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Archive for the ‘Ranting and Raving’ Category

OlympicLeague.com, why so incompetent??

Posted in Ranting and Raving, tagged , , , , , on January 23, 2018| Leave a Comment »

   Ema Smith captures the mood of everyone in Coupeville when we think about OlympicLeague.com these days. 

Coupeville fans are told, again and again, that there is one “official” site for Olympic League news, schedules and standings.

But what if that site makes an error, then compounds it day after day, for 17 days?

And what if that site doesn’t want to hear from me or you, or pretty much anyone, that they are doing a mediocre (at best) job?

Welcome to http://www.olympicleague.com/, where incompetence is the flavor of the day … day after day after day.

So, what am I wailing about?

Jump back in time 17 days (so, two-plus weeks), land on the afternoon of Jan. 6 and the Coupeville girls basketball team beat Klahowya 29-23.

At which time, the big brains behind the Olympic League site updated both team’s overall win/loss records, but did NOT do the same for their league marks.

A small error at the time, but one compounded when day after day after day, they refuse to use two small key strokes to fix the issue.

And why is this big, at least relatively speaking?

Because most people (including a lot of newspaper writers) just take a quick scan of said standings when talking or writing about how teams are doing.

Which presently show Coupeville at 3-2 and Klahowya at 1-4.

Which isn’t true.

If you pop into the schedule for either CHS or KSS and go down and manually count up the league games, you wind up with 4-2 and 1-5 respectively, which rightfully places the Wolves in a first-place tie with Port Townsend heading into Friday’s showdown between those two squads.

But 99.6% of people aren’t going to go do that, so they buy the incorrect 3-2 and 1-4 records.

Is this end-of-the-world type of stuff? Probably not, but I am easily chafed, frequently vocal and have plenty of time on my hands to be irritating as all get out, so here we are.

Do your one job, OlympicLeague.com!

Do it for the kids!

Or just do it to get me to stop whining.

But do it!

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You make me possible!!

Posted in Ranting and Raving, tagged , , , , , on January 15, 2018| Leave a Comment »

   It’s like I’m the net and your donations are the ball dropping softly through. (Maddie Vondrak photo)

Today is the official five-year, five-month anniversary of Coupeville Sports.

65 months, of which the last 31.5 I have gone without a “real” job, instead living one step ahead of The Man as a full-time writer, researcher and rabble rouser.

There have been many times during that second stretch when I figured the gig was about up, that it was probably time to head back to a dish pit or farm and beat the crud out of my fingers.

Now, if video stores made a sudden, jaw-dropping comeback, the decision would be easy.

Getting paid to watch movies, and harass people into renting Bottle Rocket or Bugsy Malone, was 15 years of easy street.

Of course, it ain’t happenin’ and we all know that, no matter how much I may daydream.

So, I plug on, making just enough to survive in my one-step-above-the-Unabomber existence.

Writers (or at least those of us not named Stephen King or JK Rowling) don’t get indoor/outdoor swimming pools.

If I wanted one of those things (and you know I do), I should have spent more time in school studying to be a doctor or lawyer, and less time driving creative writing teachers nuts scrawling stories about Adam and Eve rolling dice with Satan in the Garden of Eden.

That one came back with BLASPHEMOUS scrawled in scarlet, capitol letters across the top of the first page, followed by a lecture about my eternal soul.

Good thing Tumwater was a public school, and not a private, Christian one, or I might have vanished into the dungeons I assume they have beneath those institutions, presumably never to be seen again.

I don’t have many needs and am fairly happy to exist as I do, with a beat-up car which continues to shock the world by refusing to die, and my one “splurge” being the $8.69 I sometimes cough up for Netflix.

Now, I should have a long-term plan for Coupeville Sports, a way to ensure the financial stability of an “empire” built on … writing about sports in a small town on a rock in the water in the middle of nowhere.

Yes, well…

Anyways, I have gotten far more personally out of this blog, and its side projects, than I did out of all the years I wrote for the newspapers on the Island, so I persevere.

