Coupeville Sports

The 7th graders during the regular season. From left, Mckenzie Meyer, Payton      Aparicio, Katrina McGranahan, Mia Littlejohn, Sage Renninger, Kyla Briscoe, Lauren Rose. (Justine McGranahan photo)

Building blocks.

That’s what Scott Hay was laying this weekend, as he took a fairly inexperienced group of Coupeville 7th grade basketball players (plus one 6th grader, an 8th grader and a player from South Whidbey) to the Tulip Tourney in Mount Vernon.

While the Wolves absorbed four losses, they were facing teams which had been playing together far longer. But the rebuilding of a support program for future CHS hoops success starts here, in the heat of battle.

“This year’s 7th grade bracket was probably the toughest I’ve ever seen in the eight years I’ve been taking teams over,” Hay said. “We had 12 teams in our bracket, and all of them other than Coupeville and Orcas were serious select or AAU teams that have probably been playing together for at least three to four years.

“Our goal going into it was to just get some more court time and experience for the girls in some competitive basketball,” he added. “Boy, did we get some experience; unfortunately we just didn’t have the dribbling/ball handling as a team to be able to compete against these teams.”

While the scores look rough (58-8 to Meridian, 54-16 to Wenatchee, 48-14 to the Regulators and 46-26 to Orcas Island), Hay saw what he needed to see — improvement and a commitment to future excellence.

“First and foremost these girls just don’t know the meaning of the word quit!,” Hay said. “They battled against bigger, more experienced teams and never once got down.

“Coaches and parents can run drills and teach fundamentals all day long but you can’t coach heart and these girls, every one of them had it!,” he added. “As we moved through the tourney you could see them starting to play harder and playing at a higher level.”

His thoughts on his roster:

Mia Littlejohn: “Mia played her heart out as usual and even came over to the Oak Harbor 8th grade squad to play some minutes. She is a very creative player who never stops looking for ways to score and set up her teammates.”

Kalia Littlejohn: “Plays with all the heart and passion you would expect from her. As a 6th grader playing in a high level tourney she accounted herself quite well, even scoring a couple of baskets.”

Payton Aparicio: “Totally showed the heart I was talking about. Came out of the game on Sunday with Orcas after taking a shot to the gut from their six-foot center. We were down to two subs because of soccer commitments; she was only out a few minutes and was ready to come back in.”

Lauren Rose: “Maybe it was knowing that we were short handed on Sunday, she just came to play. Knocking in shots from her wing position, Lauren had the high point game of the tourney for us with 14 points against Orcas.”

Sage Renninger: “Sage is one of the steadiest athletes you will find. Very versatile and can guard multiple positions. She played some excellent defense on some big, talented players.”

Katrina McGranahan: “I heard someone describe her as a natural rebounder; she just finds a way to pull that ball down in considerable traffic.”

Kyla Briscoe: “Another girl that showed tremendous heart. After breaking her index finger during our practice before the tourney she still played. She was almost brought to tears when the refs in the first game didn’t want her to play with it taped up. Lucky for them they did; I’m not sure what she would have done.”

Tiffany Briscoe: “We got her as a bonus. I knew we were going to be short-handed on Sunday and asked if Tiffany would be interested and she jumped at the chance. Strong post defender who definitely considers the paint her territory, enter at your own risk.”

Mckenzie Meyer: “Little spit-fire who plays with a chip on her shoulder. It’s like she feels offended that the other team has the ball and takes steps to remove that ball from them. Fouled out one game and I wouldn’t change how she plays for a minute.”

Mckayla Hezel: “Our South Whidbey player that shouldered the bulk of the ball handling duties with Mia. Creative player who loves touch passes to open teammates; the only downside is having to play against her for the next five years.”

What Hay and other coaches hope to see is a continued commitment to building the feeder program. The CHS gym is open Sundays 6-8 PM, with volunteers to help players of all ages work on their games, and Hay would like to have a SWISH team in place next season.

The squad would draw players from 4th to 7th grade, start practice a few weeks after school begins in the fall and play 10-12 games from November to December.

“Experience and playing more competitive ball at a younger age is key to developing a feeder program that can lift the level of play,” Hay said.

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Basketball season is never really over.

The games may be done, but the excitement lingers. Having seen quite a bit of both the Coupeville High School JV girls’ basketball squad and the Coupeville Middle School 8th grade hoopsters this season, I can honestly say that the future of Wolf basketball is a bright one.

Both groups are led by aggressive, tough-minded girls who fight for every loose ball and refuse to back down, regardless of what private school name might be stitched on the front of their opponent’s jerseys.

The next year or two should be exciting times for local hoops fans, as Valen Trujillo, Skyler Lawrence and company mesh with Kacie Kiel, McKayla Bailey and already-established varsity stars like Amanda Fabrizi and Breeanna Messner.

To keep the excitement going, we’re stepping back in time a few days to offer you a last look at the season finale for the middle school stars, captured by rock ‘n roll photo whiz Jenn Dohner.

And yes, that first photo does look it came from the pages of Rolling Stone.

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              Sitting, l to r, Tiffany Briscoe, Jae LeVine, coach Brett Smedley. Standing, Valen Trujillo, Lauren Grove, Carlie Rosenkrance, Mattea Miller, Skyler Lawrence. (Mindy Grove photo).

I had a flashback recently.

There was a moment in a Coupeville Middle School girls’ basketball game recently, when Wolf 8th grader Valen Trujillo went for a loose ball and it was like I was back in the early ’90s again, and it was glorious.

In the moment Trujillo ripped the ball out of her opponent’s hands with such violent force that she lifted the other girl off the ground and deposited her several feet from where she had involuntarily left the court, I saw Jodi Christensen again.

