia and Kalia Littlejohn and Genna Wright.

Instead, she spent a lot of her playing days on the backside of the field, using her speed to corral breakaways and her toughness to knock potential scorers off the ball.

As a defender, Mallory took no crap from nobody.

Kortuem fights off a rival.

I’m sure there were opposing players who looked at her slender build and thought they could bully her.

They quickly changed their minds.

Mallory not only wasn’t afraid of getting in close and scrapping with rivals, she seemed to derive a considerable joy out of beatin’ the snot out of them, then leaving them eating the grass as she sprinted away with the soccer ball.

Dirty? Never. Willing to back down? Let’s capitalize that NEVER.

Upholding the tradition set down by scrappy Wolf ballhawks like Micky “Two Fists” LeVine, there was no bend, no break in Mallory’s game.

Her team might win. It might lose. But she was going to make sure you remembered her long after the final score faded into memory.

But, as good as she was on the pitch, Mallory has made an even-bigger splash in the world of track and field.

Entering what was supposed to be her senior season, she had already splashed her name all across the school’s record board in the CHS gym.

Mallory currently holds four school records, tying her with fellow Hall o’ Famer Maya Toomey-Stout for top honors.

Speed demons Kortuem and Maya Toomey-Stout. (Dawnelle Conlisk photo)

And those records have come in a variety of events, from the 400 and pole vault to running legs on super-quick 4 x 100 and 4 x 200 relay units.

In the pole vault, her top mark of eight feet, 10 inches is almost two-and-a-half feet above what any other Wolf girl has ever reached.

Meanwhile, in the 400, an event in which Mallory finished 2nd at state as a junior, she passed Makana Stone, proving I was completely, 1000% wrong when I thought that record would live for decades.

With four state meet medals entering her senior campaign, Miss Kortuem had a chance, pre-pandemic, to finish as one of the most-decorated CHS female track stars of all time.

But even if spring sports don’t start back up, and she doesn’t get the chance to chase Lindsey Roberts (eight medals), Stone (7), and Natasha Bamberger (6), it will take absolutely none of the luster off of her brilliant run.

You can only control what you can control, and when that control was left in Mallory’s hands, she never failed to impress.

One of the best, ever. (Photo by JohnsPhotos.net)

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Killer Kassie classes up the joint

Posted in Basketball, Hall o' Fame, tagged , , , , on March 15, 2020| Leave a Comment »

Kassie (Lawson) O’Neil, forever hitting nothing but net, on and off the court.

Kassie (second from left, back row), during her senior season.

Nothing but net.

Just give her the dang ball.

Kassie (Lawson) O’Neil was one of the deadliest scorers Coupeville High School basketball has ever seen.

It wasn’t always how many points she scored, though, but when she scored them, and how she scored them, that ensures her place in Wolf lore.

Kassie was a Killer, and you better spell that with a capitol K as you put some respect on her name.

Her sisters Kayla and Katie were hoops stars as well, and lil’ bro Kurtis a pretty darn good baseball player, but today the focus is all on the woman who just turned 29 a few days ago.

Now the mom of four young boys (all primed to make their names in a Wolf uniform as well, if local fans are lucky), Kassie is an extraordinary woman.

Today we swing open the doors of the Coupeville Sports Hall o’ Fame, and welcome her into our digital hideaway, an honor long overdue.

After this, you can pop up to the top of the blog, look under the Legends tab, and bingo, there she will be.

Not that she needed me to tell you she’s a legend, cause her game did all the talking.

One of the rare Wolves to net points at the varsity level in all four seasons, Kassie currently sits at #61 on the all-time CHS girls scoring chart (out of 229 players).

But that doesn’t tell the full tale.

Kassie played alongside some of the best scorers the Wolf program has seen, from Megan Smith (#4 all-time) to Shawna West and Ashley Manker, with both of her sisters tossed in to the bucket chase as well.

So Killer Kassie picked her moments, then delivered the daggers.

Two nights stand out the most, one in her junior season, the other when she was a senior.

On the night of January 18, 2008, Kassie and Co. welcomed private school juggernaut King’s to town, with everything on the line.

The Wolves and Knights were battling for the #1 playoff seed out of the Cascade Conference, and the visitors held a two-point lead with mere seconds to play in overtime.

Just give her the dang ball.

Thus setting up one of the biggest buzzer-beaters in school history — along with Ian Smith making all of South Whidbey weep sweet, sweet tears in 2011, and Steve Whitney shocking King’s in ’79.

Pulling up out in the parking lot, long before Steph Curry and Damian Lillard made it the popular thing to do, Killer Kassie banked home a game-winning three-ball.

Cue a 33-32 Wolf win. Cue an eruption in the CHS gym. Cue the birth of a legend.

While that first chapter happened in a flash, the second night Kassie claimed the spotlight, she did so for an extended period of time.

Facing off with Granite Falls late in her senior season (February 3, 2009), she went off for 13 of her team-high 19 points in the crucible of the fourth quarter.

Just give her the dang ball.

The Wolves entered the fourth quarter trailing 29-28, and eventually lost 51-49 when the visiting Tigers slipped in a game-winner at the buzzer.

Which doesn’t take anything away from Kassie’s torrid fourth quarter run.

She bounced off the bench with a gleam in her eye, nailed a three-ball to kick things off, then softly whispered, “Oh, there’s more where that came from, baby!”

At least that’s how I’d like to believe it went down.

