Feeds:
Posts
Comments

Double daggers no more

January 1, 2019 by David Svien

Bow your head as the “double exclamation point headline” dies a brutal death at the hands of Facebook. (Photo by JohnsPhotos.net)

Somewhere, an English teacher smiles, as the double exclamation point headlines die.

Six years, four months, and two weeks after the birth of Coupeville Sports, in the moment right before I hit 6,600 articles, Facebook has done me dirty.

Three times in the past four days, Zuckerberg’s computer algorithms have momentarily paused in their work of stealing all of our info and dispersing it willy-nilly for profit, to inform me I don’t meet “community standards.”

When this happens, Facebook, which never, ever responds to my queries, blocks the story link I’m trying to publish and makes it so I, and I alone, can see it on their website.

Which is a major pain in the tushie. And not the first time this has happened.

I’ve logged 7,579 tweets, many of them featuring links to my stories, and never once been blocked by Twitter.

But, the reality is Facebook overwhelmingly dwarfs Twitter in an ability to drive an audience to my blog.

Which is the whole point of this. Not to collect retweets or likes or shares, but to have people read what I wrote.

Facebook is where the most parents are camped out, the most grandmas and uncles, the most next door neighbors from your old hood, and where I can tag 150 people on a story if I choose.

As much as I scream and rage at my computer when Facebook refuses to work and show a photo with the story link, or any of a thousand other irritants, I need it to drive people to my work.

And I can’t do that when the links to my stories keep on getting blocked.

So I went through and looked at Facebook’s “community standards,” and laughed and laughed and laughed some more at the company’s rules, a load of sanctimonious drivel it definitely, positively does not uphold in any kind of consistent manner.

Trying to find where I was bothering their monitoring system took some work, especially, since as I mentioned, Facebook has no intention of every actually interacting with me.

And this is what I came up with.

The only one of their “community standards” I come remotely close to bumping up against is their “crackdown” on fake news.

And it’s because a computer system is flagging my links, and not an actual human.

Instead of looking at my articles, instead of reading six years worth of reporting, the system is tripping on the most basic of things – the double exclamation points in my headlines.

Facebook’s faceless cops see those eye-catchers, and immediately equate my words with the misleading headlines you see tacked on so many “stories” which are designed to, well, fool and inflame people.

Now I know why I use the exclamation daggers, and most of my readers know why as well.

And it’s not to fool or inflame people.

From day one, it was a way to interject an added layer of excitement, to set myself apart from the newspapers for which I previously wrote.

I’ve positioned myself as an alternative, with a more impassioned, more pro-Coupeville writing style than I used in my previous editorial life.

But I hold fast to many of the rules I learned from my newspaper mentors.

I don’t make stuff up, I get confirmation, I publish news.

A human being who reads my articles knows that. They might not like every story I write, but they can see I’m not some rabid nut screaming at the world from his mom’s basement, or a faceless bot trying to collect “likes.”

Sure enough, when I tested this out, simply removing the exclamation points and leaving my headlines exactly, word-for-word, the same as before, presto, no problem posting links whatsoever.

So, I face a quandary.

I can continue to be the same obstinate curmudgeon I am with most things relating to my writing, or I can, on this one small thing, be smart and accept you have to sometimes go with the flow.

Ultimately, the double exclamation point headlines are part of what makes Coupeville Sports what it is, but they don’t define it.

I can live without them, if I have to, but I can’t live without what is, regretfully, the biggest tool in driving readers to my work.

There’s a good chance you’re reading this article right now because you clicked on a Facebook link.

So fine, Zuckerberg, if it’ll get your soul-sucking bots off my case (and give them time to get back to stealing all my personal info), I can adapt.

The double exclamation points go on hiatus, at least for now.

Give a little, to get a lot.

