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Archive for the ‘Polls’ Category

Respect? Maybe a smidge…

Posted in Basketball, Polls, tagged , , , , on December 9, 2018| Leave a Comment »

Wolf hoops star Avalon Renninger finds your polls a little sour. (Photo by JohnsPhotos.net)

If either Coupeville High School basketball team hangs a league championship banner this season, it will come as a surprise to the forecasters.

The Daily Herald in Everett, the largest newspaper to cover the North Sound Conference on a regular basis, recently commissioned a poll of league coaches to determine the projected order for the league’s first hoops season.

The good news?

The Wolf girls garnered a few more votes than their male counterparts.

The bad news?

Neither team is viewed as a juggernaut.

Now, a poll like this is a bit tricky, since Coupeville played in the Olympic League the last four seasons, and not the Cascade Conference, the now-dead 1A/2A league that, at its demise, belched forth the North Sound Conference.

So, a fair amount of league basketball coaches have never stood on a sideline and stared down at a Wolf squad.

Which means, basically, this is all a lot of guess-work and ultimately means diddly and squat.

Nothing is guaranteed, and everything will be decided between the lines when NSC players lace up their high-tops and take the hardwood.

But you know me. Never miss an opportunity to toss another article out there, so here we go.

Projected order of finish, as voted by league coaches (who could NOT vote for their own teams).

 

GIRLS:

King’s
Cedar Park Christian
South Whidbey
Coupeville
Granite Falls
Sultan

 

**King’s received all 1st place votes, but one coach declined to vote.**

 

BOYS:

King’s
South Whidbey
Cedar Park Christian
Sultan
Granite Falls
Coupeville

 

**King’s received all but one 1st place vote. The other 1st place went to South Whidbey, which won the Cascade Conference title last year while being led by the now-graduated Lewis Pope.**

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You like her! You really like her!!

Posted in Polls, tagged , , , , , on October 15, 2018| Leave a Comment »

Coupeville Middle School cross country coach Elizabeth Bitting, winner of the “CHS/CMS Top Fall Coach” poll.

Bitting (back, second from right) has always been a pro at hitting the tape first.

I love it when a plan comes together.

In a blatant bid to spike my page views, Coupeville Sports launched the “CHS/CMS Top Fall Coach” poll Saturday morning, a battle royal in which the winner would get a warm glow in their chest, and not much more.

Spoiler alert: it worked. It worked really, really well.

The 48-hour poll-tacular gave me a strong Saturday, then carried me Sunday to the single-biggest day in the history of the blog.

Yep, you pound out 6,405 articles across six years and two months, and all it takes is a poll to break my little corner of the internet…

So, a big thank you to the 21 Coupeville coaches, and their rabid fan-bases, who went toe-to-toe for 48 hours. My page view counter appreciates you all!

And in the end, who was the other winner, you ask?

After a back-and-forth brawl in which at least five different coaches made sustained runs, the final hours turned into a showdown between CHS cheer coach BreAnna Boon and CMS cross country guru Elizabeth Bitting.

First one was ahead, then the other, then back to the first, then back to the second, as the war raged on across time and space.

In the end, as the 9 AM Monday deadline clicked past, it was Bitting who triumphed, finishing with 7,987 votes to her friendly rival’s 7,295.

She joins football assistant coach Ryan King and track head coach Randy King, both winners in polls from previous school years, in the pantheon of coaching poll champs.

Rounding out the top five this time around were three CHS assistant coaches — football’s Bennett Richter (4,036) and Tyson Boon (1,891) and cheer’s Hailey Bell (1,652).

And hey, while only one coach could be the big champ (of a prestigious, but totally non-existent award), they all helped Coupeville Sports’s bottom line.

Which makes them all the real MVP’s.

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Let the bodies hit the floor!!

Posted in Polls, tagged , , , , on October 13, 2018| Leave a Comment »

L to r, top to bottom, it’s Natasha Bamberger, Hailey Bell, Nathan Bellamy, BreAnna Boon, Tyson Boon, Kwamane Bowens, Bobby Carr, Marcus Carr, Kyle Nelson, Bennett Richter, Gabe Shaw, Chris Smith, Ken Stange, Cory Whitmore and Robert Wood.

CMS coaches join the fracas. L to r, top to bottom, are Casie Greve, Elizabeth Bitting, Michael Davidson, Junior Scroggins, Sarah Lyngra and Brett Casey.

Let’s get ready to rumble, one more time!

Nothing sends a jolt through the crowd quite like dropping a hot ‘n spicy poll in the midst of an otherwise sleepy morning, then giving everyone limited time (but unlimited votes) to decide the very fate of the universe.

Instead of waiting until the end of the school year, and having way too many people involved, I’m jumping the gun on my annual Coach of the Year poll and turning it into a Fall Sports Coach of the Season event.

Even then, we’re looking at 21 men and women entering the arena, covering six high school squads and three middle school programs.

