Hall o’ Fame inductees Steve Smith (left), Courtney Arnold and Chris Chan (in baseball cap).
The three people who comprise the 59th class inducted into the Coupeville Sports Hall o’ Fame all left a visible mark.
On and off the field, the trio shone brightly, reflecting extremely well on the community they sprang from, while setting a path to excellence for others to follow.
So today, we welcome Steve Smith, Courtney Arnold and Chris Chan to these hallowed digital walls.
After this, they join their brethren at the top of the blog, enshrined under the Legends tab.
Our first inductee, Chan, is a true Wolf lifer who we’re honoring as a contributor, a tidy way of sweeping all of his many accomplishments into one neat lil’ pile.
As an athlete, maybe his greatest claim to fame is as a member of the 1978-1979 CHS boys’ basketball squad, which upset King’s Garden to claim the Cascade League title.
Even bigger, those Wolves went on to play three games at the state tourney, and their 62-51 win over Montesano Mar. 1, 1979 remains the last time a Coupeville boys’ hoops team won a game at the big dance.
In the years after he helped tickle the twines, Chan has been everywhere his alma mater needed him.
Working with wife Beverly, he gave the school two outstanding children — Laura and Drew — while also finding time to be a hardball guru as part of Willie Smith’s top-tier baseball coaching staff.
His biggest impact, though, probably comes from his time on the Coupeville School Board, where he’s worked tirelessly for the last eight years to give the next generation the best chance to succeed.
Every community, every school, needs those people who are the “glue,” the men and women who give of themselves, never asking for praise, so that things will be better when they’re done.
Chris Chan is one of those unsung greats, and, as a town, Coupeville is very lucky to have experienced him in all his roles — athlete, student, father, coach, school board stalwart.
He’s just a good dude all around, and very worthy of being in any Hall of Fame we might be running around these parts.
Our second inductee, Arnold, joins her mom, former CHS cheer coach Sylvia, in the Hall, but she punched her ticket on her own.
A pretty darn good basketball player during her time in the red and black, Courtney made her biggest mark in the cheer game.
As a captain, she led her team with a light hand, rallying her girls with impassioned speeches which combined her mom’s cheertastic outlook with dad Garrett’s calming words from the church pulpit.
Deeply committed to her faith, her family and her teammates, Arnold led the Wolves when they were still a competition cheer squad, bringing home the program’s third (and so far, final) state meet trophy in 2011.
She’s moved on since those days, sailing through college while continuing to light up the universe around her, but her impact, like her mom’s, is still very much on display.
Young girls who learned their love of the sport from Courtney can be found everywhere in Coupeville, from the high school squad down through youth cheer.
A generation grew up wanting to be like her, to follow her example, as cheerleaders and smart, strong young women, and her legacy is bright and blossoming on the prairie, even if she’s no longer here every day.
Our final inductee, Smith, is quite simply, a legend.
Trying to track down stats from the “olden” days of CHS sports is nigh impossible, except for those moments when someone uncovers a dusty box of clippings from the attic.
But people talk, and when they tell tales of former Wolf greats, Smith’s name is one which comes up often.
He was one of the most physically imposing athletes to ever play for Coupeville, a smash-mouth football player who also had a nimble touch with a tennis racket.
Ask others about him and you hear things along the line of “He was an Adonis in those short shorts they wore in the ’70s” or “He tore people in half, and that was just in practice!”
Smith, who I came to know during my long stretch behind the counter at Videoville, went on to play a little college ball (injuries hurt, however) before serving his country admirably as a medic in Vietnam.
The stories of his exploits in combat (which come from family members and friends, as Steve is not one to blow his own horn) are astonishing and just add to the legend of a larger-than-life guy.
Like Chan, he gave his alma mater children who rose to be athletic stars themselves, including one, daughter Joli (Smith) Bartell, who is already in the Hall herself.
And, like both his fellow inductees, Steve stands tall.
For their exploits during their younger days, and for their exploits after graduation, it’s a trio which should make us all proud.
