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Archive for the ‘Happy birthday’ Category

Give it up for the real MVPs!!

Posted in Basketball, Golf, Happy birthday, tagged , , , , , , on March 25, 2015| Leave a Comment »

Avis Mitchell gets eye-balled by son Anthony Bergeron. (John Fisken photo)

   Avis Mitchell gets a little side-eye action from son Anthony Bergeron during his Senior Night festivities. (John Fisken photo)

Christine Fields, enjoying every moment she has on the golf course.

Christine Fields, enjoying every moment she has on the golf course.

Totally different, yet alike in so many ways.

One is a mom, a coach, a proud (and sometimes loud) fan, who has blessed Coupeville High School with multiple basketball-playing sons who also happen to be great guys off the court.

The other is a superb Wolf athlete who may never really get her due because she toils off in the shadows by herself, playing a solitary sport with no teammates (at least from her own school).

Yet, what Avis Mitchell and Christine Fields share, other than a birthday today, is much.

Both are classy through and through, talented, extraordinarily bright women who achieve at the highest level.

Avis has helped shape the game of many former, current and future Wolf hoops players and I would argue there is no more dedicated fan in the stands, game after game.

Plus, there was this one time where she went and bought me a sandwich at Subway and brought it to me at a CHS basketball game.

That is above and beyond; that is the mark of a freakin’ saint, I tell you!!!

Christine is a talented soccer player, but her greatest accomplishments have come on the golf course, following in the footsteps of dad Mike, a professional duffer, and older bro Austin, a state meet veteran.

Miss Fields is quite simply the most highly-decorated golfer in the history of CHS.

With three straight trips to state, capped by a 5th place finish in 1A as a junior, she has surpassed her brother for that title. Plus, she still has one more run at a title ahead of her.

But, because there are no other Wolf golfers, Fields has to train and travel with South Whidbey’s girls’ squad.

With no home matches, ever, and few fans dedicated enough to follow her hole-to-hole across the country club circuit, she rarely, if ever, gets to hear the roar a successful Coupeville baseball or softball team would.

Which is too bad, because her accomplishments deserve a round of applause.

Regardless of the sport, or a slight age difference, Avis and Christine are united by success, by their style and class, by being two of the best Wolf Nation has to give the world.

As they celebrate a joint birthday, we wish them all the best. Cause that’s what they are — the best.

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A matter of great historical importance happened today!!

Posted in A freakin' American hero, Happy birthday, Whidbey's Best, Wolves in college, tagged , , , , on March 22, 2015| Leave a Comment »

Taya Boonstra: Legend

Taya Boonstra: Legend

21 years ago a legend was born.

If rumors are correct, Taya Boonstra, at approximately ten seconds after birth, popped her eyes open, looked around and yelled “Hey, where’s my camera?!?!?”

Then, she found it, cocked a finger and winked at the photographer and we were off.

There is a long, proud tradition of camera-lovin’, photo bomb-workin’ young women attending Coupeville High School, but, really, when you get down to it, only two can go toe-to-toe at the very tip-top of the game.

One is urban legend/force of nature McKayla Bailey. The other the sensational, bright as a whip, fast ‘n fun Tatiana.

Or, as the Everett Herald used to love to call her from time to time, Taya Boonscara.

Taya is now, and has always been, a bright ray of sunshine in this world.

She is genuinely one of the sweetest, kindest, loveliest, most talented people you are ever likely to meet.

And I’m not just saying that because she once baked me cookies…

A lot of athletes have come and gone at CHS, and many more are on their way.

Some will achieve great athletic moments. Some will be top students. Some will be first-rate people.

Few will be able to combine all three aspects and effortlessly take it to the level that Miss Boonstra does every day.

As you celebrate your birthday today, Taya, and in every day after that, I hope you always know how much others think of you.

How proud of you we all are.

What a wonderful impact you have had, and continue to have, on everyone around you.

You spread grace and joy everywhere you go, Taya. That is a gift and you are the very definition of gifted, in every sense of the word.

Your first 21 years have been remarkable. All the years to come will just grow the legend even more.

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She makes it rain (in a good way)!!

Posted in Girls Basketball, Happy birthday, tagged , , , , , on March 21, 2015| Leave a Comment »

Kailey Kellner

Kailey Kellner

It’s kind of fitting that it’s pouring rain today.

Why, you ask?

It’s Kailey Kellner’s birthday, and few, if any, Wolves have her uncanny ability to make it rain buckets on the basketball court.

A tireless worker who scrambles back on defense and is constantly making off with steals, tips and rebounds to set up her offensive game, Kellner is a blossoming talent.

The leading scorer on the Coupeville JV girls’ squad (by a lot) she bounced up to varsity this year and immediately made an impact, draining the first shot she took at that level — a stone-cold three-point bomb in the face of the defense that would have made Larry Bird crack a smile.

