Jay Roberts (top) and his 4 x 100 mates from ’86 are joined by (l to r) Joli (Smith) Bartell, Greg White and Linde Maertens. (Photos courtesy Konni Smith, Ally Roberts and John Fisken)
When they set records, they SET records.
The 28th class inducted into the Coupeville Sports Hall o’ Fame includes four guys who have held a CHS track record for three decades and the greatest single-season player Wolf volleyball has ever seen.
Toss in two of the most talented multi-sport stars ever to rep the red and black (or red and white, if you prefer) and this is truly a class which stands tall.
With that, we welcome into these hallowed digital walls Joli (Smith) Bartell, Greg White, Linde Maertens and the 4 x 100 relay unit of Jay Roberts, Bill Carstensen, Rick Alexander and Tony Killgo.
After this, you’ll find them up at the top of the blog, under the Legends tab.
Oh, and also on the leader boards of their respective sports at CHS, where they seem content to remain for quite some time.
Our first inductees go in as a team, because that’s how they made their biggest mark.
In an ever-changing world, track records are set to be broken, and yet what Carstensen, Roberts, Alexander and Killgo did back in the “olden” days hasn’t been touched.
This spring will mark the 30th anniversary of the day they teamed up to run the 4 x 100 relay in a crisp 43.9 seconds, a mark that has stood tall in the face of passing time.
Fast runners have come and gone over the past three decades — track has always been one of Coupeville’s strongest sports — and yet no quartet has toppled what currently sits as the longest-standing CHS track record in the books.
If that doesn’t make them Hall worthy, I don’t know what does.
Joining them is Smith, who was riding high at CHS in the early ’90s when I first worked as a Sports Editor at the Whidbey News-Times.
Volleyball, basketball, softball, she was as solid and dependable an athlete as I have ever covered, a true star, but one who worked hard every single day to achieve that level.
She was the glue who held her Wolf teams together, and, if you needed one hit, one basket, one dive across a volleyball floor to save a ball that seemed dead-set on going out of play, she was your woman.
Over the years since, there have been many talented CHS athletes — her niece, Emma Smith, just had a sensational freshman season on the volleyball court her aunt once owned, but Joli remains one of the best we have ever had here — as a player and as a person.
Our next inductee is sort of the male counterpart to Smith.
White was a stalwart for the Wolf football and basketball squads and a guy who has gone on to mix continued athletic success (he’s a key part of the Red Pride hoops team that owns the annual alumni tourney and runs in Ragnar events) with imparting his wisdom as a youth coach.
But to truly understand how much of an impact he made during his time at CHS, you don’t need to look at the stats (though they are super-solid).
Just talk to the guys he played with or the ones who came up right behind him, and a hush falls over the crowd.
Dustin Van Velkinburgh, himself a Hall inductee, once said:
Greg White was the man!
If he saw you in the gym, he’d come up and show you, throw like this, you’ll get a better result.
We went white water rafting with Youth Dynamics one time and Greg was back home from college.
On the trip, our boat got caught in a whirlpool and we got sucked in. We managed to help each other and came out OK.
Grabbing Greg and pulling him back in the boat, it was like saving Superman in a lot of ways for me.
Kicking in the door to join White is the most athletically successful foreign exchange student CHS ever lucked into.
Belgium’s finest, Linde Maertens, wasn’t even supposed to be a Wolf, with her host family living in Oak Harbor when she arrived in 2008.
But in a stroke of luck, OHHS was full-up on exchange students, and Coupeville volleyball coach Toni Crebbin got an incredible present out of nowhere.
Maertens, who these days is back spiking in her native country, stepped on the court and as fast as you could say “Juppa!” (a cheer from her homeland the Wolves began to use after an ace or kill) she elevated Wolf volleyball to a level it had never seen before, or since.
In her one year on the court for the Wolves, she set game and season marks in kills (21 and 167) and a season mark in digs (248), all of which still stand.
A veteran of international play, Maertens had a style that set her apart, even if provincial refs in these parts didn’t always know quite what to make of the high-flying whiz.
“She put her foot out to kick the ball, which wasn’t legal at the time,” Crebbin said with a laugh. “She also got called for illegal screening, a first for my team.
“We’ve had foreign exchange students in the past, and some have said they played, but she was the first one who exceeded our expectations.”
Crebbin and Maertens fostered a friendship that has endured after the player’s return home. While she was in Coupeville, Linde spent considerable time with her new coach’s family, including holidays and school breaks.
Having played club level volleyball in Belgium, Maertens had rarely played in front of large crowds. That changed during her time as a Wolf, and a mutual love affair played out.
“That year we had a great fan base, which she absolutely loved,” Crebbin said.
From all of those fans, and many more, you may have physically left the building, Linde, but you will always be a permanent part of Wolf Nation.
