Hall o’ Fame | Coupeville Sports

Archive for the ‘Hall o’ Fame’ Category

Speak to me, people!!

Posted in Hall o' Fame, tagged CHS Wolves, Hall of Fame, nominations, opinions, self promotion, Wynter Thorne on July 21, 2015| Leave a Comment »

Be like Wynter Thorne and focus on the best of Coupeville sports. (John Fisken photo)

There has never been a better time to harass me.

Seriously.

I want your emails. Your chiding, cajoling and impassioned smacks (metaphorically at least) on the back of my head.

Each Sunday for the past four weeks I have inducted a class into the Coupeville Sports Hall o’ Fame (take a gander at the Legends tab at the top of the blog to see who’s in so far), and only one vote counts when I make my weekly decision.

That would be mine. It’s a dictatorship.

But, and it’s a big but, I do want and need your input.

I’ve covered sports on Whidbey Island for 25 years and have a fairly decent handle on Coupeville-related sporting activities.

Doesn’t mean I know everything (or even anything), though.

I need you, my readers, to put some thought into who and what you would like to see immortalized in these hallowed digital walls.

There are six categories — Female Athlete, Male Athlete, Coach, Contributor, Team and Moment.

There has to be some connection to Coupeville — I’m not covering Renton here — but, other than that small rule, I am fully willing to listen to wherever your brain goes.

You can nominate anyone and anything. Go back to the 1920s or just yesterday.

Be shameless if you want. Nominate yourself.

If you’re proud of what you’ve accomplished and make a compelling argument, I’ll consider it. And I won’t even tell anyone you nominated yourself.

The Hall o’ Fame, like all of Coupeville Sports, lives and dies as a community thing.

I’m the guy who is pulling it all together, but I can’t do what I do without a lot of help.

I have a general idea of where I’m going with the Hall o’ Fame, a list of potential honorees, but I am super-flexible and waiting to be guided by the wisdom of Wolf Nation.

So, let’s see some action, folks.

Email me at davidsvien@hotmail.com. Message me on Facebook.

Corner me at the grocery store or, once a new school year starts, at one of the many high school or middle school games.

The ball is in your court. Talk to me.

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The cream of the crop!!

Posted in Hall o' Fame, tagged Bob Fasolo, Central Whidbey Little League, CHS Wolves, Hall of Fame, Makana Stone, Natasha Bamberger, Ray Cook on July 19, 2015| Leave a Comment »

Hall o' Fame inductees (clockwise from top left) Makana Stone, Ray Cook, Natasha Bamberger and Bob Fasolo.

Hall o’ Fame inductees (clockwise from top left) Makana Stone, Ray Cook (wearing glasses), Natasha Bamberger and Bob Fasolo.

The Mack Daddy himself, Bob Fasolo, workin’ the waves.

Central Whidbey Little League coach Chris Tumblin (left) prepares to join the dog-pile after winning a state title in 2010.

When we’re down the road and we look back, it’s going to be hard to top the class that enters the Coupeville Sports Hall o’ Fame today.

It features the greatest runner in CHS history, the strikeout king, the single most electrifying play I have personally witnessed in 25 years of covering sports, a team that shocked the state and the original Mack Daddy.

The bar has been set, and our fourth class is one for the ages.

Without further ado, we welcome Natasha Bamberger, Ray Cook, Bob Fasolo, Makana Stone and the 2010 Central Whidbey Little League Majors baseball team.

Their new home?

Look to the top of the blog and the tab marked Legends. Cause that’s where they all belong.

Ray Cook was a star when I was in kindergarten, but his accomplishments still astound.

When we talk about great pitchers who wore the red and black for CHS, we can talk about Ben Etzell and Aaron Curtin, about Brad Miller and Brad Haslam, about a lot of guys.

But, up there, by himself, at the very tip top, is Cook, who left behind a string of dejected batters.

He struck out 16 while tossing a perfect game, whiffed 17 in another game, but saved his best for the biggest moment.

Pitching in the 1976 district title game, he went 13 innings(!) to get the win, gunning down an eye-popping 21 batters.

He was Cow Town’s Nolan Ryan, and his name should be invoked every time a modern-day hurler starts settin’ ’em up and sittin’ ’em down.

If Cook ruled the ’70s, Natasha Bamberger owned the ’80s, winning four state titles as a track runner, putting her name on the school record board (where it still sits) and then doing something no Wolf had done.

Running at the A/B state cross country championships Nov. 9, 1985, she faced down 123 other runners and bested them all, breaking the tape in 19 minutes and 51 seconds.

