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Archive for the ‘Ranting and Raving’ Category

Help me pay it forward!!

Posted in Ranting and Raving, tagged , , , , on March 27, 2016| Leave a Comment »

This collage of spring sports athletes shows just a hint of how many athletes are out there, and every one has a story to tell. (John Fisken photos)

This collage of CHS spring sports teams in action shows just a hint of how many athletes are out there, and every one has a story to tell. (John Fisken photos)

So, I have an idea.

If it works, it could be a benefit to all of us.

Basically, what I want to do is start my own unofficial journalism school, give fledgling middle school and high school writers a foot in the door and add another layer of coverage here at Coupeville Sports.

Way back in olden times (late ’89/early ’90) I was doing an extra semester at Oak Harbor High School (the result of my family moving from Tumwater midway through my senior year).

Having fast-talked my way into the journalism program at OHHS, run by current Whidbey News-Times Sports Editor Jim Waller, I got my big break by accident.

Brian Zylstra, the sports guru at the WNT in those days, was going to a Christmas banquet and needed someone to write about and photograph a boys’ basketball game between Oak Harbor and Shelton.

Long story short, the kid who snapped pics didn’t make the cut, my story was printed, I was offered a second story and I’ve spent the last 26 years chafing editors and readers.

And now it’s your turn.

Yes, you.

Here’s what I’m offering: I want you, CHS and CMS students, to write for me.

In exchange, you get published, your work gets promoted, you make no money (thereby giving you a realistic feel for what journalism offers most of us) and you find out whether slappin’ words together is for you.

Plus, you retain rights to your work, so while it will debut here on Coupeville Sports, it’s your story (and/or photos) and you can use it however you like down the road.

I’m not looking for game coverage right now, though who knows what might develop later.

What I am looking for is your unique perspective, a perspective I, as a 44-year-old non-student, wouldn’t have.

Are you an athlete?

This is your chance to drop a first-person account on the world about what that really means to you, without me slicing and dicing your quotes and shaping the story.

You write, I publish.

Or skip the first-person style and write a conventional story. Up to you.

Subject matter? Also up to you.

The blog is called Coupeville Sports for a reason, but I am easy.

Unless you start droppin’ cuss words left and right (I do have a lot of middle school-aged readers), I will edit your work with the lightest of fingers (if at all).

I, and my readers, want to see through your eyes.

What do you think about when you take the field? What does your sport mean to you?

What is your greatest sports achievement or your biggest failure? What drives you?

What do you, as the athlete in the arena, wish I, as the writer on the outside, saw?

There are no (or very few) restrictions. No word counts. Go as short or as long as you like. Pick whatever topic you like.

Use whatever writing style you like. I would rather see your passion come through than worry about whether your sentences are “properly” constructed.

The more personal you’re willing to be, the better.

Of the 4,000+ articles I’ve published, a first-person account of a former Wolf basketball star facing her battle with alcohol remains one of the most powerful pieces Coupeville Sports has delivered.

Have an opinion on how the athletic code is (or is not) enforced? Vent away, as long as you’re willing to have your name on the article.

Or, want to talk about a teammate who means a lot to you, a coach who inspires you or a game you will never forget? Let it rip.

Whether you go dark or light, tell the story that only YOU can. That is what is remembered longest.

And what if you’re not a Wolf athlete? Welcome to the party, as well.

You don’t have to be playing a sport to be published.

You’re a 7th grader who’s never picked up a ball or bat in your life or a 12th grader who’s about to move on to play college ball, or somewhere in between? Equal opportunity, man.

So, how does this work? It’s simple, really simple.

Send me your stories, either to davidsvien@hotmail.com or message me on Facebook.

If you have photos, so much the better. If not, no worries.

Whether you have one story in you or a billion, let me give you a platform.

Let’s take Coupeville Sports to the next level, together.

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Don’t make me get a “real” job!!

Posted in Ranting and Raving, tagged , , , , , on March 19, 2016| Leave a Comment »

doo

I’m not wearing pants in this photo. If I had a “real” job, I’d have to wear pants.

Everything about Coupeville Sports is irrational.

If I was being rational, I wouldn’t have thrown a hissy fit when the Coupeville Examiner sold itself to the same Canadian newspaper conglomerate that already owned the Whidbey News-Times and South Whidbey Record and stomped off to start this blog in August, 2012.

