Coupeville Sports

Wolf quarterback Dalton Martin picks up some yardage the hard way.

  “And it looks like the refs are throwing yet another flag, Kole. What do you think about that?”

      “Ooh ooh ooh, the guys in the booth noticed me! I’m throwing like five more flags in a row just so they keep talking about me! Wait, now where did my seeing-eye dog go?!?!?”

“We can’t feel our faces!!”

“Neither can we!!!!!!”

If I hadn’t already previously mentioned, the weather conditions for the Coupeville High School JV football game Monday were less than desirable.

I can still feel the icy wind shooting up my shorts and … what, of course I was wearing shorts! I’m not a wuss. Really, really stupid, possibly, but not a wuss…

Anyway, the few die-hard fans (a mixture of dedicated parents and CHS students) who were there got to enjoy some football (Lathom Kelley running like a Mack truck), a ton of penalty flags (the refs apparently wanted to stay outdoors as long as humanly possible) and some snappy play-by-play from the fill-in booth announcers (Caleb Valko and Kole Kellison.)

Photographer/dedicated mom Melissa Zimmerman-Losey was there as well, battling the wind to get these shots, so that the rest of you “Ooh, it’s too cold, I’m going to stay home under my blankies and watch Peyton Manning on Monday Night Football” types can see a bit of what you missed.

If you want to FEEL what you missed, my knees are still at about 17 degrees…

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“For Ferris!!” (Shelli Trumbull photo)

You can’t trust computers.

They freeze up. They glitch. Sometimes they just get uppity on you and, sometimes … sometimes they want to kill you and everyone you’ve ever known.

Skynet in “The Terminator” films. Hal in “2001.” And what about WOPR in “WarGames?” It tried to kill freakin’ Ferris Bueller!!!

And now we’re supposed to just smile and get all huggy when the steel-plated psychos start predicting football scores, as if that makes everything OK. Ferris Bueller … you tried to drop thermonuclear war on Ferris Bueller’s head!! That is so not classy!!

I bring this up because I was perusing the Seattle Times website and stumbled across a link to a site called ScoreCzar, (https://sites.google.com/a/scoreczar.com/scoreczar/) where one man (Scott Odiorne) and his evil, evil computer (I shall call her … Debbie) have refined the art of ranking Washington state high school football teams and then predicting how they will do against other teams.

His “scary accurate computer rankings” (supplied by that tramp, Debbie) predict that Eastside Catholic will stomp Bishop Blanchet 27-8 this week, which, admittedly, doesn’t mean that much to me.

No, where Mr. Odiorne and that hussy, Debbie, have aroused the ire of Wolf Nation is where they pick King’s to beat Coupeville 40-0.

Sure, King’s is the number one ranked team in 1A, they’re unbeaten, their quarterback (Billy Green) is Mr. Universe and their biggest, baddest offensive lineman (Mason Friedline) has a scholarship to Yale (ooh, la-de-da … I guess Harvard wouldn’t take you?).

Which will mean diddly and squat when Wolf running back Jake Tumblin hits Mach 5 and takes the ball to the house.

Games are decided by the fight in the players on the field and not by the overheated wires of that slattern … Debbie.

Coupeville needs to take a stand against computer tyranny this Friday. Win one for the humans and wipe that smug grin off Debbie’s main-frame.

Do it for Ferris!!

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The Bucket hitches a ride with Wolf senior Danny Savalza.

All is right in the world again.

After six long years of being in captivity in that blighted land known only as the South End, The Bucket has come back to Coupeville. When the Wolves marched onto Waterman Field Friday night, the ground trembled and the heavens wept (sure, some folks call it rain, but we know better), for they knew that justice was about to be delivered.

Forty-eight minutes of football later, one team, one town, stood tall. And that town doesn’t have the words South or Whidbey anywhere in its name.

Falcons fly for awhile and then they fall to the ground. Wolves stand tall for all time.