Posted in Ranting and Raving | Tagged , , , , | Leave a Comment »

New year, new story-lines

January 1, 2019 by David Svien

Avalon Renninger and Coupeville basketball kick off the 2019 portion of their season Friday in Shoreline. (Photo by JohnsPhotos.net)

The calendar flips, and who knows what awaits us?

Looking ahead at 2019, the one thing we know for sure is this – no one knows nothing.

There will undoubtedly be surprises galore, and, hopefully, they’ll fall more on the positive side than the negative side.

But here’s a few things to keep an eye on as we move ahead.

 

WINTER:

From here on out, it’s all league games for the Coupeville High School basketball teams.

The Wolf girls sit at 2-0 in North Sound Conference play, 4-5 overall, heading into “The Showdown in Shoreline” Friday, which pits CHS against King’s (2-0, 7-3) for sole-possession of first in the North Sound Conference.

Win or lose, Coupeville has seven more league clashes after that, and can punch a ticket to the postseason if it finishes in the top five in a six-team league.

The CHS boys (0-1, 1-7) are currently in 4th place, but, with nine games remaining, also control their own destiny.

Several Wolves are chasing individual accomplishments, beginning with Lindsey Roberts.

The senior captain sits at #24 on the career scoring chart, with 390 points, and is just 36 from cracking the all-time top 20.

While Roberts has the biggest story-line, there’s also senior Ema Smith, who needs a bucket to reach 150 career points and sophomore Chelsea Prescott, who is a three-ball shy of 100 career points.

Prescott would be the 98th CHS girl between 1975-2019 to break triple digits, joining Roberts, Ema Smith and junior Scout Smith (103 points) as active players in the exclusive club.

On the boys side of the ball, junior Mason Grove is the top active scorer, with 95 career points to his name. Net five more and he becomes the 162nd Wolf male in the modern era to hit 1-0-0.

Hot on his heels is freshman Hawthorne Wolfe, who leads Coupeville with 84 points in eight games.

He’s trying to become just the fifth Wolf boy in 102 seasons to toss in 100+ varsity points during his 9th grade season, and has his eyes on Mike Bagby’s frosh boys scoring record of 137.

While the CHS hoops squads return to action, they’ll soon be joined by the Coupeville Middle School girls.

The biggest moment of the winter, however, will play out off the court.

The Washington Interscholastic Activities Association meets Jan. 28 to vote on amendments which could toss everything topsy-turvy.

There’s a ton of moving parts, but here’s the simple breakdown.

If the biggest amendment on the agenda is approved (and it’s heavily favored), the WIAA will change how it classifies schools for athletics.

Instead of trying to keep things relatively balanced, by forcing a similar number of schools to fit into each level (4A, 3A, 2A, 1A, 2B, 1B), there would be set numbers.

Under that set-up, if you have 105-224 students, you’re 2B. Count 225-449 bodies and it’s 1A, and so on.

While final numbers for each school are still in flux, as the WIAA also works on a formula to aid schools which give an above-average amount of free or reduced-price lunches, the change could benefit Coupeville.

It’s very possible CHS, one of the smallest 1A schools for many years, would slip back to 2B under the new counts.

If so, the Wolves would ditch the new North Sound Conference after one year and head back to the Northwest League and old-school foes like La Conner, Concrete and Friday Harbor, beginning next fall.

Then again, if things go like they have in the past, Coupeville will miss the new count by half a body and be locked into being the smallest school in 1A for all eternity.

Only time will tell.

 

SPRING:

Coupeville exited the Olympic League with a splash, winning five league titles (baseball, softball, girls and boys track, girls tennis) last spring, before adding a district title and 5th place team finish at state for boys track.

With new foes and new players in key roles, all of those teams face new challenges, but a few Wolves are primed to make runs at records.

On the soccer pitch, junior cousins Derek and Aram Leyva can make an assault on the boys soccer career scoring record, held by Aram’s big brother, Abraham.

Abraham scored 45 goals over three seasons before graduating, while Derek set the Wolf boys single-season mark of 24 in his first go-around last year.

