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“Our dreams just came true!”

December 18, 2019 by David Svien

CHS cheerleaders come together at a recent meet. (Photos courtesy BreAnna Boon)

“We’re going to Disney World!”

“We are just a small team with a big dream!”

And now that dream is coming true for Coupeville High School senior Ja’Tarya Hoskins and her teammates on the Wolf competition cheer squad.

In a little under two months, the Wolves will be in Florida, after the news hit Tuesday they had qualified for the National High School Cheerleading Championship.

NHSCC is set for Feb. 7-9, 2020 at the Walt Disney World Resort’s ESPN Wide World of Sports Complex in Orlando.

Nationally televised on ESPN2 and ESPNU, it’s beamed out to more than 100 million homes and 32 countries.

Coupeville hitting the biggest stage out of all the big stages?

Not bad for a school which just returned to the competition mat last year after being absent for more than a decade.

In year one, CHS coach BreAnna Boon and her cheerleaders stunned folks by placing 3rd at the state meet.

This time around, they were looking for more. Much more.

“The cheerleaders have been working nonstop since summer camp with one goal in mind — nationals,” Boon said.

“With seven seniors on the squad, I wanted them to hit the goal so bad, but having gone to nationals myself all four years of high school (in Oak Harbor), I knew they had their work cut out for them.”

That didn’t deter the Wolves, who carry 10 girls and two boys on their competition roster.

Mica Shipley, Marenna Rebischke-Smith, Bella Velasco, Coral Caveness, Karyme Castro, Melia Welling, Ashleigh Battaglia, Emily Fiedler, Ella Bueler, and Hoskins are joined by Gavin St Onge and Dawson Houston.

“I have said from the very beginning, if there was a team that would get the bid, it would be this one,” Boon said. “The leadership and drive that these athletes possess is unbelievable. They set their minds to something, they won’t stop until they achieve it.

“I am there to coach them, but ultimately, they have to be willing and able to follow through with what they are being taught,” she added. “Individually they are all such great leaders, and then they come together on that cheer mat as a force to be reckoned with.

“They are always so excited to make the school and town of Coupeville proud.”

The Wolves will compete in the “small non-tumbling coed” division at nationals.

Having just added male cheerleaders this year, the CHS squad faces an uphill battle.

“Our boys have a lot of work ahead of them,” Boon said. “Being completely new to the cheer squad, and seniors, they haven’t had a lot of time to learn the coed stunts that most coed teams would be working on for a couple of years.

“I never thought when I started coaching at Coupeville, my second year in, I would have a team going to nationals! How crazy does that even sound?? It feels like a dream!”

Along with working on their routine, the Wolves need to raise the money necessary for the trip.

“We have A LOT of fundraising to do in a short amount of time,” Boon said. “So be looking out for ways to support your CHS cheer team!”

While the next two months will be packed with practice, the Wolves were content to bask in the moment Tuesday night, as they relayed their news to their classmates, parents, and fans after that night’s basketball games.

Smiles were the order of the day, and the electricity zinging from athlete to athlete was contagious.

“We’re going to Disney where dreams come true,” Ashleigh Battaglia said. “But our dreams just came true!”

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Wolves stay perfect on home floor

December 18, 2019 by David Svien

Tucker Hall scored his first varsity points Tuesday as Coupeville crunched Chimacum. (Photos by JohnsPhotos.net)

Jacobi Pilgrim rumbles in the paint.

It was sort of like taking medicine.

At first, you get hit with a bitter taste and you wince. But then all the good parts kick in and you start feeling a whole lot better.

After briefly falling behind Tuesday night against visiting Chimacum, the Coupeville High School varsity boys basketball players looked deep into their souls, flexed their biceps, and opened a giant can of whup-ass.

Controlling the paint, crashing hard to the hoop, and harassing the Cowboys on defense, the Wolves turned a 10-5 deficit into a 69-43 non-conference win, keeping alive their undefeated run on their home court.