It would take 25 years before another Coupeville runner would match her feat, when Tyler King won the 2010 1A boys XC title.

When CHS installs a new track that is currently in the planning stages, they should name it in honor of the greatest runner the school ever saw. Micky Clark Field should be encircled by the Natasha Bamberger track.

Someone get on this.

Our third inductee is a young woman who, in three years, has proven to be the single most dynamic athlete I have covered.

While Makana Stone’s career is far from over, and her time to be inducted as an athlete will come later, today we honor a play she pulled off during the 2014-2015 CHS girls’ basketball season.

Now who knows, the videotape may tell a slightly different story, and, if it does, don’t bother me with the facts. I’m printing the legend, the way I remember it happening.

Stone, midway through an MVP season in which she led her squad to its first league title in 13 years — a campaign in which the Wolves won every league game by double digits — was on fire. As usual.

Then she ripped out our eyeballs and dunked them into awesome sauce in a way I have never witnessed.

Flying high above the crowd, she hauled in a rebound, then spun and fired the ball nearly the length of the court, hitting teammate Kacie Kiel in mid-stride.

A lone defender, scrambling to get back, veered into Kiel’s path, causing her to stumble as she put up the layup. The ball skittered off the rim and then…

Sweet succotash!!!

Any other player, having made the pass, would have stayed at the far end of the court. The play was done, and you’d already be back on defense.

Stone, however, took off like a bolt of lightning as soon as she fired the ball, and she came flying like a bat out of Hell, running the length of the floor in a few graceful strides.

The ball hung on the rim and then Makana was there, swooping in, snagging the rebound and popping the ball back up and in as every jaw in the gym ricocheted off the floor.

Making half that play — either half — is the sign of a top-notch player.

Pulling off the entire thing, and then immediately backpedaling on defense as Klahowya’s collective soul lay stone-cold-dead on the floor — that’s legendary.

Our fourth inductee is already the coolest cat in the hall.

The late Bob Fasolo could do it all.

Street baller. Surfer dude. McConaughey before McConaughey was McConaughey.

Both of his sons, Rob and Eddie, were gifted basketball players, and they learned their skills from the man who always had a grin under the beard, especially when he just broke both of your ankles.

If you didn’t meet Bob, it might be hard to understand what an impact he had on others, athletically and just in general life. And, if you didn’t meet him, your life is a lot less blessed.

He was the Mack Daddy, the pimp king, the guy who was just cooler than everyone else around him, whether he was shredding waves or just giving me good-natured grief at Videoville.

I miss the dude, but I know he’s out there tonight, one with the waves.

And, to cap things off, we’re going to crowd the stage for our finale.

In 2010, three coaches and 13 players went on a trip no one expected.

Representing little ol’ Coupeville, they stared down big city squad after bigger city squad, and whipped them all.

It wasn’t just that they won a state little league title, but the way they did it, storming from behind in nearly every game and then celebrating like mad.

They weren’t given any respect at the start of the tourney, but they earned it every step of the way, and their run, both for the title and the way they won it, stands as one of the greatest athletic accomplishments this town will ever witness.

And they stayed together, with nine of the 13 playing for CHS in their senior seasons, and eight of those players suiting up all four years.

Playing as a team, as brothers, they exited the field July 24, 2010 as state champs, and they went on to become the core of a Wolf baseball program that is in a very good place five years later.

Let’s give it up, for the champs. Inducted, together, as a family:

Chris Tumblin (Coach)
Brad Trumbull (Assistant Coach)
Ramon Villaflor (Assistant Coach)
Kyle Bodamer
Brendan Coleman
Aaron Curtin
Ben Etzell
Korbin Korzan
Brian Norris
Morgan Payne
Carson Risner
Wade Schaef
Paul Schmakeit
Kurtis Smith
Aaron Trumbull
Jake Tumblin

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Gone too soon, never forgotten!!

Posted in Basketball, Hall o' Fame, tagged Basketball, CHS Wolves, Hall of Fame, Willie Smith, Zenovia Barron on July 12, 2015| Leave a Comment »

These vintage photos capture the in-game intensity of Zenovia “Novi” Barron. (Photos courtesy Willie Smith)

The greatest of all time.

That’s a title that gets bandied about a lot, but in the case of Zenovia Barron, the argument is pretty solid.

She was the best basketball player we have ever seen in this town, and it is an honor to induct her into the Coupeville Sports Hall o’ Fame, the lone member of our third induction class.