If this goes over well, I’ll be back to drop separate Winter and Spring versions of the poll.

And, if not, well, I’ll get a lot of page hits in the next two days. So, I’m fine either way.

If you haven’t been involved in a Coupeville Sports poll, or haven’t been paying attention during previous battle royals, here’s the rules:

There are none.

From the moment the poll drops, at around 9 AM Saturday, Oct. 13, until it closes 48 hours later, at 9 AM, Monday, Oct. 14, you can vote as many times as your little fingers desire.

Whip up your fan base. Fight for the glory of being the “CHS/CMS Top Coach of the Fall.” Just don’t expect an actual trophy when you win.

Or completely ignore my poll, go about your daily business and roll your eyes at me the next time we cross paths.

Completely your call.

But, like I said, it’s Wild West rules, pretty much.

I’m not going to stop you from mashing the keys on whatever device(s) you have, and if WordPress itself tries to slow down your voting (which it has on very rare occasions), you can usually beat it by jumping to a different device.

And with that, let the bodies hit the floor!

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It’s dandy to be Randy!!

Posted in Polls, tagged , , , , on April 18, 2018| Leave a Comment »

   CHS track guru Randy King unleashes a voting tsunami. (Photos by JohnsPhotos.net)

“It’s good to be the king, baby!”

Randy King’s fan club stays up late.

When I went to bed Tuesday night, the battle in the 2nd annual CHS Coach Supreme poll was a very-close, three-person tussle.

By the time I emerged from my covers Wednesday morning, the Wolf track guru had emerged as a solid winner, holding off the combined forces of softball coaches Kevin and Justine McGranahan.

King, who has the most seasons of any active coach at the school, covering past stints in basketball and football and his current run in track, follows in the wake of Ryan King (no relation), who won the poll in its inaugural season.

Despite the fact I’m 99.99% certain he didn’t cast a single vote for himself, Randy loyalists got their man a totally prestigious, and totally imaginary, award.

He finished with 1,024 votes, which accounted for 22.82% of the 4,487 cast.

Rounding out the top five were Kevin McGranahan (605), Justine McGranahan (580), track assistant Sylvia Hurlburt (400) and volleyball head man Cory Whitmore (363).

There was a field of 30 coaches in the poll, covering everyone who was a head or assistant coach at Coupeville High School during the 2017-2018 school year.

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One coach to rule them all!!

Posted in Polls, tagged , , , , , on April 16, 2018| Leave a Comment »

   CHS coaches, l to r, top to bottom, Chris Smith, Ashley Herndon, CJ Smith, Justine McGranahan, Mike Etzell, Lincoln Kelley, Luke Pelant, Chad Felgar, Gary Manker.

   Bob Martin, Jordan Ford, Amanda Jones, Neil Rixe, Brad Sherman, David King, Jon Atkins, Josh Welshans, Jerry Helm.

   Steve Hilborn, Ron Wright, Aaron Lucero, Kevin McGranahan, Sylvia Hurlburt, Kyle Nelson, Emily Stevens, Greg Thomas, Cory Whitmore.

   And the trio with the most seasons as Wolf coaches — Randy King, Ken Stange and Amy King.

A new champion will arise.

And a totally imaginary trophy will be waiting for them when they do.

With last year’s top two vote-getters, Ryan King and Kristin Bridges, taking a break from coaching this year, the 2nd annual CHS Coach Supreme should be a wide-open affair.

The rules are simple — 30 coaches enter the arena (whether they want to or not) and, 48 hours later, one emerges with a chance to do their best Sally Field impersonation.

“You like me, you really like me.”

No, there’s no real trophy, or plaque, or even a commemorative t-shirt, just a warm glow in your chest from a heapin’ helpin’ of internet love cascading over you.

To be eligible, you had to be a Coupeville High School coach during the 2017-2018 school year.

No slight intended to middle school coaches, but you are being excluded this time around. The name of the “award” starts with CHS, not CMS.

Voting rules? There are none.

Vote as many times as your little fingers desire, or your internet provider allows, over the next 48 hours.

The poll goes live Monday morning at 8:06 AM, and shuts down Wednesday at 8:06 AM (or whenever I stumble from bed).

It’s the Wild West out there. If you want the “award,” work for it. If you don’t, how dare you not take my silly, imaginary award seriously??????????

He said with a grin.

And, yes, if the poll seems like it arrived a bit earlier this year, it did.

I decided to jump the coach poll up from May to April to provide a bit more room (and for your voting fingers to un-cramp) between it and the poll of polls, the 6th annual CHS Athlete Supreme.

That one, where everyone loses all sense of dignity and decorum, while fighting for … an imaginary award … returns mid-May.

I’m still debating on whether to return that poll to one vote per person after internet scamps pulled off shenanigans last year to dramatically tip the results in favor of one athlete.

We shall see.

For now, like I said, this time out is Wild West rules. May the coach with the craftiest, most dedicated fan base win.

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