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Archive for the ‘Ranting and Raving’ Category

Seven days until the biggest game of their lives!!

Posted in Football, Middle School, Ranting and Raving on October 4, 2012| 1 Comment »

The rock is ours! (Bob Martin photo)

A preview of what’s to come, as the CMS football squad squares off with King’s in a game earlier this week. (Barb Cope photo)

When you get one home game in a football season, that game is epic.

Win or lose, when the Coupeville Middle School football team steps onto the turf at Mickey Clark Field next Thursday, Oct. 11 for a 3 PM game against Langley (that most arch-rival of all possible rivals), it will be an event to rival the Super Bowl.

Work will come to a stop across town. Businesses will close down early. Traffic jams will stretch from the elementary school parking lot back to Oak Harbor. Small children will cry as the skies above crackle with lightning, as Football Armageddon plays out!!

It will … OK, it may not be that intense, but a lot of grandmas will be happy to get to see their offspring play in their own back yard. So, they’ve got that going for them, which is nice.

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A few moments with the true Page Hit King!!

Posted in Boys Basketball, Ranting and Raving, Track, Wolves in college on October 3, 2012| Leave a Comment »

I stand corrected.

There is no gold that matches the gold that is a Hunter Hammer picture.

Without him, this blog would be pointless. Thankfully, we got him. And, thankfully, he’s got a sense of humor about this whole thing.

So bow down, Wolf Nation, to the once, current and future Page Hit King.

It’s Hammer Time!!

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Caleb Valko is the new Hunter Hammer!!

Posted in Big Time Secrets, Football, Ranting and Raving on October 3, 2012| Leave a Comment »

Caleb Valko pities the fool who thinks he can take away his title of Page Hit King. (Nanette Streubel photo)

Back in my days at the Whidbey Examiner, pre-Canadian sell-out, there was no bigger draw on the sports pages than Hunter Hammer.

Whether he was on the basketball court, crushing anyone who dared to drive into the paint, or launching a shot put into orbit, Hammer Time equaled big page hits. And he still does, even in his college days.

But, having taken a moment to peruse the stats here at coupevillesports.com, I come to one conclusion, and that is this — Caleb Valko is the new Hunter Hammer.

If you look at the top ten stories (in terms of readership) out of the 133 articles I’ve posted, Valko is the primary focus in two and appears in two others as a supporting character. So, the Wolf senior lineman currently has a stake in a solid 40% of my top stories, more than any other single person.

In case you’re curious, here’s the top 10, as it sits at 1:36 PM Wednesday, Oct. 3.

1) “Farm Dog — forever a friend of the world!!” (Almost 150 more views than any other article.)

2) “Fleming, Arnold go bonkers in close loss!!”

3) “47 reasons to detest ATM!!”

4) “The girl ‘that hits really hard’ is alive and well!!”

5) “Bayne brings the pain!!” (And it’s only been up for five days.)

6) “Caleb Valko talks smack about freshmen!!”

7) “Wolf receiver a man of many moods”

8) “Valko to foes: I must crush you!!”

9) “I probably shouldn’t tell you this, but…”

10) “Superheroes used to roam the courts at CHS!!” (Another fast mover up the charts, as Ashley Ellsworth-Bagby works the old school magic.)

Now, Mr. Hammer currently sits at #11 with “It’s Hammer Time!! All over your Kia…” He still has a chance to recapture that Top Ten Magic, even if Mr. Valko is comin’ for him hard.

I’ve seen a picture on Facebook, a picture of a six-foot-seven former Wolf legend riding an itty bitty trike. That picture’s gold, Hammer, gold!! Maybe you should send it to me to use on the blog, cause, unless you do, I think it’s safe to say we’re living in the Age of Valko now.

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Dear Canada … how ’bout these apples?!?!

Posted in Ranting and Raving on October 1, 2012| Leave a Comment »

Oh, Canada … is this the best you can do?

Sound Publishing. Black Press. The Canadian Corporate Overlords. The Evil Empire. Call them what you want, they are here and they own Whidbey Island’s three newspapers body and soul.

And yet, what has this influx of Canuck filthy lucre accomplished? How great of an investment can it really be when a one-man operation, a rebel outpost hidden in a secret bunker near Penn Cove, staffed by a guy writing on a computer fueled by three narcoleptic hamsters, is kicking your large fanny on a daily basis?