Aram, with 19 tallies (six as a freshman, 13 as a sophomore), isn’t far behind, and the duo could join Abraham, Mia Littlejohn (35) and Kalia Littlejohn (33) in the 30-goal club.

On the track oval, seniors Roberts (100 hurdles) and Danny Conlisk (400) are coming off 2nd place finishes in Cheney, and would love to break Coupeville’s state title drought.

The last Wolf to stand on top of the podium was Tyler King, who claimed a cross country championship in fall 2010. Several months before that, he won a pair of track titles, as well.

Roberts has claimed five competitive state track meet medals, earning at least one each year, and is tied with Yashmeen Knox for third all-time among Wolf girls.

Makana Stone (7) and Natasha Bamberger (6) are the last two for her to catch.

Joining an exclusive club, Conlisk used his performance in the 400 to become just the 23rd Wolf to collect a third competitive medal.

With every medal after this, the club just gets more and more exclusive.

 

NEXT FALL:

Will Coupeville jump to 2B (boys and girls soccer together in the fall, and a lot less private schools), or dig in and plow ahead in 1A?

Can middle school football, which shut down two games early this past fall, be saved?

And most importantly, will I still be able to walk after months more of working on my sister’s homestead, Never Free Farm?

Well, like someone once said – no one knows nothing.

But I do know this – next fall brings a new class of talented freshmen to the high school, while “The Chosen One,” basketball whiz kid Savina Wells, enters 7th grade and gets to finally lay waste to middle school foes.

So, that’s a big something, something right there.

Posted in Ranting and Raving | Tagged , , , , | Leave a Comment »

Heart of a Wolf, heart of a champion!!

December 30, 2018 by David Svien

What do I want to see in 2019? I want to see every Coupeville athlete show the heart Alita Blouin does. (Photo by JohnsPhotos.net)

How best to end 2018? With a story.

It’s one small moment from a year, but it says so much, without a word being spoken aloud.

To set the scene, I will say this — in the world of high school and middle school sports, nothing, and I mean NOTHING, matters as much as heart.

I’m not naive. Talent is huge. Top-level facilities, inspiring coaches, access to quality equipment, all obviously have a major impact.

Camped here in the middle of a rock, which sits in the water, quite a distance from the opportunities enjoyed by big city schools, or Richie Rich private schools, or the combination of both, provides a major hurdle for Coupeville teams and athletes.

It is what it is.

You can complain all day, or you can get working.

And that is where heart comes in.

The best athletes I have witnessed come through Cow Town, the most-successful teams, all have something in common – they do not quit, they do not stop working, and they believe, down deep in their soul, that there is absolutely, positively NO REASON they can’t be the best.

Marlene Grasser to Makana Stone, Bill Riley to Hunter Smith, heart, above all else.

And this is where we come to my year-capping story.

Over the past couple of years, I have been very impressed with the Wolf female athletes who are currently in 8th grade at Coupeville Middle School.

There is talent, desire, and heart to be found in their male counterparts, but this group, which has come up playing together, is something different.

From Maddie Georges to Gwen Gustafson to Hayley Fiedler and beyond, they have an air about them very similar to what the Coupeville High School girls of the late ’90s and early 2000’s had.

That time period is the most successful in CHS female athletic history, and I believe this current crop, especially mixed with the class or two right above and below them, is primed to make their own history.

And one moment, a small, but significant moment during warm-ups, not even in a game, has sealed the deal for me.

Of all the CMS female athletes, Alita “The Assassin” Blouin is the one, who, for me, towers above the field.

She’s not very tall, maybe, but she is quick and, this is where it gets good, every time I have seen her play volleyball or basketball, she carries herself with the look of a young woman who fully intends to beat you, and beat you badly.

Off the court, all smiles, as friendly as anyone, but on the court, she looks like she wants to rip her opponent’s knees off and feed them through a wood chipper.

To which I say, YES.

