The Hall ‘o Fame welcomes (top, l to r) Natalie (Slater) Maneval, Marissa (Slater) Dixon and Misty Sellgren and (bottom) Curtis Larson, Tom Black, Dean Tucker and Kole Kellison.
Big moments, little moments.
As we celebrate the 24th class to be inducted into the Coupeville Sports Hall o’ Fame, we acknowledge both.
From big-time accomplishments in the crucible of athletic competition to the sometimes almost anonymous behind-the-scenes work done by unsung warriors, it takes a bit of everything to make Wolf Nation all it is.
So, with that, we welcome Natalie (Slater) Maneval, Marissa (Slater) Dixon, Misty Sellgren, Tom Black, Kole Kellison, Curtis Larson and Dean Tucker into these hallowed digital walls.
After this, you’ll find their names and legacies camped out atop the blog under the Legends tab.
Our first three honorees are going in together as a trio, inducted as Contributors for all they have done over the years to better Wolf sports.
The Three Amigos (Black, Larson and Tucker) all gave us multiple children who starred at CHS over the years — some of whom are already in this Hall — but today we pay respect for things current Wolves may take for granted.
The person who nominated the trio had the following to say:
“David, I would like to nominate Tom Black, Curtis Larson and Dean Tucker for the Hall of Fame for changing the Wolf logo to the current one, originally painting the pads in the gym, raising the money and purchasing the Wolf chairs and Dean for planning and building the best scorers table in any league.”
And you just thought those things appeared from thin air one day, didn’t you?
Well, you thought wrong, and we’re happy to acknowledge the guys who toiled behind the scenes to create that illusion.
Our second trio isn’t as connected as the first one (though two of them are twin sisters) but Sellgren and the athletes formerly known as the Slater girls share the distinction of being some of the best Wolf athletes of the early ’90s.
Natalie was a four-year letter winner in softball who took the MVP her senior season and went on to play at the college level under Hall o’ Famer Denny Zylstra.
She was also a three-year letter winner in volleyball and remains one of the most out-going, cheerful people to ever pull on a CHS uniform.
Her sister veered off to the soccer pitch (one of two sports she got college scholarship offers in), the basketball court and the track oval.
It was track where Marissa may have made her biggest impact, running the anchor on a 4 x 400 relay squad that shattered the school record, while also advancing to state in the hurdles.
Sellgren, meanwhile, was your prototypical three-sport star, a force of nature in volleyball, basketball and softball at the time I was working as Sports Editor at the Whidbey News-Times.
Misty had maybe as much natural talent as any prep athlete I have ever covered, and she could, when she wanted to, take over games like she was flipping a switch.
All three have gone on to become mothers, with their offspring quickly picking up the family tradition of athletic awesomeness.
Only downside? None of the three have their kids in Coupeville schools, so we have to witnesses their accomplishments from afar.
But you can’t force people to stay in town (well, I can try…) and, even though their children are wearing a vast array of other uniforms (and sometimes competing AGAINST Central Whidbey teams), it is great to see them do so well and carry on their mom’s legacies.
And then we reach our final inductee, Mr. Kellison.
A solid soccer and football player, he goes in for creating a moment, though I debated at first which one of two to include.
The one which will sit until later involves Kole tackling a ref in the end zone during the finale of a muddy, terribly-called game in Chimacum a few years back.
For now, he goes in for the time when he joined myself and Kim Andrews up in the CHS press box during a rainy, windy girls’ soccer game.
Something was malfunctioning with the speaker system (I know, huge surprise) and, to fix it, Kellison had to go outside and stretch out precariously into the night while on the top row of the bleachers.
Andrews, who, along with Aimee Bishop, kept CHS athletics up and running in those days, wasn’t sure Kole should do it, but the ever-laid-back one just rolled his eyes and then went about putting himself in an awkward position.
Waiting until Kim had just started to relax, he then looked back at her, hanging over the abyss as rain slashed down and dead-panned “Does this school have good insurance?”
He held the moment just long enough for Andrews entire career to pass in front of her eyes, then he smiled a small smile and attached whatever he needed to attach and slid back down.
It was a beautifully-played moment and has stuck with me long after a lot of on-field stuff has evaporated.
Hall o’ Fame worthy? Without a doubt.