With no “real” job competing for my time, I have ramped up the number of stories I publish (5,821 so far, which averages out to three a day, every day), the speed with which I publish (why not read about the game you just played while you’re still on the bus ride home?) and those side projects.

With time to dig through dusty back rooms, attics, basements and half-forgotten memories, plus opportunity to drive local sports officials batty with frequent, grandiose requests, we’ve made a difference.

The Wall of Fame that runs the length of the CHS gym and honors teams and athletes from multiple decades.

The revamped football record board, which now more accurately tells the history of Coupeville’s gridiron accomplishments.

And now, this Friday’s 101st anniversary shindig for Wolf boys basketball, hopefully followed fairly shortly by a record board for girls and boys hoops.

If I was working a “real” job, none of that is likely to have happened, as I would never have had the time to research, beg, cajole and relentlessly drive those in charge batty.

Since I painted myself into a corner on advertising years ago, and steadfastly refuse to drop a pay wall on Coupeville Sports (never means never), I get by on the goodwill of my readers.

Your donations and your support are what keeps this going, and I thank you.

So, as we head towards the basketball shindig, and kick off the start of our 66th month on the blog, if you like what I’m doing (or just don’t want to see me cripple my fingers in a dish pit anymore), maybe think about actively supporting the cause.

And I call it a cause, because I am just the conduit.

This is about the athletes, coaches, managers, stat keepers, fans, cheerleaders, parents and family who came before us, the ones who are active now, and the ones still to come.

Past, present, and future, coming together to build the legend of Wolf Nation.

Me, I’m just the guy who is trying to document it all, and, if I can pay for some propane along the way, so much the better.

 

Want to help? You can donate by mail (165 Sherman, Coupeville, WA 98239), in person (I’m at almost every home game, for every sport) or via PayPal (there’s a donate button on the top right side of the blog). 

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You support me! You really support me!!

Posted in Ranting and Raving, tagged , , , on November 24, 2017| Leave a Comment »

   My “winter depression beard” has the early lead on CHS Athletic Director Willie Smith’s more dapper face fuzz. (Photo by JohnsPhotos.net)

Somehow, I have managed to avoid reality for two-and-a-half years.

I started Coupeville Sports in Aug. 2012, but stepped away from my “real world” job and went to full-time writing June 1, 2015.

With no business plan beyond “hey, I’ll devote all my time to covering high school and middle school sports in a rural town on a rock in the middle of the water and maybe someone will toss a coin or two into my hat,” I have persisted.

It helps I don’t pour money into smoking, drinking or owning a phone. The last part makes watching movies so much better – embrace the quiet.

It also helps I am fine with driving what can charitably be referred to as a “hunk o’ junk” and I have pared my bills down to the barest of bare minimums.

Also really helps I have a landlord, CHS alum Jack Sell, who hasn’t drop-kicked me those times when I needed an extra day or two to pull together his money.

How much longer can I keep this going? Good question.

Journalism is a fickle business, whether you work for a newspaper funded by a kajillionaire in Moose Jaw or hack away at the keyboard in the middle of the night on the (sometimes fragrant) shores of Penn Cove.

For me, not counting sales of my books (Stephen King trembles…), there’s essentially three ways to fund Coupeville Sports. One is dry, the other will never work and the third is my lifeblood.

When I started this blog, 5+ years and 5,681 articles ago, there was no reason for anyone to believe it would survive longer than that South Whidbey sports blog which went down in spectacular flames after a single day.

To convince people to give me a try, I sold my advertising for “the life of the site.” Which pretty much guaranteed that, if I survived, at some point, there would be little room for growth.

So be it.

Those who took a chance on me in the early days, from Shelli Trumbull to Jon Roberts to Paula Spina, got more than they probably anticipated.

I’m glad it worked out for them, and the others who have chosen to support me in that manner, even if that means there’s little room for future growth.