It’s about dang time a Coupeville athlete didn’t back down at the sight of a fancy uniform, time they expected to win, and win because they had put in the hard work to get there.

Which brings us to our moment.

As CMS went through warm-ups before a volleyball match this season, the 8th grade team started to run laps around the floor.

Blouin, a team captain, was out in front, serious and locked-in. No coasting for her.

At which point, one of her teammates, Lucy Tenore, who is considerably taller than Blouin and has a much-longer stride, started to try and pass her friend.

Blouin would not let it happen.

Tenore, smile growing bigger and bigger, tried a second time, then a third, while Blouin refused to give in.

Legs pumping, elbows at alert, Blouin fended off Tenore at every turn, using three steps to cover the ground Tenore covered in one, all the while with her face locked in a death mask of concentration.

Tenore, fully laughing at this point, finally relented, only to see Blouin kick it up a notch to a sprinter’s run to finish the final curve, one eye looking over her shoulder just in case anyone else wanted to get foolish.

During the match, the duo dazzled, with Blouin popping perfect set-ups for Tenore to reach up and smash. With each winner, they hugged, smacked hands and smiled.

After the match, the two hung out together in the stands, half-sprawled across each other as only teen girls can pull off, laughing and talking, the best of friends.

But the statement had been made — no one, no where, no how, is going to get past Alita Blouin, a relatively small girl with a heart the size of the universe.

I doubt very many people noticed the moment. And if they did, they might not have thought anything of it at the time.

But in that moment, everything I hope to see as a grizzled sports writer, was on display.

As we head into 2019, what do I want for Coupeville sports?

I want every single Wolf athlete, high school and middle school, to attack the day like Alita Blouin does.

Do that, and there’s greatness ahead.

Posted in A freakin' American hero | Tagged , , , , , | Leave a Comment »

Kellner returns to hard-court life!!

December 30, 2018 by David Svien

Coupeville grad Kailey Kellner was in action Sunday, after a three-week break from her sophomore college basketball season. (Photo by JohnsPhotos.net)

It’s been awhile.

When Coupeville grad Kailey Kellner and her D’Youville College women’s basketball teammates stepped on the floor Sunday in Buffalo, New York, they might have been forgiven for not recognizing their home court.

The Spartans have been on a three-week winter break, allowing for trips home, but also possibly adding a bit of rust to the ol’ jump shot.

Their foes, Clarkson University, had just played Saturday, and were back in a mid-season groove, bouncing D’Youville 80-61.

The non-conference loss drops the Spartans to 4-5 on the season.

Kellner played well, however, netting four points and yanking down five rebounds in 14 minutes of action.

She was one off the team high in the carom-collecting biz, as teammate Sara Fields pulled in six rebounds.

Kellner added a steal and an assist as she checked off most of the boxes on the stat sheet.

Clarkson, which was led by a game-high 29 points from junior guard Molly Stewart, AKA “The Pride of Livonia, NY,” led 15-11 after one quarter, then stretched the lead out from there.

The crippler for D’Youville was a 25-15 run by the visiting Golden Knights in the third quarter.

Now that they’re done with their holiday break, the Spartans plunge into the meat of their schedule.

D’Youville has a final non-conference game against Buffalo State Wednesday, Jan. 2, then plays its final 15 regular-season contests against Allegheny Mountain Collegiate Conference rivals.

The Spartans, 1-2 in league play, start that conference run with a game Jan. 5 against Penn State-Altoona.

Posted in Basketball, Wolves in college | Tagged , , , , , | Leave a Comment »

The good, the bad and the surprising!!

December 29, 2018 by David Svien

Maggie Crimmins moves in for the kill. (Photos by JohnsPhotos.net)

Every year is made up of moments.

When we look back at 2018, there’s an endless flow of games – some memorable, some not so much – but, long after most of the scores have been forgotten, the moments remain.

Good, bad, heartbreaking or cheer-inducing, they are what we remember.