Coupeville is 3-4 on the season, 3-0 in the CHS gym, and 0-4 away from it.

So it could be a good thing the Wolves final two games before winter break — Thursday against Port Townsend and Saturday against Nooksack Valley — are both home affairs.

Continue to get the kind of balanced scoring they did against Chimacum, and things will be just fine.

The Wolves put nine of their 11 active players into the scoring column Tuesday, with the trio of Sean Toomey-Stout (15 points), Ulrik Wells (13), and Hawthorne Wolfe (11) leading the attack.

Chimacum exited the Coupeville gym still winless at 0-6, but the Cowboys showed promise in the early going.

Opening the game with a three-ball from the top of the arc, the visitors held the lead until midway through the first quarter.

Then, in the blink of an eye, it all changed.

Wells banged home a bucket off of an inbounds pass — his third score of the quarter — and the Wolves seized control of things with a 9-0 run to close the frame.

A rainbow three-ball from Wolfe knotted the game at 10-10, before Toomey-Stout got explosive.

The power-packed senior, who plays as if he has springs in the soles of his shoes, knocked down four straight baskets, the final two of the first quarter, and the first two of the next frame.

Toomey-Stout mixed and matched, slapping offensive rebounds back up and off the glass, slashed to the hoop with wild abandon, and went coast-to-coast in .0003 of a second (or close, at least).

Chimacum had no answer for “The Torpedo,” but, even if it had, it probably wouldn’t have mattered, as everyone repping a Wolf uniform was feeling it.

The second quarter, which ended with Coupeville up 38-20, was a series of streaks, with one player after another taking turns and cranking up the highlight reel.

Just off the court, Wolf senior Koa Davison, out with a hurt ankle, repeatedly popped up from his perch in the bleachers to holler for his boys.

Each time the senior big man threw his hands in the air and screamed like he just didn’t care, his crutches clattered to the floor.

Then came a big wince, but also a big smile, as the nattily-dressed Davison, like the rest of the Wolf faithful, was taken over by the joy of the moment.

Gavin Knoblich tossed in three buckets in less than a minute, Jacobi Pilgrim used and abused his defender with back-to-back power moves in the paint, then Wolfe caressed the net with his velvet shot.

The second half was more of the same joy ride for Coupeville, as the Cowboys fought valiantly, only to be chewed up 10,000 different ways by the Wolves.

Whether it was Jered Brown dropping runners over outstretched hands, Knoblich spinning and hitting a sweet hook shot, or Wells playing like a young Shaq in the paint, CHS had pretty much everything clicking.

That carried over to getting senior Tucker Hall his first career varsity points.

A hard-working support crew guy, the kind of smart role player every team desires, Hall slapped home a layup off of a feed from Wells, then sank a soft jumper from the side.

In the fourth quarter, Wolf junior swing player Daniel Olson netted his first varsity bucket of the season, while sophomore Grady Rickner, who leads the JV in scoring, made his varsity debut.

Along with Toomey-Stout, Wells, and Wolfe, who combined for 39 points, Coupeville got scoring from Knoblich (9), Brown (7), Pilgrim (6), Hall (4), Jean Lund-Olsen (2), and Olson (2), with Rickner and Chris Ruck seeing floor time.

As he basked in the afterglow of the win, CHS coach Brad Sherman was in a good place.

“I was really pleased; we talk to the guys in practice about getting to the rim and finishing strong, and they did that very well across the board,” he said.

“We came out a little flat, but they responded with a lot of energy,” Sherman added. “Everyone on the team did something great tonight, which I love to see, especially playing in front of our home crowd.”

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“The comeback of all comebacks!”

December 17, 2019 by David Svien

Chelsea Prescott hit a key three-ball Tuesday to spark a 16-0 fourth quarter run which carried the Coupeville varsity to a come-from-behind win in Sultan. (Photo by JohnsPhotos.net)

You could hear the desperation in the announcer’s voices, and it was delicious.

