Maureen Wetmore gets ready to break some fools in half. (Photos courtesy Willie Smith)
CHS round-ball guru Willie Smith imparts wisdom to his squad.
They were the trailblazers.
As the current incarnation of the Coupeville High School girls’ basketball squad returns to state for the first time in a decade, we’re going back 18 years to honor the first Wolf girls’ hoops team to make that trek.
The 35th class inducted into the Coupeville Sports Hall o’ Fame is a one-team affair, as we welcome the 1997-1998 CHS girls’ basketball team to these hallowed digital walls.
After this, they will sit at the top of the blog under the Legends tab.
And that’s what they are, legends.
When Willie Smith showed up from the wilds of Sequim and took over the Wolf girls program four years earlier, he was inheriting a bit of a mess.
Not that far removed from an 0-20 season, Coupeville had rarely been a strong contender in girls hoops.
That began to change immediately, as Smith and a pack of freshmen led by soon-to-be all-time-greats Novi Barron and Ann Pettit started the uphill climb.
Four years later, with six seniors headlining an 11-player squad, the Wolves smashed all their accomplishments from the past.
The first league title in program history, a third-place finish at tri-districts, 18 wins and their first-ever appearance in the state tourney.
Once in Tacoma, they ran into a brutal schedule, having to face seventh-ranked Toledo and sixth-ranked Dayton, and, while they fought like beasts on both days, eventually bowed out.
But the seeds were planted, and two short seasons later the Wolf girls would capture their first-ever win at state in 2000.
Two players — Jaime Rasmussen and Rachelle Solomon — appeared on both squads, and the manager on the ’97-’98 team, eighth grader Ashley Ellsworth-Bagby, would grow up to be a First-Team All-League player as a sophomore on the 2000 squad.
She learned from the best, watching Barron (versus Granite Falls) and Pettit (Vashon Island) each drop 29 points in a game in ’97-’98.
Ellsworth-Bagby also picked up her scrappy defensive style from a then-junior who she would join on the court the following year.
“Maureen Wetmore was a tough as nails guard who wasn’t afraid to do the dirty work,” Smith said. “Great defender and as a senior, Ashley’s freshman year, became leading scorer and mentor to Ashley and the rest of the team.”
From top to bottom, the ’97-’98 team were ball-hawks, tough-nosed young women on the court who took on the persona of their coach and changed the way Coupeville girls’ basketball was viewed.
Now, 18 years later, their legend still looms large and provides inspiration to the current Wolves.
When you stand tall and expect to win, when you prepare and play to win, when you refuse to listen to the past and embrace the future, anything is possible.
Back together, as a team, which was how they always played, the 1997-1998 CHS girls’ basketball team:
Willie Smith (coach)
Cherie Smith (assistant coach)
Novi Barron
Stephanie Kipp
Hilary Kortuem
Ann Pettit
Jennifer Pettit
Jaime Rasmussen
Jess Roundy
Rachelle Solomon
Danielle Vracin
Kim Warder
Maureen Wetmore
Ashley Ellsworth-Bagby (manager)
Coupeville Sports 