As we prepare to slide into 2019, here’s a somewhat haphazard look at what caught my eye over the last couple days as I waded through 818 articles I wrote this year.

 

WINTER:

**The Washington Interscholastic Activities Association denies Coupeville’s bid to move down from 1A to 2B. Despite losing 10% of its student body since the last classification count, when it was already in the 1A basement, CHS is told to stay the course.

**Coupeville boys basketball stuns first-place Klahowya 59-54 on Senior Night, providing a perfect cap to Brad Sherman’s first season as coach.

Hunter Smith goes off for a career-high 35, but it’s Kyle Rockwell who provides the night’s biggest bucket, yanking an offensive rebound free from a rival and immediately powering back up for the game-clinching layup.

**Smith closes his senior season with 382 points. He’s the first Wolf boy to put up back-to-back 300+ point seasons in more than a decade, and with 847 career points, finishes #12 in program history.

**The CMS 7th grade girls hoops squad almost throws a shutout. The Wolves hold Blue Heron scoreless for 30 minutes and 36 seconds in a 32-minute contest, winning 48-2.

**Coupeville loses a beloved coach, as soccer guru Gary Manker passes away at 49. Manker worked extensively with Wolf goaltenders, pulling duty with both girls and boys teams.

**Wolf sophomore Mason Grove scores 337 points in 19 basketball games, narrowly missing Allen Black’s unofficial JV record of 347, set in 2002-2003.

Grove, who tops 30 three times, loses out on the JV mark because his success prompts varsity coaches to call him up, where he tosses in another 51 points for the first unit.

**Down 12 in the fourth quarter, the CMS boys varsity basketball squad roars back to beat Forks on a last-second shot from Xavier Murdy.

With Ja’Kenya Hoskins wiping out the back row, Audrianna Shaw has room to rumble.

**The CMS 8th grade girls hoops team also beats Forks later in the winter, but on a stranger note, when the Spartans coach grabs the ball and goes home with 14 seconds to play, forfeiting the game while screaming every step of the way.

**Dominic Coffman, then a 7th grader, brings a smile to my face as he pulls off a one-man tribute to the Bad Boys era of basketball.

As I wrote then:

Near the end of the third quarter, Coffman stopped a Forks breakaway by delivering a well-timed karate chop to the head of the guy about to drop a layup. Instead, the ball went one way, the rival went the other, and Wolf fans erupted.

Going one better, Coffman stopped a second fast break by leveling a Spartan like a semi-truck hitting a grocery cart full of melons left in the middle of the interstate.

On that one, the ref shook his head, tried to hide his smile and softly intoned, “foul, #1, foot to … the mouth.”

**Jon Atkins steps down as CHS football coach after two seasons at the helm. He’s the first Wolf gridiron coach to beat South Whidbey in back-to-back seasons since the schools started playing for The Bucket.

Legends cram the stands as CHS celebrates 101 years of boys basketball.

**The biggest party of the year, as CHS throws a shindig to celebrate 101 years of boys basketball. The night reunites the 1969-1970 team, which still holds every scoring record in the book, while players from eight decades show up.

After showing great respect to their predecessors, going down a line of legends to shake hands, the modern-day Wolves throttle Chimacum.

The night’s biggest moment comes when Bob Barker, revered coach, teacher and administrator, steps through the gym door, clad in the jacket he wore while coaching that 69-70 team.

I never saw Elvis enter an arena, but Jan. 19, 2018, I came as close as I ever will.

 

SPRING:

**CHS debuts its new stadium, with a cake designed by Emily Stevens, and boys soccer blasting 2A Olympic 4-1 on Mickey Clark Field.

With a stellar senior year, followed by a state softball title with her travel ball squad, 2018 kept Katrina McGranahan smiling.

**Coupeville softball wins five games against pitchers with NCAA D-1 scholarships. Wolves throttle South Whidbey’s Mackenzee Collins twice, and beat Klahowya’s Amber Bumbalough three times.

