Coupeville Sports

He’s a lock for stardom!!

May 24, 2016 by David Svien

Nile Lockwood rips a backhand. (John Fisken photo)

“He’s a wild one, but he’s also very kind and funny … and sometimes inappropriate.”

Coupeville High School freshman Nile Lockwood made an immediate impact on Wolf tennis coach Ken Stange this past fall.

As he was describing the impish one, Stange had a huge grin on his face.

A hustler on the court, and a bit of a fast talker off of it, Lockwood, frankly, has a lot in common with his coach.

As Nile celebrates a birthday today, he has a bright future ahead of him on the hard courts.

With the Wolves losing Sebastian Davis, Connor McCormick and Cole Payne to graduation, slots on the varsity will be up for grabs next season, and Lockwood should be in play to make a bid to move up.

As his first season progressed, he made huge strides in terms of confidence and skill, while still finding time to drop some choice one-liners, and certainly wants the call up to the big leagues.

“My goal is to have a great season and win most of my games and make varsity next year,” Lockwood told me during an interview for a story.

Continue to put in the work and I can see it happen.

But first, to the cake!

Happy birthday, Nile, and keep on swinging for the big time.

Posted in Boys Tennis, Happy birthday | Tagged CHS Wolves, Happy birthday, Nile Lockwood, tennis | Leave a Comment »

There’s a new Titan in town!!

May 23, 2016 by David Svien

Jenn Spark, future college soccer player. (John Fisken photos)

Firing the cannon.

Make it four.

Following in the footsteps of fellow Coupeville High School seniors Makana Stone, Zane Bundy and Dalton Martin, standout Wolf soccer player Jenn Spark is officially down to play college sports.

Spark (and her super-powered kicking leg) will be a Titan, as she plans to suit up for Tacoma Community College in the fall.

A four-year starter for the Wolves, as well as a standout select player for the Whidbey Islanders, she chose the program for several reasons.

“Well, I wanted to continue to play soccer, and I’m interested in the physical therapy program there,” Spark said. “So I emailed the coach to get in touch, and things took off from there.

“I visited the college and met with the team,” she added. “I just really enjoyed the environment at the school, and I really liked the coach and the rest of the team.”

Spark, who battled back from a devastating leg injury during her time as a high school player, plans to pursue a career in physical therapy.

A stellar lock-down defender who earned All-League honors every year she was healthy, Spark also scored her fair share of goals for the Wolves.

The owner of a truly ferocious kick, she once launched a shot from midfield that curled at the last second, smacked off of the top of the goalie’s head and disappeared into the back of the net.

Tacoma Community College plays in the Northwest Athletic Conference.

Home to 35 colleges across Washington, Oregon, Idaho, and British Columbia, the NWAC is the largest multi-state organization of its type in the nation.

The Titans, who are coached by Jill Green, went 8-9-3 last year and went to the playoffs.

Posted in Girls Soccer, Wolves in college | Tagged CHS Wolves, Jenn Spark, Jill Green, Soccer, Tacoma Community College, Titans | Leave a Comment »

Cole Payne officially The Man!!

May 23, 2016 by David Svien

Your 2016 1A Olympic League baseball MVP — Coupeville catcher Cole Payne. (Sylvia Hurlburt photo)

Cole Payne is going out on top.

The Coupeville High School senior, who fought through injury to lead the Wolves to their first baseball league title in 25 years this spring, was tabbed as the MVP of the 1A Olympic League in coach’s voting.

Payne is the second CHS athlete to win top honors in the league, following in the footsteps of two-time girls’ basketball MVP Makana Stone.

A force both at the plate as a hitter and behind it as a catcher, Payne topped a 13-man All-League team released Monday afternoon.

Joining him as First-Team All-League players were senior pitcher CJ Smith, sophomore pitcher Hunter Smith and freshman third baseman Matt Hilborn.

The team features seven seniors, three juniors, two sophomores and one freshman.

Coupeville also received the award for best coaching staff, while Port Townsend took home the sportsmanship award.

The complete All-League team:

Cole Payne (C) Coupeville
George Harris (Inf) Klahowya
Henry Lovekamp (Inf) Chimacum
Matt Hillborn (Inf) Coupeville
Hayden Trull (Inf) Klahowya
Jakob Wittig (C) Klahowya
Berkley Hill (Utility) Port Townsend
Dylan Zuber (OF) Klahowya
Troy Porter (OF) Klahowya
Logan Shaw (OF) Chimacum
CJ Smith (P) Coupeville
Nate Hough (P) Klahowya
Hunter Smith (P) Coupeville

Posted in 1A Olympic League, Baseball | Tagged 1A Olympic League, baseball, CJ Smith, Cole Payne, MVP | Leave a Comment »

Clear your calendar!!

May 22, 2016 by David Svien

The “Fearsome Foursome,” which will try and make history by being the first CHS girls relay team to win a state title. (Eileen Stone photo)

Jacob Smith (shading eyes) is state-bound in three events. (Deb Smith photo)

So many athletes, so many events, so little time.

Having qualified nine boys and six girls for the 1A state track and field meet in Cheney next weekend (May 26-28), Coupeville High School coach Randy King will a busy bee.

