David Rochin
Amanda Allmer (far left). (Photo courtesy Jon Crimmins)
There are good players, great players and then ones who really dominate.
The two superstars who form the 78th class inducted into the Coupeville Sports Hall o’ Fame both firmly fall into that latter category.
Amanda Allmer only had one year at CHS, while David Rochin had two, but both left a sizable impact, and are fondly remembered by their coach, Willie Smith, who is taking the dais today to welcome them into the Hall.
After this you’ll find the duo up at the top of the blog under the Legends tab.
First though, let’s take a few moments to bask in the afterglow of their vaunted prep careers.
Allmer joined CHS classmate Marnie Bartelson in traveling up to Oak Harbor to play for the Wildcats at a time before Coupeville had its own soccer program.
Anchoring the team in goal, she helped lead OHHS to a league title and a 4th place finish at the 1994 state tourney, then came back to CHS for basketball season, which is where Smith became the happiest coach in all the land at the news of her arrival.
Amanda Allmer, the only true center I ever had play for me and it was in my first year.
Great transfer from Juanita, parents bought, or had owned, the restaurant at the ferry and moved here her senior year.
As a first year coach, having a senior, who was not only extremely talented, but one of the finest leaders I ever had, was a godsend.
She was an extremely hard worker who never quit no matter what the score was.
She was an inside presence that allowed Zenovia Barron, Jen Canfield and Mika Hosek to operate on the perimeter; without Amanda in the middle the development of those three kids takes a lot longer.
She was a great role model for all of our future stars that played with her: in addition to those three we had Ann Pettit, Jen Eelkema and Vanessa Bodley, who all watched her toughness and ended up playing as hard as she did.
She was pretty unstoppable in the middle, and that was when we played in the Cascade Conference in some of the hey-days of the programs.
Sultan, Lakewood, and King’s were perennial league champs and had very strong programs and Amanda was an easy First-Team pick during that time.
As tough as she was on the court, she was as nice and respectful off of it; a great student, superb leader, and even better person.
I feel pretty fortunate to have got to coach her.
Jump forward into the early 2000s and Smith, firmly entrenched as Coupeville’s baseball coach, lucked into his second unexpected superstar.
David (daveed) Rochin (rochine): lived with one of our families here and was not a foreign exchange student as he attended both his junior and senior years.
I would say the best pure baseball player I got to coach here.
He played shortstop and pitcher for us and was unbelievable.
He had a rifle of an arm, great range, and was a great hitter (power and average) ending up hitting .455 his junior year then “dropping off” to .377 his senior year and leading the way in RBI’s and extra base hits both years.
What made him so special was he made everything look so effortless; to say he was smooth would be an understatement. It was just so fun to watch him play.
And he loved to play.
Intense but always with a smile and a quip, he combined with Justin Barnes, Ty Blouin and affable Jacob Henderson as perhaps the greatest quartet of one-liners and greatest goofs I’ve ever coached.
The four of them umpired our Little League baseball games, showing the backbone of our program’s future stars — James Smith, Casey Larson, Kyle Wilcox, Alex Evans, Zach Hauser, Jared Murdy, etc. — how fun the game could be (as well as how hard you needed to work).
The greatest moment for me, and I think for those four seniors was the first game of the year their senior year.
We had had a student transfer to South Whidbey for baseball and it just so happened that we played them first that year.
The game was close and we were up by a run or two in the top of the seventh with two outs and a runner at second; Barnes is on the mound with David at short, Ty at third, and Hendo at first.
As fate would have it, their former teammate steps up the plate; he squibbles a grounder to short and David comes in to make the play.
As he fields the ball, his feet go out from under him; the kid’s hustling down the line so instead of panicking, David simply raises to his knees and throws the kid out by two steps and we go berserk.
Of course David has a big ole grin on his face as he gets mobbed.
One of the nicest kids, perhaps best baseball player I have had, and one of the most memorable moments of my baseball coaching career.
