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More Homecoming goodness? Why not?!?!

Posted in Homecoming, Poking the Canucks, tagged CHS Wolves, Homecoming, John Fisken photos, Suck it Canada on October 27, 2014| Leave a Comment »

Maddy Neitzel gets ready to flu during pre-game warmups. (John Fisken photos)

Maddy Neitzel gets ready to fly during pre-game warmups. (John Fisken photos)

“I’m a senior, Jim, not a doctor!!” Homecoming floats centered around board games, with Operation setting the pace.

Senior Aaron Wright shares a moment with his grandparents.

Madeline Strasburg and CHS tennis coach Ken Stange were ready to snap some memories.

“I’m small, but I’m sassy!” A halftime performance introduced Wolf fans to the future of CHS cheer.

Senior princesses (l to r) Julia Myers, Wynter Thorne and Kacie Kiel are just along for the ride.

Savanna Dohner cranks up the bass.

Freshman princess Abby Parker enjoys the evening.

Shame on you, Canada.

Proving the “local” newspapers have learned nothing after the debacle of last year, we now sit three full days away from what is, for a small town, a big deal.

That deal is Coupeville High School’s Homecoming celebration, which included a parade through town, halftime festivities and the best football game I may have witnessed in 24 years of covering sports on Whidbey Island.

But, other than a story on the game (Sports Editor Jim Waller is on top of his game), the Canuck-owned Whidbey papers would have you believe none of that happened.

Not a single photo can be found on either the Whidbey News-Times or Whidbey Examiner web sites, as we careen head-long into being 72 hours past the events.

During that time, we here at Coupeville Sports have already published 50+ photos.

Cause, unlike the hosers up in Moose Jaw, we understand the importance of documenting small town life for the people who live in our small town.

Maybe the “local” newspapers will catch up to the rest of us, one day. Maybe next year.

If they’re still here…

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Just say no to Canada fleecing you!!

Posted in Obits, Poking the Canucks, tagged obits, save money, Whidbey News-Times on October 14, 2014| Leave a Comment »

My dad, Marlo Svien (on right) always appreciated a good bargain.

My dad, Marlo Svien (on right), would be for this, since he always appreciated a good bargain. (Photo courtesy Sarah Kirkconnell)

It’s a sham and it’s a scam.

The Whidbey News-Times, like many other Canadian-owned newspapers, once thought the good times would never end.

Then, Craigslist came along and killed the classified ads business, and panic set in.

They need money to prop up their failing business model and they’ll get it anywhere they can.

So, they decided to stick it to the folks trying to pay tribute to their dearly departed.

The WNT currently charges $15 a column inch to run an obituary. They’ll take your photo and cut it down to two column inches to go with the obit, at a cost of $30.

Having written an obit for a local family in the last week, I can state for a fact that 147 words and a teeny, tiny pic will cost you $150 if you choose Canada.

That’s not very much space to sum up a person’s life. But, you have to choose between thrift and story-telling, unless you’re wiling to let the credit card bill roll up to several hundred dollars.

Until now.

Coupeville Sports is all about bringing the news back to the people, with no pay walls to restrict how and when you get that info.

It’s simple.

For a flat donation of $50, I will run your obit (no word count restriction) and one or two full-sized photos on my blog.

What would cost you considerably through the WNT will no longer break your wallet at a time when you have other things to be concerned about.

If you look at the top of Coupeville Sports, you will see a tab marked Obits. Click on that and you will find a dedicated section where they will be.

This service is open to anyone, regardless of what town they live in. You do not have to be from Coupeville to be honored on Coupeville Sports.

The obits will always be there, for friends, families and interested readers to get a glimpse into your loved one’s life. Once it’s published, it will remain there for the life of the blog.

While I do not have a print edition, you can easily print off the obit from my site if you would like to have a permanent copy. Without having to pay a second time when you purchase a newspaper.

Creating an obituary is not easy. I have done so for too many family members over the past 10 years not to appreciate that.

My hope is by bringing the financial cost down, at least one part of the process becomes significantly less painful.

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Free, you say? Free, I say!!

Posted in Poking the Canucks, Ranting and Raving, tagged Black Press is hosin' you, paid subscriptions, Safeway on June 11, 2014| Leave a Comment »

Yes, I am three years old.