Of course, when years of my freelance stories (many of which were never paid for) got deleted in a single keystroke, it was fairly easy to feel all pissy and self-righteous.

If I was being rational, I would have accepted one of the overtures I have received since then, and taken my writing skills back inside the conventional newspaper industry.

But once you get a taste of freedom, with its double-exclamation point headlines, you can’t go back. Or, at least, I doubt I could.

While Coupeville Sports has never made me rich (focusing on a small town in the middle of nowhere apparently is not catnip to national advertisers), I have gotten far more enjoyment out of the last 43 months than I did out of the previous 15 years of freelance writing.

Now, for the first 33 months of this blog, I balanced it with a “real” job at Christopher’s on Whidbey, which helped pay the bills.

Last May I decided to take some time off, mainly to help my fingers, which are kinda, sorta important to writing.

Dish-washing and onion peeling are brutal on the hands, and, while owner Andreas Wurzrainer was exceedingly helpful when it came to juggling schedules so I could cover sports, three-plus years in the pit was more than enough.

Having never been without a “real” job for longer than 2-3 weeks since I was a pre-teen (my dad enjoyed having his children work for his window washing/carpet cleaning business), taking what I thought would be a month or two off seemed quite exciting.

Then, things happened, my personal life imploded (I’ll spare you the details) and I developed a serious resistance to plunging back into the “real” job world, something that has only intensified in the months that followed.

So, I doubled down on Coupeville Sports, greatly expanding my coverage, both in terms of what I covered in person and how in-depth I’ve gone.

I sold all my DVDs (2,500+), radically reduced my bills (rent, propane, internet and car insurance on “The Beast That Will Not Die” is all I have), finally got an EBT card and have managed to stay one (small) step ahead for almost 10 months now.

During that time, I have been a regular at middle school games, hitched rides with people to cover stuff on the road, written a billion (give or take one or two) birthday articles and gone extensively into local sports history in a way not done before.

With all due respect to the local newspapers, and my mentors like Jim Waller and Keven Graves, I offer something they don’t have the time, patience or desire to do.

They have to juggle two towns, they face deadlines, they have to be more professional, than I do. Comes with the job.

They are the dad sitting in the easy chair, reading the paper and occasionally looking over it to tell you what’s going on in the world. And don’t get me wrong, they are very good at what they do, and they fill an important role.

I have no desire to see the newspapers go away.

But me?

I’m the little kid who has crawled up to the top of the fence, and then, as I’m rocking back and forth, trying not to crack open my head, bellows “Hey, hey, hey, guess what I heard?!?!?!?”

I’m the gossip guy, the builder of myths, the nickname-giver, the idiot who is entertaining himself (and hopefully a few others).

Still tick off some people (especially if they live in South Whidbey and are softball fans), but hopefully have mellowed a bit. But just a bit.

In the end, all my writing, all the photos, all the hyperventilating hyperbole is meant to do one thing — to make all the other towns, and their athletes and coaches, jealous.

If they lived in Coupeville, they’d be immortalized.

But they live in Darrington, or Seattle, or, God help them, the wilds of South Whidbey, and they’re lucky to get one story a year.

We may not have as many championships as other towns, but we’re damn sure going to be the kings and queens of story-telling.

When our kids, the kids you raised and the kids I wrote about, graduate and move on, they will be able to look back and say “I was part of something special, something that hadn’t happened before.”

At least I’d like to think so.

But then, I’m an unemployed idiot, so take everything I say with a grain of salt, maybe.

And now we get to the point of all of this (’bout freakin’ time…) ranting and raving.

As we sit here in the middle of March, I have hit the wall.

Even with my sparse bills (did I mention I don’t waste money on cigarettes, booze or Netflix?), I either need to get some help or I will need to return to the “real” working world before the month is done.

Either way, Coupeville Sports is not going anywhere. And I will never charge you to read my stories like the newspapers do.

But, if I go back to “real” work, coverage will change.

Birthday stories and a lot of the deep history stories will most likely have to be cut. I won’t have the time.

Covering events in person, which allows me to be much more creative than merely writing off of emails from coaches (with the exception of David and Amy King, who spin beautiful stories while riding school buses), could be greatly affected, depending on the time constraints of a real job.

I would prefer to remain a “shiftless bum,” with writing my main priority.