Christensen, now a mild-mannered mom operating under the married name of Crimmins, was an incredibly nice young woman off the court and a wild beast between the lines. She didn’t play dirty, but she freaked people out — including some of her own teammates — with her intensity.

Somewhere Marlys (West) Holmes is still flinching.

Jodi came after you like a rabid dog, and there was nowhere to hide. The ball belonged to her and nothing was going to stop her from obtaining it.

She was a walking, talking collection of bruises, eliciting screams as she barreled into benches, bounced off walls and laid herself on the line every second she played. Then, as other players counted their fingers and toes to make sure they were all there, she would stroll away with a happy smile on her beaming face.

Which is EXACTLY what Trujillo does. Every single glorious time.

I say glorious because next year is going to be Hell on Earth for Coupeville High School opponents.

Some teams may come to town with more talent, but if the players from this year’s 8th grade squad mesh with the back alley brawlers who were on the high school JV team, those other teams will also leave town shaky and nervous, like the King’s 8th grader who ran crying from the gym this season.

You take McKayla “Turtle Shell” Bailey and her scrappers (Kacie Kiel, Wynter Thorne, Emily “I Will Rip Your Head Off” Coulter, etc.) and pit them against Trujillo, Skyler Lawrence, Tiffany Briscoe and Co., and you may have some wild practices.

Lawrence is like a vacuum cleaner on the boards, refuses to let anyone strip the ball and hustles her rear off. When your post player is out at the front of the break on almost every play, that is commitment.

Lauren Grove and Mattea Miller come almost as hard as Trujillo does, Carlie Rosenkrance brings the offense and while Jae LeVine may be the smallest girl on the court, she buzzes all over the place and NEVER backs down on defense. Plus her three-point dance is the best.

With the team leaders being Breeanna Messner and Amanda Fabrizi (they may be cheerleaders, but Fabrizi kicked a girl in the HEAD this year — sort of by accident — and Messner’s pink shoes can’t disguise a cold-blooded killer on the court), the Wolves will be, if nothing else, seriously scrappy next season.

They will be like a pack of Jodi Christensen’s, varsity and JV.

Just they way they should be.

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Katrina McGranahan skies for the opening tip in the day’s best game. (Justine McGranahan photos)

         Mia Littlejohn shoots a free-throw as Sage Renninger (14) watches.

Even in foul trouble, McGranahan is all smiles.

OK, technically it was a split.

Playing their final games of the season Wednesday in the spotlight of the big gym, the Coupeville Middle School girls’ basketball teams won two and lost two to visiting arch-rival Langley.

But what everyone will take away from Wednesday is Wolf fans storming the floor after Mia Littlejohn slayed the highly-favored beast from the South, driving the length of the court to cap the 7th grade varsity game with a game-clinching layup under considerable pressure.

The final two of her game-high 17 points, the bucket lifted Coupeville to a 29-28 win, its third straight triumph.

Add in an 8-3 win for the 7th grade JV and narrow losses for both 8th grade squads (25-15 for the varsity and 10-4 for the JV), and the finale was a barn-burner for everyone in the stands.

Which did not include me, as I had to work…

“You missed a GREAT game!,” said an excited 7th grade coach Sarah Stuurmans. “Could have ended terrible, but, for once, we came out on TOP!!!!!!!!

“Can you tell I was excited?!?! It could not have ended better,” she added. “We ended the season with three straight wins and hopefully that motivates the girls to keep going and get some extra time in the gym.”

With Littlejohn juking the Langley players out of their high-tops, pouring in eight points in the early going, Coupeville jumped out to an 11-6 lead.

A tough foe refused to go away, however, turning the contest into a back-and-forth affair. Down by four with two minutes to play, Langley surged and took the lead back at 28-27 after a series of free throws.

Enter the unflappable Littlejohn, who took the ball, bull-rushed the backpedaling defense and threw in the eventual game-winner with six ticks of the clock left.

That actually left Langley with a chance to pull of their own stunner, but a traveling call with 1.1 seconds to go killed their hopes and sent Coupeville fans into a tizzy.

“Geez, you should have been there!” said Stuurmans. “TOTAL upset and the fans stormed the floor. It really was fantastic.”

Despite battling foul trouble, Katrina McGranahan went for six points to back up Littlejohn, while Kyla Briscoe popped for three, Sage Renninger banked in two and Lauren Rose swished a free-throw to round out the scoring.

The key to the win, however, was the team’s defense, Stuurmans said. Renninger continually thwarted Langley’s best scorer, while Rose pilfered six steals in the second half.

Briscoe, Rose, Mckenzie Meyer and Payton Aparicio rotated through numerous positions due to foul trouble and mismatches on the court due to size and all sparkled. Adding a final dimension was Kameryn St Onge, who came up from the JV and “played AMAZING defense on their post,” shutting her down in the second half.

7th grade JV: Dropping some harsh ‘d’ on the visitors, the Wolves bounced their rivals out of the gym.

“There was a lot of physical play, steals, and turnovers,” Stuurmans said. “But we were playing so hard on defense and truly the ball was in our court most of the 14 minutes.”

St Onge paced Coupeville with four points while Hope Lodell and Ashley Smith each dropped in a bucket.

8th grade JV: Rebounding nicely from the first time these two schools met (a 30-4 Langley win the first time around), the Wolves were paced by Erin Josue, who scored all four of Coupeville’s points.

8th grade varsity: Carlie Rosenkrance’s shot-making and scrappy defense helped keep the Wolves close, but a late run by Langley doomed Coupeville. The visitors used a a 10-3 fourth-quarter run to bust open what had been a close game for three quarters.

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