Nature finds a way. Always.

In the past, you could try and control the news, parcel it out at the rate you wanted and make people pay every time they read it, but that time has passed.

The Whidbey Island newspapers, which would prefer you didn’t look behind the curtain and realize they’re all owned by one of the largest media conglomerates going, Black Press of Canada, are locked in denial and they’re not coming out any time soon.

Access to their web sites (which is where far more people are looking for their news as print editions of newspapers wither on the vine) is limited to a handful of articles per month before the screen goes gray and a popup attempts to block your access.

I use the word “attempt” for a reason, since, if you go to the side and hold down the mouse, the articles roll upward, paragraph after paragraph coming up over the top of the popup.

Guess what? Live with the gray of the screen and you just read the entire article … for free.

When a commentator on the News-Times Facebook site raised the question of why articles weren’t freed for reading after their expiration date, a Canadian-paid employee tried to draw a comparison to the bakery at Safeway giving away its inventory at closing, saying you couldn’t expect that, could you?

Well, except that DOES happen EVERY day.

When it was pointed out that Safeway, like all grocery stores on the Island, do EXACTLY that, donating large quantities of merchandise to local food banks, the offending comment, and the one that provided the set-up for the rebuttal, suddenly vanished.

I’m not saying the Canadian-financed papers, which send most of their profits back to Canada no matter how many times a random employee or two may purchase cheese and wine at local shops (David Black is NOT operating a non-profit), would deny people access to food.

Even those who can not always pay for it.

But, they would deny you access to news.

Including news about … the food banks.

The “local” papers are using a broken business model, clinging desperately to the belief that they, and they alone, are capable of providing you with the news.

When they are beaten, consistently and loudly, by a one-man operation working on a computer run by two hamsters on a treadmill, they are prone to getting seriously defensive.

They don’t like other people getting the news out there before them, free of charge for all to read.

It threatens their ability to buy wine and cheese, because, at some point, the bean counters in Moose Jaw may realize the business model is broken and shut it down.

And then they might have to become familiar with the local food banks.

Of course, that could be a liberating experience, finding out how many people on Whidbey Island actually do give stuff to others without requiring something in return.

And yes, I once cashed checks from the Canucks, when I was Sports Editor at the News-Times from 1992-1994. We all have our youthful indiscretions…

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Let’s get crazy!!

Posted in Poking the Canucks, Ranting and Raving, tagged can you spare a buck?, I quit my job, ranting and raving on May 15, 2014| Leave a Comment »

Yep…

Two weeks from Saturday, I leave my day-to-day job. It’s time.

My fingers, which are essential to doing the one thing I do well — craft words — have taken a beating, first on this job and at a previous one.

Physically and mentally, I need a break.

So, I’m taking my two bucks and change and walking away and I plan to spend the summer being a beach bum on the rocky, mussel-encrusted shores of Penn Cove and writing.

In 21 months of doing Coupeville Sports, on the side and around a “real” job, I have produced 2,045 articles.

That’s 97.3 articles a month, more than three a day.

I cover varsity. I cover JV. I cover middle school. I cover little kids. I even toss in some drama, a little science and a smidge of band, just to keep you guessing.

If you’re a star, I put your name in bold. If you’re a bench warmer, I write a feature about you … with your name in bold and a couple of exclamation points in the headline.

The Canadian-owned papers are the dad in the easy chair, comfortable and half-asleep.

I’m the (sometimes) annoying little kid who has crawled up the back fence and is screaming out all the gossip to anyone with two ears in the neighborhood.

And guess what, Canucks?

I’m going to have a lot more free time on my hands and those hands are firmly grasped around the paddle headed for your over-privileged fanny.

My hope is, if I can make the few bucks I need to cover my minimal bills (frugal is replacing Alan as my middle name), that I go forward 100% with Coupeville Sports from this moment.

No more conflicts, no more other job.

So, readers, what is this worth to you?

Do you want an independent voice on the Island, a guy who has not only lived here for 25 years but actually swims in Penn Cove daily, or are you content to bow to a corporation owned by a kajillionaire up in Moosejaw who, if he thinks of our town, thinks of our town only as a dot on a spread sheet?