Route #2 would be to mirror many newspapers and drop a pay wall on Coupeville Sports.

Never going to happen. Ever.

If you choose to go that way as a publication, God bless.

And if, while you insist it works, the bean counters up North still make you lop off an editor during the holidays, well, maybe the pay wall kept that job in play a few more days. Maybe.

But I have said since day one, Coupeville Sports is free. If you want to read it, read it. If you want to support it, great. If you don’t, such is life.

Call me obstinate, but no pay wall. Ever.

Which brings us to the only way this blog has stayed on its feet — you, the reader. Especially the reader who gives back.

Donations, from the person who slips money into my pocket as we pass at Prairie Center, to those who use the PayPal button on the top right of the blog, are what keep me moving forward.

The longer I’ve been away from having a “real world” job, the more I have not wanted to return.

There are many days where I’m a half step away from fully embracing the hermit life, so it’s a good thing my “winter depression beard” is coming in thick.

Writing Coupeville Sports, and attending games, forces me to have interaction with the outside world, to “use my words” with someone other than my landlord’s outside cats.

Which is probably a good thing.

In a magical world, someone (are you listening Mr. Gates?) would step up and offer me a $5,000 grant, which would pay my rent at Coupeville Sports World Headquarters for a year.

Back here, in the real world, I’ll just say this — if you enjoy reading my work, if you think it’s providing something unique, if you believe it’s worth supporting, maybe add me to your Black Friday list and use this handy link:

https://www.paypal.me/DavidSvien

If you do, thank you. And, if you don’t, keep reading.

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Two routes, one goal!!

Posted in Ranting and Raving, tagged , , , , , on July 23, 2017| Leave a Comment »

   Journalism, like this backboard and net, may be a bit worn, but it’s still hanging in there. (Amy King photo)

I write.

Of course, over the years, I’ve had a lot of jobs.

Fast food flunkie to dish washer, lawn care “specialist” to liquor slinger, carpet shampooer to the day care guy who got kids so wound up they didn’t take a nap for a week, my working days have been varied.

I’m still haunted by my stint harvesting mussels for a low-rent operation (so, NOT the guys currently working Penn Cove’s waters…), while my 13 years at Videoville was a true rarity — being paid to do something I would have done for free.

But, through it all, I have written.

Since moving to Whidbey midway through my senior year of high school, I have written thousands of stories in local newspapers.

Sports, a movie column which ran without missing an issue for 15 years, epic house fires which made page one, school board meetings which definitely did not, dead starfish stinkin’ up the beach.

A little bit of everything and a lot of it.

The past five years my words have lived here on the internet instead of in the pages of a newspaper.

It was, for me, the best decision I ever made with my writing.

I’m not here to trash newspapers.

They are where I started, and I still remember what it was like to see that first byline in the News-Times when I was 18, refusing to go to college and working in the press room at night and badgering Fred Obee for freelance assignments during the day.

The current group at the News-Times is a stellar collection of journalists, made up of good people who are in the job for the right reason.

The Sports Editor, Jim Waller, and the Publisher, Keven R. Graves, are two of the biggest reasons I got into journalism and have somehow managed to bounce around on the fringes of that world for almost three decades.

They, and their co-workers, are fighting the good fight, at a time when the very nature of newspapers seems to change on a daily basis.

I respect what they do, and why they do it.

Of late, I’m trying to be a little more open about my support, and a little less of a sarcastic pain in the keister.

But, I also realize, life inside a newspaper doesn’t work for me anymore, and hasn’t for a while.

When I started Coupeville Sports Aug. 12, 2012, I’m sure there were some who thought it would be a short-term affair. That I would eventually fall away like the loonies at Island Politics and similar short-term blogs.

Instead, here I am, publishing my 5,399th article, less than a month away from my five-year anniversary.

I still tick people off from time to time (simmer down, Klahowya…) but I’m less prone to poking for the sake of poking. Most days.

Coupeville Sports isn’t perfect, but it is perfect for me.

