Coupeville Sports

The young David, already plotting his rise to being a chronically underpaid writer.

I can not stress this enough. I, and I alone, produce what you read on this blog. I, and I alone, am responsible for whatever you love or hate on here.

I do NOT work for the Coupeville School District. If I did, they would have some control over me. I do not, and they do not.

Now yes, at some point the administrators could take away my press pass or ban me from the facilities. They have plenty of power, and, to their credit, have not dropped the hammer on me (yet).

But complaining to CHS or CMS administrators, coaches or teachers, will never get you as far as simply screaming at me. And I’m not that hard to find.

My phone number is (360) 678-5650. My email address is davidsvien@hotmail.com.

My photo can be found in the “Who’s responsible for this stuff?” section atop the blog, so you know which guy to throw things at (or bribe with tasty treats) when you see me at a game.

Unlike the “traditional” newspapers I have written for over the past 20+ years, there are no layers of bureaucracy at coupevillesports.com. There are no editors to whack my knuckles.

But I do answer to someone. I answer to you, the readers.

If more people like what I do, my readership numbers go up. And sure, some of that may be “hate readership,” especially when I poke other schools (South Whidbey, ATM, Sultan … how you doin’?), but you still spent the time to read it, so we’ll call that a win for education in general!

And, if they hate it, or are upset, they either go away and don’t read (hasn’t happened yet) or they unload on me (oh, that has happened). If I’m a responsible writer, I grow and learn and adapt to the criticism … or I just blast ’em again.

But either way, the reader is my boss, pure and simple.

I understand the touchy parts of what I choose to cover — small town sports, with an emphasis on teenagers. There is a fine line between building pride in a town and making young kids feel a sense of accomplishment and over-inflating their egos and building a sense of unwarranted entitlement.

I also understand the concerns of parents about what photos I run. When you see photos with feature stories, those photos are provided by the athletes themselves (I do not skip across Facebook, poaching photos of young children), and I will always bow to the concerns of parents when it comes to interview questions or photo requests.

We’re almost 13 months into this now, with 1,262 articles and a billion (at least) photos provided by a wide range of photographers, from moms with camera phones to professional photographers who support the notion of giving the Canadian-funded “local” rags a wedgie.

There is no way everyone was happy with every story. Hopefully, no one hated every article. If you did, and you still read all of them, man … you are seriously dedicated.

As we roll into tomorrow, I will make some people happy, and I will tick off some others. That’s life. Acting like “a responsible adult” is probably not on my personal horizon, however.

But you, the reader, have the upper hand.

Tasty treats or liberal application of the ruler. Either way, that’s something I can understand.

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There you go, South Whidbey. An updated photo for your data base.

Year two begins.

Today marks the one-year anniversary of coupevillesports.com (celebratory cupcakes can be delivered to me at Christopher’s on Whidbey, if you so choose … he said with fingers crossed).

We entertained some people. We pissed off some people. Sometimes the same people.

1,209 articles, with 99.8% written by my dish pit-abused fingers. A billion photos (give or take three or four), thanks to intrepid photographers like Shelli Trumbull, John Fisken, Kali Barrio and a thousand other moms and grandmas.

It has been a wild ride so far, as I have returned to covering live sports (there is no “joy” quite like watching a 0-0 tie in high school soccer in a driving rain storm…) and re-sparked my interest in writing.

I have, admittedly, fluctuated wildly between living the way the guardian angel on my shoulder, Kim Andrews, would like me to, celebrating the anonymous, unknown, rarely-covered athlete while also occasionally being a little turd who enjoys flicking the ears of others.

South Whidbey banned me from their high school gym and someone set up a rival blog to document how I was a big meanie. It lasted one whole article, which is real commitment there, Chuckles.

Sultan and Archbishop Thomas Murphy, not big fans. I amused the King’s football coach and their radio announcers, though, so there’s that.

And the gutless, ineffectual Canucks up in Moosejaw who own all three Whidbey Island newspapers and erased three years of my bylines from the Whidbey Examiner with a single keystroke?

Probably not getting an invite to their next pity party, where they try to figure out how a part-timer scoops their overpaid loafers 24-7-365.

I know. I should be the better man. There is great joy to be found when you shine the spotlight on a Holly Craggs, a Manuel Lopez Santillana, a Jared Helmstadter or a Heni “Smartest Young Woman in the World” Barnes.

But, there is also great joy to be found flicking fools.

So, I go forward, trying to find the balance between the two, while staying true to the one rock-solid principle behind this blog — if it amuses me, it runs.

But what do you, the readers, want to see? Take the snazzy poll below and let fire.

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