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).