If you want to help, there are three ways.

Donations, either one-time or monthly, are greatly appreciated. There is a handy button on the top right of this blog, I have a mailbox (165 Sherman, Coupeville, WA 98239) or you can slip something in my pocket at a game.

Not your wadded up candy wrapper, maybe, but you get the point.

I also sell ads (they go down the right side of the blog) for $100, and, once purchased, are good for the life of the blog.

Yes, yes, yes, selling them once raises less money than repeatedly charging people (I know how advertising works), but it’s how I started and it wouldn’t be fair to those who supported me in the beginning to change the rules now.

Irrational, maybe. Loyal, definitely.

The third option is to have me write stuff for your business, like I do with places such as Ashley’s Design and The Pacific NorthWest Art School.

Typically I charge $30 for an article per month (topic of your choosing) or, if you sign up for a year and hand me $300, I’ll give you two free months.

Heck, I’ll write the Christmas letter you send to family, if you like. Make lil’ Johnny and Sally sound like superstars!

Coupeville Sports, in all its irrational glory, has always been what we all make of it. And that will always hold true.

We’ll keep moving forward, and see where this wacky ride ends up going.

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You mad bro? Should be!!

Posted in Football, Ranting and Raving, tagged , , , , on September 16, 2015| Leave a Comment »

Lincoln Kelley (John Fisken photo)

   Win for Lincoln Kelley or he’ll have to go rip the computer’s heart out with his bare hands. (John Fisken photo)

Dear Coupeville High School football players,

The computers think you stink.

There’s really no other way to look at it, since that’s what “Debbie,” the diabolical and vehemently anti-Whidbey computer at the heart of ScoreCzar.org is burping out right now.

In her latest rankings, she has the Wolves ranked #52 … out of 53 schools playing 1A football.

That’s right. Debbie thinks you could beat Stevenson, a school that has been outscored 91-7 in its first two games, but just about no one else.

Granted, you are 0-2 on the young season, but you were within two points with six minutes to play in your opening game, and lost to a 2A school that had a line comprised almost entirely of 300-pound beasts last week.

So, I think Debbie is underestimating you here, by a lot.

But this? This is what should really sting.

Coupeville’s opponent this Friday, Chimacum, is also 0-2. Oh, but wait, the Cowboys have actually lost 14 consecutive games covering nearly a two-year period.

And yet, Debbie has them ranked 12 slots higher than you at #40.

Whaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa?

I know. I know.

Debbie’s handlers can, and will, reel off a list of smooth computery talk about ratios this and slide rules that and it’ll sound almost convincing, but don’t listen.

Just stop and realize the computers say a team that hasn’t won since 2013 is somehow 12 slots better than you.

Then go out and drop-kick Chimacum Friday night.

Do it for yourself. Do it for your teammates. Do it for your town.

Tell our computer overlords that Wolves do not go quietly into that good night. Instead, they live to make Debbie cry sweet, sweet tears of regret.

 

To see the complete rankings, which feature Coupeville’s 1A Olympic League mate Port Townsend at #2, pop over to:

http://www.scoreczar.org/classifications/4-high-school-football-wa1a

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So, this is life…

Posted in Ranting and Raving, tagged , , , , on September 10, 2015| Leave a Comment »

"Man, Uncle David, you do jabber on, don't you?"

“Man, Uncle David, you do jabber on, don’t you?”

I’m having a bit of an existential crisis over here.

It’s been sparked by a lot of things, probably, as I wound my way through one of the more bizarre summers of my life.

In no particular order I:

Quit my day job of three-plus years in an effort to save my typing fingers from the ravages of more battles with the dish pit.

Then drifted along, swimming with the jellyfish in Penn Cove and not accomplishing much at all, certainly not finding a new job.

Sold every single one of my 2,700 DVDs, even greatest-movie-of-all-time “Raiders of the Lost Ark” and the unfairly maligned “Bad Girls from Valley High.”

The landlord does appreciate getting his rent in a timely fashion.

Found myself in an unexpected romantic relationship that went from zero to 199 MPH before I was (metaphorically) slammed into a brick wall by my first up-close encounter with truly unfathomable mental illness.

Breakups happen. People get mad or change.

But when fear and paranoia that haunt a beautiful, intelligent, joyful person rips free and strips all that away in a blink of an eye, it scars. Badly.

