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Archive for the ‘Happy birthday’ Category

Big heart, big motor!!

Posted in Baseball, Football, Happy birthday, tagged , , , , on July 15, 2016| Leave a Comment »

Jonathan Thurston

Jonathan Thurston deals the high, hard cheese. (John Fisken photos)

Thurston works

   Thurston (Batman shirt) brings the spirit along with running mates (l to r) Jimmy Myers, Uriel Liquidano and Aiden Crimmins.

grin

“I must destroy you.”

Don’t sleep on Jonathan Thurston.

The Coupeville High School senior, who celebrates a birthday today, may weigh about 17 pounds (after a big meal) but 16 pounds of that is heart.

He’s a rampaging beast on the football field, not afraid to hit (or be hit by) much heavier players, bouncing right back up after first holding on to the pass he went up to snag.

Thurston put together one of the better games I’ve seen by a Wolf in recent years.

It came in a JV game against 2A Anacortes last year, when he hauled in a pair of touchdown passes, pilfered an interception and spent much of the game backhanding the Seahawks, often times for real.

The visitors had a roster twice the size of Coupeville (at least) and some of their secondary tried to shove Thurston around.

Didn’t work, as he still made the snag on a throw over the top from Wolf QB Shane Losey, then shot up and knocked a pesky Seahawk on his butt as he strode back to the huddle, smiling all the way.

Thurston is an equal opportunity guy, also tossing some heat for the Wolf baseball squad and playing a vital role in the student cheering section at volleyball games.

Away from athletics, Jonathan seems like a pretty good dude, as well, smart, friendly and outgoing.

As he prepares for his final season on the gridiron, surrounded by his friends, we want to wish him all the best.

Happy birthday, Mr. Thurston. Keep on knockin’ fools on their butts.

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All hail the queen of nice!!

Posted in Girls Soccer, Girls Tennis, Happy birthday, tagged , , , , , on July 10, 2016| Leave a Comment »

Bree Daigneault (John Fisken photos)

   Bree Daigneault, ready to rip up the tennis court (and make new friends while doing so.) (John Fisken photos)

Daigneault

Daigneault pushes the attack during a playoff game.

Bree Daigneault is a freakin’ ray of sunshine.

That’s the only description which really captures her personality and how she carries herself when playing soccer or tennis for Coupeville High School.

Daigneault, who will be a senior at CHS this fall, and also celebrates a birthday today, is happy, yes. But it’s more than that.

She is competitive, focused, feisty, fun-loving, vocal, incredibly smart, very caring and, this is sometimes rare in athletes, compassionate in a very public way.

There is little doubt Bree wants to win her matches on the court, or help her team to victory on the pitch, but she doesn’t want to do it in a way which embarrasses or demeans her opponents.

It’s especially evident on the tennis court, where, whether she’s winning or losing, she always finds ways to compliment the girl on the other side of the net.

Not in a grumbly, “Oh, nice shot…” way, but in a genuinely sincere, “I’m enjoying my time out here and I hope you are too,” way.

It’s easy to be friendly with your close companions (such as her real world partners in crime, May Rose and Ally Roberts) and teammates, people you know.

It’s not always as easy with someone you may have just met for the first time 20 minutes ago, a person who is now making you run side-to-side and trying to ruin your afternoon.

Daigneault’s tennis matches this spring were master classes in grace and sportsmanship, and she brought out the best in her rivals.

Win or lose (and, like everyone, it’s clear she enjoys winning more), Bree seems to treat sports as an important part of her life, but just one part.

She is a talented actress, a pretty brilliant student and an irrepressible young woman who once, at the counter in front of me at People’s Bank, grabbed her mothers’ money and flicked it back at her, bill by bill, while singing out “dollar, dollar, bills y’all.”

We have another year of her infectious spirit and positive attitude here in Coupeville, and then, one would assume, she will take over the entire world, spreading the gospel of Bree far and wide.

That she will be a success in whatever path she chooses is a slam-dunk.

It’s pretty hard to be this smart and this genuinely likable and outgoing and not do well.

So happy birthday Miss Daigneault, and thank you for blazing your own memorable path.

You’re a true original and Wolf fans are lucky to be experiencing a part of your brilliant journey.

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Captain Cool leaves a lasting legacy!!

Posted in Baseball, Boys Basketball, Football, Happy birthday, tagged , , , , on July 2, 2016| Leave a Comment »

CJ Smith, a man for all seasons. (John Fisken, Shelli Trumbull and Sylvia Hurlburt photos)

   CJ Smith, a man for all seasons. (John Fisken, Shelli Trumbull, Charlotte Young and Sylvia Hurlburt photos)

Big things sometimes start quietly.