And while CHS takes really good care of The Bucket (for a very long time) we offer the folks of Langley a few words from Johnny Cash. The song is “Cry, Cry, Cry” and you’re welcome, Langley!

Everybody knows where you go when the sun goes down.
I think you only live to see the lights of town.
I wasted my time when I would try, try, try.
When the lights have lost their glow, you’re gonna cry, cry, cry.

Soon your sugar-daddies will all be gone.
You’ll wake up some cold day and find you’re alone.
You’ll call to me but I’m gonna tell you: “Bye, bye, bye,”
When I turn around and walk away, you’ll cry, cry, cry,

You’re gonna cry, cry, cry and you’ll cry alone,
When everyone’s forgotten and you’re left on your own.
You’re gonna cry, cry, cry.

I lie awake at night to wait ’til you come in
You stay a little while and then you’re gone again
Every question that I ask, I get a lie, lie, lie
For every lie you tell, you’re gonna cry, cry, cry

When your fickle little love gets old, no one will care for you.
You’ll come back to me for a little love that’s true.
I’ll tell you no and you gonna ask me why, why, why?
When I remind you of all of this, you’ll cry, cry, cry.

You’re gonna cry, cry, cry and you’ll want me there,
It’ll hurt when you think of the fool you’ve been.
You’re gonna cry, cry, cry.

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CHS coach Tony Maggio just saw game film on King’s. He’s going to need a minute.

This is not going to be easy. That’s for sure.

But they said the same thing to the 1980 U.S. hockey team. The ’85 Villanova hoop squad. The 1950 U.S. mens’ soccer team. The 2007 Statue of Liberty-pullin’ Boise State football team. Bobby Plump and the ’54 Milan High School basketball squad (think “Hoosiers”). Rulon Gardner on the Greco-Roman wrestling mats at the 2000 Olympics. Buster Douglas knocking the crud out of the baddest man on the planet, Mike Tyson.

They play the games for a reason. Because anything can happen between the first whistle and the last whistle.

And regardless of every stat, every pundit, there is a chance Coupeville High School will march on to Mickey Clark Field this Friday, Oct. 19 and shock the world by stepping all over all-world quarterback Billy Green and his previously perfect King’s squad.

And, if they do, the Wolves will be the number one 1A school in the Cascade Conference, grab an automatic berth to tri-districts and make the world of Washington state high school football collectively soil its britches.

But it’s not going to be easy.

King’s, the school that whipped ATM so badly they fired their coach after just four games (oh, I’m sorry, he “resigned,” did he? That’s what they call it when you get locked out of your office?), is 7-0 and has outscored its opponents 338-70.

With Green, a Brigham Young University recruit, whipping 29 touchdowns through the air (with just two interceptions), the Knights have scored between 40 and 62 points in every game this season.

A line anchored by Yale recruit Mason Friedline has given him plenty of time to operate and Green has picked apart defenses for nearly 1,600 yards, with Caleb Taylor (748 yards, 14 TDs) and Ben Welch (7 TDs) being his primary targets.

When the Knights do take a break from the air express, their ground game is paced by Trevor Hansen, who has rumbled for 400+ yards.

So, they’re good at running up the score on other teams. We get it.

But remember that little story from that best-selling book, what was it called … oh yes, the Bible? About a plucky young guy who picked up some stones and went upside the head of the #1 ranked fighter in all the land?

Coupeville is David in this version of the story and Goliath is about to go down face-first, cause Goliath always goes down. Hard.

So this is where CHS unleashes its justifiably vaunted running attack (Jake Tumblin and Brent Arnold are among the league leaders in yards, while Danny Savalza, Bryce Fleming and Josh Bayne ain’t too bad themselves). Where they disrupt the King’s passing attack and bust out some game-breaking pick sixes.

Where they reach down and channel their Chaminade University, circa 1982 (look it up … that’s why we have the internet!) and stun the universe.

Write the legend, Wolves!

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