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Archive for the ‘Ranting and Raving’ Category

Earlier in the day, Zane Bundy (center) was relatively restrained. Once the Friday Night Lights went on, out came the dance moves, however. (Shelli Trumbull photo)

So, you wake up Saturday morning, with a bit of a football hangover and you wonder, what’s going on?

Now that the rush and the buzz and the lights and the hype of Homecoming is gone, a person can take a moment to collect their thoughts and mull over what we learned in Coupeville’s 47-14 loss to Granite Falls.

So, did you know:

A) Korbin Korzan had a much better game than he thought. At least according to the Everett Herald, which continued its decades-long tradition of screwing up when trying to report on Coupeville High School games.

The Herald’s on-line account claims Korzan threw for two touchdown passes last night. Which is interesting, since Josh Bayne took all the snaps at quarterback, and while Bayne did throw a touchdown pass to Bryce Fleming, the other Wolf score came via the feet of Jake Tumblin.

Which is not to knock Korzan, who played a nice defensive game and got in on several big stops with his skills as a tackler.

No, this is a knock on the Herald, which used to change Taya Boonstra’s name to Boonscara and Bessie Walstad’s name to Walstud on a regular basis. I’m just shocked they spelled Korzan right.

B) The Granite Falls cheerleaders are smarter than the football players they cheer on.

It’s true. All eight Tiger cheerleaders carry a GPA of 3.0 or better, with five of the eight being at 3.5 or higher. Miranda Meier is the brains of the operation, with a flawless 4.0. By contrast, only four of 39 football players can boast a 3.5, though Mathew Hamilton, the sophomore running back who blasted Coupeville for three long touchdown runs, has so much speed that his 3.0 GPA will just be a bonus when college scouts come calling.

C) They may have lost on the field, but the Wolves are smarter than the Granite Falls players, as well.

Junior linebacker Jared Dickson boasted the only 4.0 on the field last night, while seven other Wolves (Brett Arnold, Josh Bayne, Ben Haight, Carson Risner, Danny Savalza, Alex Schmakeit, Daniel Thornley) carry a 3.5 or better. So replay the game in the classroom and prepare to bow down, Tigers!

D) Once a cheerleader, always a cheerleader. Back in town, taking a break from her studies as a freshman at the University of Washington, former Wolf great Taya Boonstra sparked an audience vs. cheerleaders show-down set to the lyrics of “How loose is your goose?”

The current cheerleaders brought their A-game, but Boonstra proved “old” pros are not to be trifled with.

E) Freshman Zane Bundy can dance and is shameless when it comes to playing to the crowd.

The older classes had impressive floats (“Star Wars,” “Avatar” and “The Jetsons”) but it was the freshman float, with Bundy and sidekick bringing in the noise and the funk that sent the audience into hysterics. CHS, you have your very own Justin Bieber.

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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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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 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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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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