Looking at what’s been posted by Eastern Washington University, which hosts the event, this would seem to be the schedule for the Wolves, with three caveats.

Athletes listed as alternates finished 4th at districts and are hopeful, but not guaranteed, of competing.

Throwing events only have finals.

Running events have both prelims and finals, and, while I’m listing both, obviously each Wolf is not guaranteed of reaching the finals.

Still, hope springs eternal and we have faith.

THURSDAY:

6:35 PM — 1600 boys finals (Henry Wynn-alternate)

FRIDAY:

10:00 AM — Javelin boys finals (Dalton Martin)

10:20 AM — 4 x 200 girls relay prelims (Lauren Grove, Lindsey Roberts, Sylvia Hurlburt, Makana Stone)

11:30 AM — 100 hurdles girls prelims (Roberts)

12:05 PM — 100 boys prelims (Jacob Smith)

12:30 PM — Discus boys finals (Martin)

2:05 PM — 4 x 100 relay girls prelims (Grove, Roberts, Stone, Hurlburt)

3:00 PM — Shot Put girls finals (Skyler Lawrence)

3:10 PM — 400 girls prelims (Stone)

3:10 PM — Triple Jump boys finals (Mitchell Carroll, Connor Thompson-alternate)

3:40 PM — 800 boys prelims (Danny Conlisk)

4:00 PM — Pole vault boys finals (Jordan Ford)

4:40 PM — 200 boys prelims (Smith)

5:10 PM — 200 girls prelims (Grove, Hurlburt-alternate)

5:55 PM — 4 x 400 boys prelims (Smith, Wynn, Jared Helmstadter, Conlisk)

SATURDAY:

10 AM — Javelin girls finals (Allison Wenzel-alternate)

10:20 AM — 4 x 200 relay girls finals (Grove, Roberts, Hurlburt, Stone)

11 AM — 100 hurdles girls finals (Roberts)

11:20 AM — 100 boys finals (Smith)

12:30 PM — Shot Put boys finals (Martin)

12:55 PM — 4 x 100 relay girls finals (Grove, Roberts, Stone, Hurlburt)

1:30 PM — 400 girls finals (Stone)

2:35 PM — 800 boys finals (Conlisk)

3:05 PM — High Jump boys finals (Chris Battaglia)

3:10 PM — 200 boys finals (Smith)

3:25 PM — Girls 200 finals (Grove, Hurlburt)

4:55 PM — 4 x 400 boys finals (Smith, Wynn, Helmstadter, Conlisk)

Posted in Track | Tagged 1A state meet, Cheney, CHS Wolves, schedules, Track | Leave a Comment »

Ladies and gents, your true strikeout king revealed!!

May 22, 2016 by David Svien

Coupeville — where strikeout kings are born and bred. (David Svien photo)

Someday I will learn to stop speaking in absolutes.

Some day…

Piecing together the sports history of Coupeville is a hit-and-miss adventure, with a little nugget of info around every corner, but often buried under a pile of dust.

This morning, I felt pretty confident hailing Ray Cook as being the greatest strikeout pitcher in CHS history.

As I pointed out, he dropped 21 K’s over 13 innings in 1976 on the afternoon he won the district championship game and sent the Wolves to state.

Impressive, in every way.

But not the record, it turns out.

Yep, as unlikely as it is, there’s actually at least one other Wolf hurler out there who bettered Cook in both innings tossed and strikeouts notched.

I turn you over to my favorite pen pal, legendary former CHS coach/teacher Bob Barker, as he drops some knowledge about a pitcher from the Class of 1965:

David,

I happened to tune into your Coupeville Sports this morning and noticed your nice write up on Raymond Cook.

Under then head baseball coach Jim Hosek, Coupeville High School had some very fine baseball teams and one of the reasons was a young hurler by the name of Raymond Cook.

I have watched Ray pitch on many occasions and he was a top notch pitcher; however, he does not hold the Coupeville High School record for strikeouts in a single game.

As I mentioned to you earlier, I coached baseball at Coupeville High School for five years.

I did not keep the baseball score-book for the particular game that I am going to relate to you and in retrospect I am sorry for that mistake, but it is a game that I will never forget.

The year before I quit coaching baseball, I had a young man by the name of Bob Rea.

I had started Bob out in pitching as he had such a competitive nature, much like the competitive nature of Ray Cook.

Bob had a blazing fastball and also had developed a sharp curve.

In the game I refer to we had traveled to Darrington.

Darrington also had a very good pitcher of whose name I am unable to remember at this time.

At the end of seven innings the score was tied at 1-1. We continued into extra innings and eventually won the game 2-1 in 16 innings.

The amazing thing about this game was that both pitchers went the whole 16 innings.

The Darrington pitcher had recorded 30 strikeouts while our pitcher, Bob Rea, had recorded 27 strikeouts.

Another particular I remember about that game was that in our half of the 16th inning we had a man on base.

Our batter at the plate had a count of 3-0 so I gave him the take sign.

Either he missed the sign or the pitch was too inviting as he hit a double and drove in the winning run.

So much for coaching strategy.