Sultan High School broadcasts many of its home athletic contests across the internet on TurkTV, and the final quarter of Tuesday night’s varsity girls basketball game against visiting Coupeville was right there, live on YouTube, when I arrived home after the Wolf boys finished play in their own gym.

It was, for all CHS fans, eight minutes of brilliantly-scripted television.

For the Sultan announcers, it was, apparently, like taking that moment when you realize you left your parachute back in the airplane, then stretching it out for all eternity.

Playing with fiery intensity, Coupeville’s hoops stars erupted for a game-ending 16-0 run, turning a five-point deficit into an electrifying 39-28 win in their league opener.

Now 6-1 overall, 1-0 in North Sound Conference play, with five straight wins to their credit, the Wolves danced off the floor.

The Turk announcers pleaded for a stop which would never arrive, veered off into a game of “blame the refs” while their team tossed up brick after brick in the waning moments, then went dead silent.

It was kind of beautiful.

And, while he probably didn’t hear the broadcasters, what with being busy on the bench and all, CHS coach Scott Fox was similarly aglow as he headed back to the bus.

“The comeback of all comebacks!” he exclaimed.

On a night when his team couldn’t buy a bucket for long stretches of the game, in a game where the Wolves fell behind almost by double-digits, at a moment when the odds looked long, Fox’s crew came through.

Big time.

“Down by eight with no offense, we turned up the defensive pressure and pulled out a great win,” Fox said.

“Hannah (Davidson) was huge in the middle, Scout (Smith) was big, and Chelsea (Prescott) hit an amazing three to start our run,” he added. “It was awesome to be part of a comeback like that.”

When they stepped back onto the floor to begin the fourth quarter, the Wolves trailed 28-23 and they needed a spark.

Two free throws from Davidson shaved the lead down, but it was the next two trips down the floor, when CHS delivered back-to-back roundhouse punches, which really broke Sultan’s spirit.

First, Avalon Renninger jumped in front of a Turk pass, then fed Smith for a breakaway layup, before Prescott, one eyebrow arched ever so slightly, drilled the bottom out of the net on her three-ball.

As the basketball flipped the net upwards as it dropped through, the Wolf bench went bonkers, while the Sultan crowd (and the TurkTV announcers) wailed and gnashed all of their teeth.

All of them, I said. All of them.

Back in front, the Wolves got progressively nastier on defense, picking off passes and forcing shot clock violations, then coming down and converting off of the extra chances.

Even better, a Coupeville team which has struggled a bit at the free throw line in the early part of the season, seems to have solved that issue.

At least for one night, as the Wolves netted 19 freebies, including nine in the final quarter.

Seven of Coupeville’s final nine points in the game came thanks to well-deserved trips to the charity stripe, with the prettiest make being a Renninger shot which bounced straight up into the sky, touched the heavens, then dropped back through with a happy lil’ plop.

The comeback capped a game which went back and forth in the early going.

Coupeville led 10-9 at the first break, then trailed 21-14 at the half as its offense sputtered a bit in the second quarter.

A 9-7 mini-run in the third, with Prescott leading the way, helped set up what would be a sweet finale.

The Wolves, as they have done all season, spread out the offensive love, with Smith hitting for a game-high 12 points.

The senior captain passed a personal milestone Tuesday, becoming just the 56th girl to score 200 points in the history of CHS girls basketball, which runs from 1974 to today.

With 209 career points and counting, Smith sits #54 all-time, 14 points away from cracking the Top 50.

Tuesday night she was backed up by Davidson (9), Prescott (8), freshman Maddie Georges (4), Renninger (4), and Kylie Van Velkinburgh (2).

Coupeville has two more games this week, but won’t play another league game until January.

The Wolves travel to Port Townsend Thursday, host Nooksack Valley Saturday, then are off 12 days for winter break.

When they return to action, the CHS girls have one more non-conference game Jan. 3 at Chimacum, then play eight straight league games to cap the regular season.