It means I can post at 2:30 AM, I can write 700 words about a JV game, I can have final say on anything and everything I write (with my readers as the final word on whether I made the right choice or not).

Do I abide by the Associated Press style book at all times? No. They’re not big fans of exclamation points, for one thing.

But while I have freedom in how I write, when I write and why I write, I still view myself as a brother in arms with my newspaper brethren.

I don’t publish smear pieces. I don’t make up stories. I fact check and use sources, and have from day one.

I may publish quicker and more prolifically than most newspapers, but I don’t shortcut to get there.

If you choose to lump me in with the patently fake “news stories” which mushroom all over social media, you do me a disservice.

While I use Facebook and Twitter to promote links to my work, the same as newspaper do, those links exist to send readers to where I actually publish — on my blog.

Journalism has had to adapt in an ever-changing world.

In 1989, there was one way to be a journalist. In 2017, there are many.

Some writers choose to stay within the framework of a conventional newspaper. Some don’t.

We are not enemies. We are on the same journey, just taking different routes.

I respect those still in the trenches at newspapers. Their commitment to the cause is worthy of praise.

I hope the feeling is mutual.

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Your money, my words!!

Posted in Ranting and Raving, tagged , , , , on June 26, 2017| Leave a Comment »

Currently the 679,065th best seller on Amazon.

We’re less than two months away from the five-year anniversary of Coupeville Sports.

During that time, all of us, working together, have produced 5,359 articles, published a book, erected a Wall of Fame in the CHS gym honoring titles won by Wolf athletes and teams from 1900-2017, and brought the school’s football record board up to date.

I say all of us, because while I am doing the writing (and a lot of the agitating), none of this would be accomplished without you.

The readers. The advertisers. The supporters.

No one is ever going to get rich writing about small town sports.

My dream of an indoor/outdoor swimming pool with a waterfall in the middle will probably have to wait.

But I have been able to stay ahead of my very limited bills, and stay away from “real” work for the past two years.

My fingers thank you. My back thanks you. I thank you.

Not having to wash dishes allowed me the chance to do the research necessary for the Wall of Fame and the football board, giving me time I wouldn’t have had if I was still balancing writing with a day-to-day job.

Going forward, I’d like to do more research, to maybe get basketball its own record board, so the sport which holds the key to the CHS gym could be on an equal footing with volleyball, football and track.

Then, of course, there’s softball, baseball, soccer and tennis, which I’m sure would like their own boards, as well.

To do any of that, to put in research time, to get the backing of those in charge to add new boards, to, frankly, be a (semi-pleasant) pain in the tush, I need your help.

How, you ask?

Well, every time someone gives me info on CHS sports history, it helps.

Every time someone says “Good job,” it helps.

Every time someone thinks twice about throwing rotten tomatoes at me (even when I write something they don’t appreciate), it helps.

But, most of all, a little financial help goes a LONG way.

There are three ways to keep the Coupeville Sports machine rollin’ along.

Donations:

Whether it’s a one-time gift or you like to make it rain on a regular basis, this is the lifeblood of the poor but plucky writer.

You can hit the donate button which sits conveniently at the top of the blog, or, if you don’t like PayPal, my mailing address is 165 N. Sherman, Coupeville, WA 98239.

Or slip something into my pocket at a game. Well, maybe not your discarded candy wrappers…

Advertising:

I’m the best deal in town — $100 gets you an ad for the life of the site.

Ads run down the right side of Coupeville Sports and when readers click on them, it shoots them to your website or Facebook page.

Don’t have either one? No worries. I can link your ad to a page on my blog where I make your business sound like the greatest thing since sliced bread.

Buy my book:

Hop over to Amazon —  https://www.amazon.com/dp/1547255544/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1497205922&sr=8-1&keywords=David+Svien — or buy one from me in person (as soon as I get more copies in).

Christmas gifts, man, Christmas gifts. Gotta be thinking ahead.

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