Novi passed too soon, taken from a world that adored her at the tender age of 24 on Nov. 3, 2003.

It is easy to be angry, to imagine everything she would have accomplished in the last 12 years, on and off the court.

But today, we put anger to the side and remember her for the amazing young woman she was during her time on Earth.

At this point, I’m handing the mic to Willie Smith, who coached Novi during her brilliant run as a Wolf hoops star.

Dynamic, electrifying, amazing, once in a lifetime talent. Those are some of the words I’d use to describe Novi.

She could walk into a room and light it up with her personality and energy; she could break an ankle on the court then go play drums for the boys like it was nobody’s business.

She could start the game by singing the National Anthem, then finish an opponent with an amazing display of basketball skills.

She is, without a doubt, the best basketball player, boy or girl, that I have ever seen come through Coupeville.

I have coached and witnessed some of the best basketball players in Coupeville.

Jen Canfield, Amanda Allmer, Ashley Bagby, Tina Lyness, Brianne King, Ann Pettit, Megan Smith, Makana Stone, Nick Sellgren, Pete Petrov, Rich Morris, Gavin Keohane, JD Wilcox, Hunter Hammer, Mike Bagby, Jason Bagby; you name the best basketball players in the last 23 years at Coupeville and none were better than Novi.

She had everything: she could drive, shoot the three, post up, play defense, rebound, dish the rock; whatever could be done on a court she could do it like it was second nature.

She was the most complete player I ever got to coach and I coached some good ones.

She had an innate ability to take over a game in every aspect of a game.

I’m not sure how many times she either won, secured, or tied a game on the free throw line in the fourth quarter, but it was a ton.

She was an All-League selection each of her four years at a time when we played in a VERY STRONG conference: the old Cascade Conference.

She averaged double figures each of her four years and also led the team in ASSISTS; no other player has done that since.

She shot over 45% from inside the arc EVERY year while averaging those double figures.

She formed one of the highest scoring tandems for three years with she and Ann Pettit.

Perhaps her best year was her junior year in the playoffs: we lost one starter and our sixth player right before the playoffs and entered the playoffs with eight girls on the team.

We finished fourth in our league and nobody expected us to do anything but fold and watch the boys go to state.

We faced Lynden Christian (#1 in State), Lakewood (#2 CC, 17 wins to our 9), Mount Baker, and King’s (#3 in State and eventual state champ over LC).

During those games Novi scored 20, 18, 23, and 19; she scored 12 points in the 4th quarter to Mt Baker’s seven to bring us back from a 38-31 deficit while also securing 12 boards.

She scored 18 against Lakewood while also setting up Pettit’s 28 and then helped us to a 12-0 start against King’s in the winner to state game before foul trouble took her out of the game early in the 2nd quarter.

She was offered a full ride scholarship to LC State in Lewiston, ID following a summer league game in which she ran off at halftime to throw up because she was sick.

The coaches were there to watch another girl, saw Novi, and called me that Monday to offer her the scholarship after watching ONE game; she was that electric.

I could go on and on about Novi and her basketball skills but what a lot people don’t know about her is how committed she was to our team and how caring she was.

Midway through her junior year, she really figured out what it meant to be a part of a team and how much more important it was to be a part of a team rather than THE team.

From that point, she matured, grew, and became an amazing team player.

My kids loved her, her little girls basketball teams loved her, and her teammates loved and respected her.

My heart still aches that she and I can’t sit here and go over all of this together, laughing most of the time and maybe being a bit emotional some of the time and I can’t even begin to understand how or why she is not here right now.

But I do know this, there has never been a brighter star, bigger personality, or better player than Novi in my 20+ years in Coupeville and her legacy, her impact on not just basketball but in Coupeville, will forever be around.

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Hall of Famers? It’s the tooth!!

Posted in Hall o' Fame, tagged Cameron Boyd, CHS Wolves, Hall of Fame, Shelli Trumbull, Sylvia Arnold on July 5, 2015| Leave a Comment »

Former CHS cheer coach Sylvia Arnold (left) shares a moment with Sydney Autio (John Fisken photo)

Cameron Boyd (center) gave his tooth for the greater glory, something Jared Dickson (left) and Brett Arnold can appreciate. (Sylvia Arnold photo)

Shelli Trumbull (left) and her two most frequent camera targets, son Aaron and daughter Alexis.

Exuberance.

It is what ties together the members of our second class to be inducted into the Coupeville Sports Hall o’ Fame.