I’m not using hyperbole here. I’m talking cold, hard facts and nothing but the facts, ma’am.

Friday night at about 7:30 PM, the football game between Coupeville and Orcas Island ended. A game in which the host Wolves battered the visiting Vikings 47-14 before a capacity crowd for their first win of the season. Kind of a big deal in the local market.

Of course, if you relied on the Canadian-funded newspapers, you wouldn’t have read a single word about the game for 63 hours.

Let that sink in.

In 2012, the age of the internet, the age of 24-7 news, it took 63 hours for a story and photo to appear on the web site of the biggest paper in town, the Whidbey News-Times. A paper that sits RIGHT ACROSS THE STREET from Coupeville’s football field.

From 7:30 PM on a Friday until 11:08 AM Monday morning, you could have refreshed like crazy and found nothing. Nada. Zilch. Not on the News-Times site, not on the Whidbey Examiner site, not on the South Whidbey Record site.

And, since the News-Times Saturday edition had gone to press long before the Friday night lights turned on, forget about seeing anything in print until this coming Wednesday.

Oh, Canada.

Since we’re piling on, let’s also consider CHS played both a boys’ tennis match and a girls’ soccer game Saturday. The wait on those stories — a modest 40 hours or so.

It’s enough to make a Coupeville sports fan rip out their hair. Or, turn to the one-man operation that’s beating them like a … well, I’d say rented mule, but a mule would have got there faster than the News-Times did.

During those 63 hours, from 7:30 PM Friday to 11:08 AM Monday, I put out nine stories.

Having covered the football game in person, I had a (much more exciting) story on-line an hour after the game. Then, the next day, we hit with a photo essay by Shelli Trumbull, 12 pictures that covered football action, cheerleaders, fans, Willie Smith cooking hamburgers and cute kids eating hot dogs. Oh yes, and we topped it off with a third article that featured an exclusive interview with Josh Bayne, the hero of the big win.

Toss in features on football stud/jazz drummer Danny Savalza, volleyball/tennis ace Allie Hanigan, in-person coverage of the soccer game, a report on the tennis match that included ALL of the CHS kids who played, an update on former Wolf turned college cross country star Tyler King and a piece on former Wolves Jon and Jodi Crimmins upcoming wedding anniversary and there was plenty of new material to read during those 63 hours.

You just had to forget about Canada to find it.

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So, um … I’m gonna need you to go ahead and celebrate the whole week!!

Posted in Boys Tennis, Girls Basketball, Memories, Ranting and Raving, Whidbey's Best on October 1, 2012| 1 Comment »

Jodi and Jon Crimmins, aka The Awesome Twosome.

They are Coupeville’s own Brad and Angelina, just more athletic.

And while they may live down on the South End of Whidbey Island these days, allowing their daughter Maggie to play middle school volleyball for Langley (it’s just not right, I say), Jon and Jodi Crimmins remain Wolves at heart.

He was a tennis ace in his younger days (I have the vintage Whidbey News-Times photos to prove it) and she, back when she went by the pre-marriage alias of Jodi Christensen, was the hardest-working basketball player I have ever witnessed take the floor at CHS.

She frequently bounced off the floor, elbowed her own teammates (accidentally, she claimed) in the face while in pursuit of elusive rebounds and earned the respect and admiration of even the crustiest coach.

Off the floor, Jodi worked at Miriam’s Espresso for a stint in her younger days and earned the title of Nicest Person in the Entire Universe. Jon, while just a hair behind his high school sweetheart, still turned out pretty nice himself.

Now Jodi is a teacher and Jon is a forest ranger and they have two kids (the aforementioned Maggie, who needs to switch to the red and black by her high school days, and Aiden). And they remain eternally awesome.

I bring this up because this Friday marks the 16th wedding anniversary of Jon and Jodi, and because, since it’s my blog, I can write about whatever I feel like.

And what I feel like this morning is saying, good on you, Crimmins clan. You guys are the best and I hope your anniversary day — ah heck, your anniversary week — is as splendid as the people involved.

Now, we do need to talk about this whole moving closer to Coupeville thing.

Maggie Crimmins, Falcon? Doesn’t sound right.

Maggie Crimmins, second-generation Wolf, laying down the Elbow o’ Death like her mom once did?

That’s history. That’s destiny.

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