**Wolf JV softball puts up a 17-batter, 13-run, eight-hit first inning against 2A Sequim, an assault in which the first 11 Wolves reach base safely.

**Mallory Kortuem shatters CHS girls pole vault record by six inches.

**Coupeville closes final season in the Olympic League by taking titles in softball, baseball, girls tennis, boys track and girls track. Boys soccer only crown to evade Wolves, but while booters can’t catch Klahowya, they do post best-ever finish.

**Girls tennis bounces Chimacum in a winner-take-all match on final day of season, becoming only Wolf program to win titles all four seasons Coupeville was in Olympic League.

Ryan Labrador is all about the nutrition.

**Boys track wins district title, first time Wolves have achieved feat since 2006.

**Party on the pitch, as boys soccer shocks five-time state champ Bellevue Christian 3-0, garnering program’s first playoff win in six seasons.

**Kyle Rockwell makes the play of the year, throwing out a runner at the plate to seal a 1-0 home baseball win over Chimacum.

Rockwell launches a missile from right field which drops flawlessly into Gavin Knoblich’s mitt for the final out.

The victory moves CHS into a first-place tie, and it wins the title later in the week with another shutout of the Cowboys.

**Sophomore Derek Leyva, in his first season at CHS, breaks cousin Abraham’s single-season boys soccer scoring record, finishing with 24 goals.

**Tennis aces Payton Aparicio and Sage Renninger cap four-year run as Coupeville’s top doubles duo, claiming 4th at state after winning three of four matches.

**CHS baseball thumps Charles Wright Academy 10-0 in playoff opener, snapping a five-game losing streak in postseason games.

CHS track coach Randy King celebrates a season of triumph.

**Coupeville claims 14 medals at state track meet, spread among nine athletes, while Wolf boys finish 5th in team standings, best in a decade.

Lindsey Roberts (100 hurdles), Danny Conlisk (400) and Jacob Smith (100, 200) all claim 2nd place medals.

**Jacob Smith adds a 5th in the 4 x 400 and 7th in 4 x 100, joining Jon Chittim as the only Wolves to win four competitive medals at the same state track meet.

**After four years, Wolves leave Olympic League.

Despite being smallest of four schools in the conference, CHS snags more varsity wins (185) than Klahowya, Port Townsend or Chimacum.

Coupeville only school to post 40+ wins every year, and only one to twice claim 50+ wins.

**Payton Aparicio and Hunter Smith named CHS Athletes of the Year. It’s Smith’s second-straight win.

 

SUMMER:

**Dr. Jim Shank departs after five action-packed years as Coupeville Schools Superintendent. My pick as the best to ever hold the job, he and his family are now making Burley, Idaho a better place.

**Fresh off graduation, Katrina McGranahan wins a state title while playing select softball with the Seattle Spice.

**Marcus Carr is hired as Coupeville’s new head football coach, becoming the program’s fifth head coach in nine seasons.

Madison Ford, the future of Wolf sports.

**The ancient scrolls read: “A child, born from two Coupeville Sports Hall o’ Famers, will rise to become the greatest Wolf athlete of all time.” You heard it here first – Madison Ford, daughter of Jordan Ford and Mikayla Elfrank, is the Chosen One.

 

FALL:

**Cross country returns to CHS and CMS for first time in two decades.

While individual runners trained and traveled with other schools in recent years, Wolves hire Natasha Bamberger and Elizabeth Bitting to restart programs inside Coupeville schools, and both teams have strong turnout.

**The North Sound Conference, which reunites Coupeville with former rivals from the Cascade Conference, including neighbor South Whidbey, begins play.

**CHS boys tennis beats South Whidbey for first time in 14 years, and do it twice. Sparked by the sweep, Wolves claim 4th in their debut in the eight-team, private school-dominated Emerald City League, toughest tennis conference in the state.