Kellner has slipped in and become such a part of the fabric of CHS sports — whether as a player or a fan — that it’s almost hard to remember the easy-going young woman with the quiet smile is still a relative newcomer to the area.

It was just last school year that she and her family arrived from England, part way into the hoops season.

Moving to a new town, any town, is never easy. Making the jump from country to country makes the transition an even bigger one.

Kellner, though, slipped right in, making friends and doing whatever she could to become a solid part of Wolf Nation.

Whether on the basketball court, or doing all the behind the scenes work with last year’s Wolf softball squad as they broke a 12-year drought and went to state, Kailey has been a wonderful addition to the local sports scene.

She’s only a sophomore, which means we have two more years of watching her continue to evolve into the superstar she was born to be. And the amazing person that completes the other half of the picture.

Happy birthday, Miss Kellner.

Two years ago, we had no idea who you were. Now, we couldn’t think of Wolf sports without you being a vital, vibrant part of it all.

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Keep on sparkling, Mia!!

Posted in A freakin' American hero, Happy birthday, tagged , , , , , on March 19, 2015| Leave a Comment »

Mia Littlejohn

Mia Littlejohn

There are two versions of Mia Littlejohn.

There is the “Jersey Girl,” the fast-walkin’, fast-talkin’, trick-dribblin’ hoops phenom who lives for the chance to break your ankles.

But there is also the quiet, sweet young woman who bakes cookies for her teammates and then runs back and forth through the bleachers, not stopping until she’s made sure that each and every one of those girls got their treat.

Mia, who celebrates a birthday today, is an electrifying athlete, one who is confident in her skills and insistent in never backing down from a foe.

Basketball, soccer, softball, fishing. Keep naming the sports and she’s ready to kick your butt in each and every one of them.

She’s also a genuinely caring person who instantly stops what she’s doing to run over and hug her relatives when they come to watch her play.

Mia will jab relentlessly at younger sister Kalia as the duo go at each other on the court, then dote on her when they’re done playing.

Talent flows through her veins, yet she showed a willingness during basketball season to work hard on her game, to tweak things that needed improvement, to learn to work inside the flow of a team game while still letting her individual talents blossom and shine through.

Miss Littlejohn is part of a bright future for Wolf sports, a key member of a pack of young female athletes who are the most promising Coupeville High School has seen since the glory days of the late ’90s and early 2000’s.

That she manages to bring together talent and chutzpah with compassion and self-awareness, that she can be both sides of the coin, marks Mia as a young woman to watch.

A young woman worthy of a town’s pride.

She is a very good athlete, and a better person. You don’t always get both in one person and it should be hailed when you see it.

Happy birthday, Mia. May your day sparkle as much as you do.

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Mad Dawg: Feisty ‘n Fantastic!!

Posted in A freakin' American hero, Girls Soccer, Happy birthday, Track, Volleyball, tagged , , , , on March 11, 2015| Leave a Comment »

Madison Tisa McPhee, the best damn athlete to NEVER be named Athlete of the Year at CHS.

   Madison Tisa McPhee, the best damn athlete to NEVER be named Athlete of the Year at CHS.

She was the first true superstar of Coupeville Sports.

Before McKayla Bailey, before Caleb Valko and Breeanna Messner, before Killer, Hammer Time, Elbows, The Big Hurt or Maddie Big Time, one name towered over all the rest in the early days of this blog.

Madison Tisa McPhee was a bright, blazing star. Still is, just in other arenas.

Volleyball, soccer and, most of all, the pinnacle of track and the times when she sat astride a horse, the one and only, original, Mad Dawg, rocked the joint.

Flying across the hurdles or teaming with Makana Stone, Jai’Lysa Hoskins, Sylvia Hurlburt, Marisa Etzell and Kirsten Pelroy to shatter every relay record in sight, Madison couldn’t be caught.

Put her on a horse, slap a cowboy hat on her head and the look of steely intensity she brought to track would morph into a mile-wide grin of pure delight as she and her steed thundered to win after win in riding events.

Whatever the arena, Tisa McPhee reveled in the competition, was her best in the brightest of spotlights.

That, in itself, would have marked her as a success.

But it was out of the spotlight, in the other moments, where she rose above all others.

Few, if any, high school-aged girls would consent to having a picture of their face published on the internet less than a hour after an errant soccer ball had shattered their delicate nose.

Madison said yes, quickly and fairly emphatically (maybe the painkillers were kicking in?), and that story remains among the 20 most-viewed pieces ever published on this blog (and we’re just a hair away from article #3,000).

She always answered my questions (no matter how stupid they were or how busy she probably was) and, in person, she has always been one of the most delightful people you are likely to meet.

Mad Dawg has charisma for days, and she knows it, but she wields her super power with a delicate touch.

She’s confident, bold, sometimes brash, but she pulls it all off in style.

You are a superstar, Miss Madison. From the day you were born (which happens to be today), never-ending.

The world is yours to rule. Go take it.

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