I wasn’t there, but neither were you, very likely, so just go with it.

Either way, Kassie was locked-in over the game’s final eight minutes, following up her trey with a pair of buckets, a free throw, another bucket, then a final three-ball.

That long-range dagger, which rattled home with just 18 ticks left on the clock, knotted the game at 49.

Megan Smith, Mandi Murdy, Jesse Caselden, and Katie Smith also came up big with fourth-quarter buckets, but it was Killer Kassie who was unstoppable.

And here’s a fun fact.

Megan Smith, who Kassie shared the court with for three seasons, torched the nets for 1,042 points in her CHS career.

That included singing Friday Harbor for 30 while narrowly missing the program’s single-game scoring record of 32, set by Judy Marti in 1983.

Meanwhile, South Whidbey’s Lindsey Newman tormented Coupeville during the Kassie and Megan years, dropping 39 and 33 on the Wolves.

And yet…

Neither Megan Smith, in her four-year run, or Newman, in her meetings with CHS, ever went higher than 12 points in a single quarter.

Cause you have to be Killer Kassie to go out there and slap down a 13, while making it your lucky, and not unlucky, number.

Just give her the dang ball.

High school was big for Kassie, but it wasn’t even close to being her ceiling.

She went on to play some college ball, before shifting gears and becoming a mom and wife, a strong, accomplished woman, like her sisters, her mother DeeAnna, and her prairie ancestors, who include a town’s worth of Sherman’s.

Seeing the growth and development of her boys from afar, thanks to social media, is a testament to all she has accomplished, and all that is to come.

Pick your reason, and she’s a legend, worthy of all the praise and admiration.

Killer Kassie, forever hitting nothing but net, on the court and off.

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A heart as big as the prairie

Posted in Hall o' Fame, tagged , , , , , on February 27, 2020| Leave a Comment »

Scout Smith, beatin’ the crud out of your best pitches. (Photos by JohnsPhotos.net)

A coach’s daughter, who took the lessons delivered by parents Charlotte and Chris to heart.

My respect for her grows each time I see her play.

Scout Smith is not the tallest, the strongest, the fastest, or the most physically-gifted athlete I have ever written about, and I mean her no disrespect when I say that.

But she doesn’t need to be.

I have watched Scout play volleyball, basketball, and softball for six years now, through middle school days and almost all of her high school experience, and I know this for a stone-cold fact — no one can match her heart.

She is the daughter of coaches, and she paid attention when parents Chris and Charlotte imparted lessons on the field and the court, in the dugouts and on drives home.

Scout is one of the smartest athletes I have witnessed in person, and like older brothers CJ and Hunter, she combines her big brain with a resilient spirit.

She does not quit. Ever.

She will find a way to beat you, and, if that way doesn’t work, she will lose with grace.

It will hurt, it will drive her on to greater heights, but she will honor her opponents and the game itself. Always.

Epic black eye developing after slamming face-first into the volleyball court in pursuit of a ball, she will quietly tell her dad to sit his fanny back down on the bench, because she’s not coming out of the game with her season, and prep career, on the line.

And she will dance around the bases, feet barely touching the bags as she floats through the air, after knifing Cedar Park Christian with a walk-off grand-slam home run which jumped over the fence like a laser.

She deeply loves her brothers, of that I have no doubt, and she has spent her days chasing them athletically.

In that moment, though, she does something neither one of them accomplished during their own halcyon high school careers.

And she will never, ever, EVERRRRRR let them forget that.

Under the deceptively calm exterior Scout projects to the world, burns a heart which is like 10 million active volcanoes exploding all at once.

It’s why she’s helped take Wolf volleyball and softball teams to state, and it’s why she will live large in the memories of Coupeville fans for a very long time after she leaves the prairie.

The youngest Smith, who still has one final softball season left to play before graduation, may go on to play college sports like her brothers, who are in their second year as baseball stars at Green River College.

I hope she does.

I hope Scout finds the right fit, at the right school, at whatever level, and in whichever of her sports brings her the greatest joy.

If she does, she will make a school, and a coach, or coaches (who says she can’t play more than one sport?) very happy.

But I also hope she makes the jump to collegiate sports only if it’s something SHE truly wants.

Whatever she does, wherever she goes, whatever path she follows, whether it’s sports-related or not, Scout will knock it out of the park.

She’s too smart, and has too much heart, and is too committed, to not be excellent.

There was a moment when I, like all the other Wolf fans, had no clue she even existed.

Then, one day, she and her family made the move to Coupeville, and now Scout is so interwoven into our world, it seems inconceivable there was ever a moment when she wasn’t here.

I hope she knows how deeply respected she is, by coaches, fellow athletes — both teammates and rivals — and those who have watched her rise and take her rightful place among the best to ever pull on a CHS uniform.

Scout is the one you hope all young athletes model themselves on as they follow their own path to success.

Be graceful, be kind, play with a burning intensity, let your actions speak louder than your words, work your tail off, be there, front and center, every game, every practice, when we see you, and when we don’t.

Let your heart be a volcano.

Do that, and like Scout, it will carry you far.

For Miss Smith, today it carries her into the Coupeville Sports Hall o’ Fame, where she joins her brothers, three truly superb human beings, on and off the various courts and fields they have owned.

After this, you’ll find the trio up at the top of the blog, under the Legends tab.

How did Scout get there? She earned it, every step of the way.

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