The first time I saw CJ Smith, he suddenly appeared, perched at the end of the Coupeville High School boys’ basketball bench one night, a couple of games into the 2013-2014 season.

Someone in the stands, a fellow player’s dad, said he had just transferred into the school, but no one knew much about him.

As the game went on, CJ (we didn’t even know his name that night) watched the court like a hawk, once in awhile murmuring a question or two to the guy next to him, then nodding, face impassive.

Little did we know at that moment, cloaked in stoic quietness, that we were seeing the birth of one of the best athletes to ever wear the red and black.

Later, we discovered he was a sophomore, and we wouldn’t see him in a game for close to two weeks, as he got up to speed on practices.

When he finally touched the court, wearing a Coupeville uniform for the first time, he didn’t come out screaming, or wildly waving.

He played calmly, coolly, under control, making sharp passes and even sharper cuts.

Captain Cool had arrived, and, for the next two-and-a-half years we got to witness a young man who handles his business as strongly as any Wolf I have witnessed.

CJ, who celebrates a birthday today and graduated from CHS last month, gave us two strong basketball seasons (he sat out his senior season to focus on schoolwork), two superb football campaigns and three dazzling baseball years.

Through it all, he was the picture of composure, a guy who didn’t seem to ever have a butterfly and never, ever flinched away from the big moment.

If he was nervous, if he had self-doubt, CJ hid it well from the fans.

When he was on the mound, whiffing hitters in great gobs, it was nearly impossible to tell if he was up 20-0 or trailing 1-0.

And that calmness, his sense of purpose, always seemed to settle his teammates down around him.

Which was especially helpful during his senior season, when most of his teammates were freshmen and sophomores.

Teaming with senior catcher Cole Payne and his brother, sophomore Hunter Smith, CJ led Coupeville to its first baseball league title in 25 years.

During that run there were many moments when the team could have fallen apart, but it didn’t, thanks in large part to its easygoing mound ace.

That serene spirit flows through CJ’s entire family.

Turns out we got a 5-for-1 deal, with CJ, Hunter and lil’ sis Scout all three-sport stars, while mom Charlotte and dad Chris are superb coaches.

As his prep career played out, Captain Cool was a rock for the Wolves, a talented athlete, but, more importantly, a quality dude through and through.

So happy birthday CJ, and thanks for letting us all be part of the ride for the last three years.

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Long may Lainey reign!!

Posted in Cheer, Happy birthday, tagged , , , , , on July 1, 2016| Leave a Comment »

Birthday girl Lainey Dickson.

Birthday girl Lainey Dickson.

She is like a ray of sunshine on the prairie, isn’t she?

Like big sis Allison before her, Coupeville High School cheerleader Lainey Dickson has so much spirit and energy, it would be a crime against humanity if she wasn’t a cheerleader.

So, it’s a good thing Lainey, who celebrates a birthday today, chose the Ohana life.

It was, quite simply, her destiny.

Part of a large, very successful athletic family with strong Coupeville ties, Dickson is a young woman going places.

Bright, outgoing, kind, loyal, (I can keep going…), smart as all get-out and able to light up the entire crowd even on a foggy Friday night when the Wolves are four touchdowns behind, she is a winner through and through.

As Lainey celebrates her birthday, nine weeks to the day she and her fellow CHS cheerleaders will return to the field for the 2016 football opener against South Whidbey, we want to wish her the best.

Thank you, Miss Dickson, for being an amazing ambassador for your school, your town, your faith and your family.

We are blessed to have you front and center here in Wolf Nation.

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Save your biggest cheer for Amanda!!

Posted in Cheer, Happy birthday, tagged , , , , on June 26, 2016| Leave a Comment »

Amanda Neitzel (John Fisken photo)

Amanda Neitzel, about to get loud ‘n proud. (John Fisken photo)

Maybe there’s something special about June 26.

Much like birthday buddy Jared Helmstadter, Wolf cheerleader Amanda Neitzel is one of the truly special ones.

Like almost everyone who gets into the cheer game, Neitzel has school spirit flowing out of every pore.

She can get as loud ‘n proud as anyone, even big sis (and fellow cheer legend) Maddy, but it’s more than that.

Amanda is one of the most genuinely sweet-natured, friendly, down-to-Earth young athletes currently gracing our town.

Now, who knows, behind the scenes she may be throwing dinner plates at people’s heads and terrorizing the neighbors.

But I kind of doubt it.

I’m pretty sure that what we see in public is the real deal, a young woman who is whip-smart (Honor Rolls don’t lie), athletically talented, and, most importantly, kind and caring to everyone she encounters.

As she gets ready for her senior year at CHS, I know, no matter what direction she takes, she’s set for big things.

Happy birthday, Miss Neitzel. May it be a great one.

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