Got to experience the inside of our judicial system as it was being abused for the first time.

Gave consideration to going back into the world of professional/corporate newspapers again in some manner, while actually returning to the pages of The Whidbey Examiner, for one story at least, after an absence of four years.

That last one might have been the oddest of all those moments.

It’s a good story, one that deserved to be told, but, as I posted a link to it on Facebook today and didn’t see the usual Coupeville Sports kicker, I knew, immediately, this would not work. Not at this point in my life.

After all the time and sweat poured into my own project, doing side work, even for money, left me with an eerie empty feeling I couldn’t shake.

There was a 15-year-plus streak where my writing appeared every week in the Examiner, without fail.

My movie column jumped from the Whidbey News-Times to the Examiner (when they were actual rivals and not sister publications owned by a giant conglomerate) when the upstart was on issue #2 or #3, and kept on rolling, week after week, for a surprisingly long time.

Later, I wrote a lot of sports articles (and even got paid for a few) and there was a time when, arguably, my byline had appeared in those pages, and later, online, as much or more than any other writer in the paper’s history.

And then, long story compressed into a single run-on sentence, the Examiner got sold, thousands of my bylines got erased, I got pissed, launched Coupeville Sports and went to war with the “Evil Empire,” only to find, to my surprise, the joy I got from my new endeavor mattered more than any trumped-up feud.

Being able to be my own editor, to publish whatever I choose, whenever I choose, however I choose, without concern over being impartial and detached (cause I’m not) has been liberating. It has been invigorating.

What it hasn’t been is all that profitable.

But that’s fine.

If I was writing for the money, a regular paycheck, I would go back to “real” journalism, in whatever capacity was available to me.

Which I considered.

And believe me, none of this is meant as a knock on the people currently working for the papers here on Whidbey. They’re in the job for more than money.

I know most of them very well, they are people who helped me along the way and influenced my writing, and I have great respect for long-time pros like Keven Graves, Jim Waller and Jessie Stensland.

I just can’t do what they’re doing, even if I thought, for a brief second, I might be able to do so again.

It’s mainly I just don’t want to have to go put pants on again. My shorts-clad legs crave the open air of Whidbey winters in all its ferocious glory.

And yes, you can remind me I said that two months from now when I turn blue in the time it takes to go from my car to the gym.

Ultimately, though, it comes down to one thing. I believe in Coupeville Sports.

I believe in the improbable dream that at some point, I will give every single athlete in Cow Town their very own feature story.

We’re not quite there yet, but over the course of 3,441 articles and a gazillion photos, we have created something that couldn’t happen, that wouldn’t happen, at the newspapers.

It’s why I sold my DVDs, to give myself some time where my only focus was on the blog while still being able to pay my very limited bills.

That time is about to run out, so I may need to get past my summer-long mental block and get a “real” job again, though I hope not.

In a perfect world, every one who tells me how much they enjoy what I am doing here on Coupeville Sports would want this to be my “real” job, would skip one day’s Starbucks and donate $5 to the cause.

But, as this summer has repeatedly hammered home, perfection is awfully hard to capture.

Not that I’m going to stop trying, one existential crisis at a time.

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Is anyone really reading the words?!?!

Posted in Ranting and Raving, tagged , , , , on August 16, 2015| 1 Comment »

.000000007% of the photos to run on Cpupeville Sports in the last three years.

.000000007% of the photos run on Coupeville Sports in the last three years.

This ref, however, is not.

“You’re a slacker, son, a slacker.”  (John Fisken photo)

B

“Can’t hear you … too busy counting page views.” (Sarah Kirkconnell photo)

So, this is where I’m probably suppose to say something profound.

Today, Aug. 16, 2015, marks three years since Coupeville Sports hit the internet.

Over that time, I have produced 3,373 articles (slightly more than three a day) and at least four (or five) of them were truly worth reading.

Maybe slightly more. Maybe…

The internal clicker on Word Press shows I have accumulated 592,571 page views, which averages out to around 541 a day.

Some days a lot more, some days less.

Not as many as the big boys, but a lot more than I might have expected when my coverage area — small town sports — is pretty much the definition of a niche, and a very narrow one at that.

What have I learned in the last three years?

Run photos. A lot of them.

Like thousands of them.

Hey, if it’s worked so far, why change now?

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