Our newest inductees (now enshrined under the Legends tab at the top of this blog) are Sylvia Arnold, Shelli Trumbull and Cameron Boyd.

Boyd is being tabbed for creating a great Moment, Trumbull is our first Contributor to enter the Hall and Arnold is being honored for her work as a Coach.

Up first is Boyd, the very definition of laid-back intensity during his time on the soccer pitch.

Except for a night in late March of 2014, when he sacrificed his face and sparked one of the biggest wins in program history.

Taking a knee to the mouth, Boyd lost most of a tooth, but stayed on the field, as Coupeville’s defense held on for a shocking 2-1 home victory over arch-rival South Whidbey.

The win was a stunner, coming over a team that openly talked about competing for a 1A state title but proved to have a lot less fire in the belly than Coupeville.

Caught up in the celebration, Boyd posed for photos with his giddy teammates before getting his shattered tooth looked at by a doctor, forever sealing his rep as a stone-cold killer.

Winner, winner … no, he couldn’t eat no chicken dinner.

But he can go in the Hall o’ Fame for one shining moment.

Trumbull, who used her camera to capture many shining moments, is reason enough to create a new category for the Hall just two weeks into the process.

Devoting countless hours of her time to taking pics at CHS sporting events, starting with those played by children Alexis and Aaron, and then spinning off to just about anything she could fit into her already-overflowing schedule, Shelli is an unsung legend.

Without her photos, Coupeville Sports might never have taken off.

Words are fine, but glossy pics bring the eyes in, and Shelli’s willingness to shoot, shoot and shoot some more, while allowing me, and everyone else, to poach away, is extraordinary.

A CHS grad who married another CHS grad and produced two more CHS grads, she is Coupeville at its best. Pure and simple.

And that description also fits our third and final honoree this week.

Sylvia Arnold coached Wolf cheerleaders for 20 years, and that commitment alone is impressive.

But there is more, so much more, to what this woman brought to her school, her town, her young women (and men).

She threw out the conventional cheer coach book and welcomed everyone to her team. Show up, put in the time and effort and buy into being part of a team, and you were hers for life.

And once you were one of hers, she would go to the mat for you with a passion that can not be faked.

A perpetual hug-and-laugh machine, Sylvia made every one of her cheerleaders, and every other person who wandered into her path, realize they were loved, they were appreciated, they were needed.

It can not be overstated how much joy and compassion the woman has brought to everyone in her life.

There are people born to be cheerleaders, and Sylvia embraced them.

And then there are countless others who would never have been given a shot at another school, and Sylvia embraced them with all her heart and soul.

If we count the number of young women (and men) who genuinely shocked those around them by becoming Wolf cheerleaders during her two decades, we’d be here for ever.

Sylvia transformed cheer and built an empire around “Ohana means family; family means no one gets left behind,” and the benefits of what she did will radiate through this community, and many others, for decades to come.

If that’s not worthy of induction into the Hall o’ Fame, then I don’t know what is.

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Let’s start an argument!!

Posted in Hall o' Fame, tagged Basketball, CHS Wolves, Hall of Fame, Kim Meche, Kyle King, Lexie Black, Ty Cobb, Willie Smith on June 28, 2015| Leave a Comment »

Clockwise, from left, Madeline Strasburg, Lexie Black, Kyle King and Kim Meche.

Clockwise, from left, are Coupeville Sports Hall o’ Fame inductees Madeline Strasburg, Lexie Black, Kyle King and Kim Meche.

A young Willie Smith, reunited with a stat sheet from the 1999-2000 basketball season.

A young Willie Smith, reunited with a vintage stat sheet from the 1999-2000 CHS girls’ basketball season.

I am now starting a weekly argument.

Simple as that.

If you look at the very top of this blog, there’s a tab, marked “Legends,” which sits next to “David’s Best Ever Friends” and “Who’s responsible for this.”

Under that tab, you will find the brand-new Coupeville Sports Hall o’ Fame.

Today, I induct my first class, with one female athlete, one male athlete, one coach, one team and one moment.

Every Sunday I will add a new class, publishing a story and adding the inductee(s) to the roll of honor, where they (or it) will live on as long as this blog does.

Going forward, it’s a crap shoot.

I can add one, or a bunch. No guarantee every division will have equal representation.

Like most of what’s on this blog, it’s whatever strikes my fancy that Sunday.

BUT, you, the reader, do have a huge say.

I have an idea where I’m going to go, who I’m going to induct. But I want, and need, your input.