Do you want to support a company that took the vending machines out of the Whidbey News-Times’ office (is this Russia?!?!) or support the guy who successfully pulled off Cookie Wars 2014?

Is it worth $5 to you to keep the dream alive? $10? More?

Unlike the Canadian-owned rags, I won’t charge you to read anything on this blog and won’t put pop-up ads on here to annoy the livin’ Hell out of you.

Ever.

If 2,045 articles and 783,087 photos in 21 months is not worth a penny to you, feel free to keep reading for free. You don’t even have to feel bad about it.

But, if you do feel like fueling the rebellion, and choose to click on the donation button on the top right hand side of the main page, your $1 or $5 or whatever you feel OK about parting with, will do one huge thing.

It will make it more likely that, when the fall rolls around, I am doing this 100% of the time.

That I am attending every home game, and not just the ones I can get to around a “real” job.

That my turn-around time for getting stories written and posted (already pretty darn quick) is never compromised because The Man requests my presence at work 10 minutes after a game is done.

That I continue to show Canada how Coupeville should be covered.

So, think about it. I’ll be over here, soaking my fingers in Penn Cove.

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Keep the Lone Wolf howlin’!!

Posted in Free Food is Super Dandy, Poking the Canucks, tagged 2000 articles, Black Press is hosin' you, Donations are dandy on May 4, 2014| Leave a Comment »

Just a small taste of Cookie Wars 2014. The beanie was sewn for me by baseball mom Joan Payne.

Special delivery. (Shelli Trumbull photo)

Have an extra buck or two and not sure what to do with it?

With one swipe of a credit card, you (yes, you!) can help keep the dream alive.

The dream of independent journalism not being snuffed out by a monolithic corporation. The dream of every kid on Central Whidbey getting every one of their athletic accomplishments, be it a first or a 71st-place performance, noticed.

The dream of getting me out of the dish pits.

In just under 21 months, Coupeville Sports (a one-man operation run out of a top-secret bunker next to Penn Cove on a computer powered by a squirrel on a treadmill) has published 2,006 articles.

That’s a real number.

A number that makes the output of the “professional” papers look like diddly and squat. And I’m doing it in my spare time, working around a real job to pay my minimal bills.

Varsity high school sports. JV. Middle school. Youth sports. Community sports. You name it, I cover it.

The Canadian-owned “local” newspapers do not, can not and will not do what I am doing.

For one thing, they have a problem with my over-use of exclamation points…

Suck it, back bacon lovers!!

But, I could do more. Freed from the constraints of answering to The Man, I could be at EVERY home high school game, and not just some.

I could show up in person for more community sports activities. Hunt down more scoops.

Expand into South Whidbey coverage, even. Recent articles on Falcon athletes Ricky Muzzy and Isla Dubendorf got nice numbers.

The sound you just heard was the South Whidbey Record trying to wake up from its 12-year coma/nap, and failing…

But to do it, I need your help.

Many have donated to the cause so far (check out our David’s Best Ever Friends page), but now it’s a billion, trillion times easier, with the addition of a donation button to the blog.

Live in Jersey? Bangladesh? Want to help fight the invaders from Moose Jaw? Keep alive that one irrational voice in the woods, screaming the gossip in all caps?

You can do so now, much, much easier. If you feel like it.

Either way, I will keep trying to navigate that tightrope.

On the one hand, I am fond of flippin’ the bird at Black Press/Sound Publishing, as it tries to buy up every paper in the free world, before demanding you pay for the privilege of reading stories that run five days late (how very 1945 of them…).

On the other hand, Coupeville Sports is a celebration, and we have to keep the funk goin’ down.

The recent explosion of Cookie Wars, in which local moms and CHS athletes went on a rampage of bringing me sweet treats, was a grass roots example of how this can work.

I’m not looking for a Hawaiian vacation. My crud-encrusted car, “White Thunder,” is just fine for the one-mile trip from my duplex down to the sports fields at CHS.

But I would like to stop crushing my fingers in the dish pits and devote my entire time to doing what I do best, while I can still get those middle fingers extended Canada way at the Evil Empire that erased three years worth of my bylined stories and couldn’t give a crap.

So, think about it.

Your 45 cents (or more … you can certainly donate more … maybe make it an even two quarters, at least) keeps the Lone Wolf howlin’.

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