**JV volleyball player Izzy Wells rips off 16 consecutive points on serve against Port Townsend.

Emma Smith (left) and Ashley Menges closed stellar volleyball careers.

**Emma Smith, on the day she turns 18, writes a fairy tale, playing out of her mind all match, before delivering the night’s final point as Coupeville volleyball wins an epic five-setter on South Whidbey’s court.

As I wrote at the time:

In the stands, Konni Smith, her voice strained by a night of screaming for her daughter, suddenly found one final holler.

Because, out there on the court, Emma Smith, twirling into the air, arms above her, fingertips quivering with anticipation, found the ball in mid-flight, stopped time, and flicked the biggest shot she’s nailed in a career full of nailing big shots.

The ball hit the ground, the Falcons whiffed, Konni and associates lost their minds and Emma’s cool as a cucumber younger sister, Savannah, almost looked up from her phone.

Almost.

**CHS football, which had lost five-straight games to Port Townsend, being outscored 270-32, travels across the water and drills the RedHawks 28-18.

Sean Toomey-Stout (6) and Ben Smith wrap up a rival runner.

**Wolf football, with a new coaching staff and a new spirit rippling through the program, get off to a 3-1 start and make me write stuff like this:

It begins with a rumble, rapidly spreading from the bottom of his shoes to the top of his electric-shocked hair.

The rumble becomes a guttural howl, and then his body begins to shimmy and shake, his head flies backwards, his arms pumping, his fists shaking as they slam into his chest.

Emerging from the haze of a rain storm, Alex Turner is dancing and behind him, sprawled on the sodden turf, another vanquished foe lies in a heap.

Often the Coupeville High School senior is celebrating one of his own back-breaking tackles, but Friday night in La Conner, he also did the full-on freak-out when teammates like Andrew Martin and Matt Hilborn were dropping hay-makers.

Every time Turner’s hips went in over-drive, the mass of Wolf fans who traveled down the highway to watch Coupeville administer a 33-12 whuppin’ on their old-school rivals, went bonkers.

Ignoring the frequent bursts of rain, the gusts of wind, and the fragrant aroma of manure wafting in off of nearby fields, Turner’s classmates, his fellow Wolf athletes, parents, alumni and random passerby grooved along with him.

“Dude’s crazy … craaaaaaaazzzzzyyyy … and I like it man,” said one former CHS coach.

**Denny Zylstra, a legend as both a Coupeville athlete and coach, passes away at 78.

**New concession stand and permanent bathrooms open at Mickey Clark Field.

**Coupeville goes viral, as a video of Sean Toomey-Stout taking a kickoff to the house against King’s, covering 95 yards while a wayward deer operates as his lead blocker, goes all the way to ESPN and beyond.

Peytin Vondrak (left) and Ema Smith, reppin’ Coupeville all the way, every day.

**CHS volleyball pulls off one of the most stunning wins in school history during the district playoffs. Down two sets to one, two points from losing the fourth set and being eliminated, Wolves go on an incredible tear.

Winning in five sets, they KO Cedar Park Christian, avenging an earlier-season loss, while keeping their own postseason run alive.

 

and back to WINTER:

**CHS cheer returns to being a competition squad for first time since 2011. Wolves, led by new coach BreAnna Boon, claim two 2nd’s and a 3rd in first meets, while improving score each time out.

**Longtime Wolf tennis coach Ken Stange takes a nasty fall off a ladder, fractures vertebrae, undergoes surgery and emerges wearing a protective shell which makes him look like a bearded Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle. Good news is, doctors expect a full recovery.

**Basketball fever rages across the land, with senior Lindsey Roberts and freshman Hawthorne Wolfe the leading scorers at the winter break.

Roberts has passed 12 players in the first nine games, and sits at #24 on the girls career scoring chart, while Wolfe is on target to become only fifth CHS boy in 102 seasons to score 100+ points in his freshman season

Posted in 2018: Looking Back | Tagged , , , , | Leave a Comment »

« Newer Posts - Older Posts »