I need you to email me (davidsvien@hotmail.com), message me on Facebook or talk to me in person at games.

Tell me who you want to be in the Hall o’ Fame. Convince me.

Anyone who has ever played or coached in Coupeville is eligible, whether they were here in the 1920s or are currently playing.

I have a pretty good feel for local sports history, but, I will be the first to admit I have huge gaps.

Think a player, a team, a coach, a moment is being snubbed or forgotten?

Lecture me. Long and loudly.

Will I agree? Maybe. Maybe not. But I will listen to you and mull it over.

And then, like usual, I’ll do whatever I dang well choose.

But, if you don’t try and convince me I’m an idiot, then you can’t complain when I am an idiot.

Spread the knowledge. Get on your soap box. Light me up. Bring it on.

And now, to our first class.

When Major League Baseball inducted its first class, it went with Ty Cobb, Walter Johnson, Christy Mathewson, Honus Wagner and Babe Ruth, arguably the five best players in history at that time (if you ignore the fact the Negro Leagues were completely ignored).

This class is not an effort to match that. I am not claiming these are the absolute best Coupeville has ever seen in these divisions.

That’s an argument for another day.

What I am saying is these three individuals, this team and this moment are among the finest we have ever seen in Cow Town. They are a dang good place to start.

In no particular order, the first-ever class to be inducted into the Coupeville Sports Hall o’ Fame are Lexie Black, Kyle King, Kim Meche, Madeline Strasburg and the 1999-2000 CHS girls’ basketball team.

Why?

Lexie Black (Female Athlete) — The most sustained run of excellence CHS has seen in any sport came in girls’ basketball, from the late ’90s through the mid-to-late 2000’s.

Other players put up bigger offensive numbers, but Lexie is the one who, a decade later, still holds a major record, for most blocked shots (10) in a 1A state playoff game.

Her commitment to defense and team, her willingness to sell out completely and demand other teams get the heck out of HER paint marked her as a top-notch player.

That she is one of the nicest, sweetest, smartest women you will ever meet, well, that’s just a bonus.

Kyle King (Male Athlete) — Five state titles as a track star. Utter dedication to his craft, never missing a day, even when he and younger brother Tyler ran shirtless through the snow.

One of the few Wolf alumni to go on to an equally successful college career, running three years at Eastern Washington and one at Oklahoma.

Kim Meche (Coach) — A very talented volleyball player who became a very strong coach and later, administrator. Never lost her smile, or her fight, as she battled cancer for years, inspiring countless students, former players and colleagues.

A class act every step of the way, and the first inductee I chose.

Madeline Strasburg (Moment) — I have never seen anything quite like it.

Maddie Big Time, the ultimate big-game, big-moment player, stole the ball at mid-court, whirled and banked in a three-pointer from the left side that beat the third quarter buzzer by a millisecond.

OK, great play, but…

Two weeks later, coming off of Christmas break, the Wolf girls’ basketball team returns to the court.

Seconds to play in the third quarter, Strasburg, a junior at the time during the 2013-2014 season, rips the ball free, whirls, lets fly … and banks it in from mid-court, then runs off screaming as the buzzer wails.

The same incredible play. The same EXACT moment. Back-to-back games, 17 days apart.

I still don’t believe it, and I saw it happen.

1999-2000 CHS girls’ basketball (Team) — A slam dunk.

Other teams won more games. Other teams had better finishes. But this is where it started, when the Wolves refused to let it end.

March 2, 2000 they became the first team in school history to win a game at the state tourney, in any sport.

And they did it the way they had all that season, as a team of gutsy ball-hawks who attacked relentlessly, just the way coach Willie Smith drew it up.

Trailing Freeman by 11 points going into the fourth quarter, the Wolves, led by Tina Lyness, Ashley Ellsworth-Bagby and Brianne King, roared back to take the fourth quarter 20-5.

But, in the end, it wasn’t the big three, but ultimate role player Jaime Rasmussen who iced the 46-42 win, scoring the go-ahead basket before draining two free throws with five seconds to play.

A team that started the season 0-5 came back to shock Archbishop Thomas Murphy twice, then pulled off the defining win in school history in classic fashion. While having a lot of fun along the way.

Inducted, as a team:

Willie Smith (head coach)
Cherie Smith (assistant coach)
Ashley Ellsworth-Bagby
Penny Griggs
Brianne King
Yashmeen Knox
Tina Lyness
Jaime Rasmussen
Nicole Shelly
Rachelle Solomon
Tracy Taylor
Emily Young
Laura Young