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Welcome to blowout city, baby

December 17, 2019 by David Svien

Chris Ruck scored his first three points of the season Tuesday as Coupeville’s JV drilled visiting Chimacum. (Photo by JohnsPhotos.net)

It was not a fair fight.

Two boys JV basketball teams stepped onto the floor of the Coupeville High School gym Tuesday night, but one squad had a lot more weapons.

Like, a LOT more weapons.

Dropping points from every angle, Coupeville annihilated visiting Chimacum 59-12 in a game which could have been even more lopsided if CHS coach Chris Smith hadn’t done his best to control the carnage.

Now 4-2 on the season, and a flawless 2-0 at home, the Wolves didn’t allow the Cowboys to score a point through the first 11 minutes of a 32-minute contest.

Coupeville actually started a bit slowly, with shots popping out, rimming off, and finding new, creative ways not to go down.

But the Wolves kept shooting, and eventually found their groove, pushing an 8-0 first quarter lead out to 14-0 before Chimacum finally banked home a shot with five minutes left in the second frame.

If the Cowboys were thinking of celebrating that bucket, they didn’t have time to, however, as Coupeville promptly closed out the half with a 20-0 run.

Daniel Olson and Grady Rickner, who would later in the night swing up to make their first varsity appearances of the season, both banged away for six points during the surge.

Things continued to go all Coupeville, all the time in the second half, as the Wolves responded to Chimacum opening the third quarter with a three-ball by closing the game with a 25-7 surge.

A running clock made things a little less painful for the Cowboys, and Smith did his best to limit his team’s shots and spread out the offense in the late going.

Olson finished with a game-high 14, outscoring Chimacum by himself, while Logan Martin singed the nets for 10, and Alex Murdy and Rickner knocked down eight apiece.

Also getting into the scorebook were Sage Downes (6), Alex Jimenez (6), Cody Roberts (4), and Chris Ruck (3).

Jimenez accounted for two of Coupeville’s three successful shots from behind the three-point arc, while Ruck scored for the first time this season, earning a roar from a pro-Chris crowd.

Also seeing floor time for the Wolves were Miles Davidson, TJ Rickner, and Andrew Aparicio, with all three hitting the boards (and sometimes the floor) with great intensity.

Coupeville’s young guns play three games this week, with all at home. Up next is Port Townsend Thursday, then Nooksack Valley Saturday.

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JV rolls to win in league opener

December 17, 2019 by David Svien

Freshman Ryanne Knoblich tossed in five points Tuesday as Coupeville’s JV thrashed Sultan. (Photo by JohnsPhotos.net)

Keep the pressure on.

If that was the plan Tuesday for the Coupeville High School JV girls basketball squad, it worked really well.

Outscoring host Sultan in every quarter, the Wolves headed back to the bus carrying a well-executed 27-17 win in their league opener.

The victory lifts the young guns to 4-1 overall, 1-0 in North Sound Conference play.

Coupeville garnered the win thanks to remarkably consistent play, as they outscored the Turks by the same score, 6-4, in the first, second, and fourth quarters.

Just to mix things up, the Wolves came out hot in the third quarter and rang up a 9-5 advantage to make sure the scorebook operator was paying attention.

Freshman guard Alita Blouin was the wind beneath Coupeville’s wings, powering her way to a game-high 10 points while tossing in at least a free throw in every quarter.

She got plenty of help from her teammates, with Ella Colwell banking home seven points and Ryanne Knoblich hitting for five.

Gwen Gustafson rattled the rims for four, while Abby Mulholland nailed a free throw to round out the offensive attack.

Also seeing floor time for Megan Smith’s squad were Natalie Castano, Claire Mayne, Jessenia Camarena, Morgan Stevens, and Savana Allen.

The Wolf JV has a busy week, with another road game Thursday at Port Townsend, then a home game Saturday against Nooksack Valley.

After that, Coupeville heads out on winter break.

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