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It’s boots and chaps, and camera snaps

September 7, 2023 by David Svien

Wolf super fans Desi Ramirez-Vasquez (left) and Skylar Parker are ready for some volleyball. (Photos by JohnsPhotos.net)

Cow Town became the Wild West Wednesday night.

Coupeville High School volleyball fans came out for the season opener attired in prairie outfits as the Wolves waged an epic battle with visiting South Whidbey.

Back from his cross country summer RV trek, wanderin’ photographer John Fisken snapped the pics we see above and below.

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Bring The Bucket back

September 7, 2023 by David Svien

Jack Porter heads off to retrieve The Bucket. (Bailey Thule photo)

It’s been six years.

No current Coupeville High School football player knows what it’s like to hoist The Bucket, as the Wolves have dropped four straight rivalry games to South Whidbey.

Toss in a pandemic-marred 2020 season in which the next-door neighbors didn’t play, and you have to go back to Sept. 1, 2017 for the last time CHS had bragging rights.

That night Hunter Downes tossed touchdown passes to Hunter Smith and Sean Toomey-Stout, while Smith also broke off an 89-yard scoring run.

With Cameron Toomey-Stout picking off a pair of passes, and Jake Hoagland and Jake Pease recovering fumbles, Coupeville won 18-0, one of only two times when the big game has been a shutout.

The last Wolf team to claim The Bucket. (David Stern photo)

The Wolves, who won four of six Bucket games to kick off the Coupeville Sports era (2012-today), get another crack at the trophy this Friday, Sept. 8.

CHS heads down to Langley, with a 7:00 kickoff for the non-conference rumble.

Both teams enter play at 0-1, with Coupeville falling 28-25 on the final play of the game against Klahowya, while South Whidbey got smacked 35-20 by Friday Harbor in its opener.

Seniors Uriel Liquidano (63), Jacob Martin (32), and Clay Reilly (2) celebrate in 2016. (Photo by JohnsPhotos.net)

For those who don’t know, this bucket we speak of is exactly what it sounds like.

Painted with Wolf colors on one side and Falcon colors on the other, it has been awarded to the winner of the rivalry game since athletic directors Willie Smith and John Patton created it in 2008.

Complete with a dent on one side, courtesy a South Whidbey coach unhappy about a loss, The Bucket lives at the winning school and is brought out for the game.

The “original” bucket once held licorice, but was filled with water by a Coupeville student, who dumped it on the South Whidbey crowd at a volleyball match, setting off a near-riot.

Looking to turn a negative into a positive, Smith and Patton transformed the weapon of mass hydration into a trophy.

Since then, Wolf coaches Tony Maggio and Jon Atkins have coached Coupeville to two wins apiece in The Bucket game, while current CHS head man Bennett Richter gets a second crack at making Falcon Nation cry.

Tony Maggio led Coupeville to two wins in the rivalry game. (Shawn Walstad photo)

 

For those keeping track, the history of The Bucket game:

2009 — SW 28-6
2010 — SW 33-7
2011 — SW 35-0
2012 — CHS 18-13
2013 — SW 57-33
2014 — CHS 35-28
2015 — SW 27-14
2016 — CHS 41-10
2017 — CHS 18-0
2018 — SW 48-20
2019 — SW 35-7
2020 — No game
2021 — SW 33-7
2022 — SW 47-28

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Lippo dances into spotlight

September 7, 2023 by David Svien

Skyy Lippo dances into the post-graduate world. (Photos courtesy Joe Lippo)

The stages keep getting bigger.

Coupeville High School grad Skyy Lippo continues to pursue a life of dance, and her latest performance will take her to the City Stage Theatre in Missouri.

She’ll be a guest artist as Kansas City Contemporary Dance puts on its fall show, Behind Closed Doors.

The show, which runs November 4-5, explores “personal choices, loneliness, friendship, compulsions, manipulation, internal struggles, privacy, and sense of belonging.”

Going with the flow.

Lippo recently graduated from the University of Missouri-Kansas City and is now able to take advantage of a more-open schedule to perform with the troupe.

“I had auditioned with them for their dance season,” Lippo said.

“Unfortunately, I couldn’t take the trainee position they offered, because it turned out their season started while I was still in school, and I wanted to get my degree.”

Artistry in motion.

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A win, until it wasn’t

September 6, 2023 by David Svien

Teagan Calkins played strongly in her varsity volleyball debut. (Jackie Saia photo)

Point by point, it slipped away.

Up two sets to none Wednesday, one point away from a straight-sets sweep, the Coupeville High School varsity volleyball squad couldn’t drive the last nail into South Whidbey’s coffin.

Instead, the visiting Falcons held off two match points and rallied to capture an improbable 24-26, 23-25, 26-24, 25-17, 15-10 non-conference win in the season opener for both teams.

A battle royale which lasted two-and-a-half hours in a stuffy gym, played out in front of a Wolf student section which struggled to get loud ‘n proud until late in the evening, it left players, coaches, and fans slightly stunned.

The Falcons fly home with the win, to the delight of a few fans who chose to camp out in the Coupeville side of the gym, while the Wolves head back to practice needing to work on developing a killer mentality.

CHS was the better team much of the night and got strong work from sophomore Teagan Calkins and junior Madison McMillan, but made too many unforced errors to earn the win.

In particular, the Wolves, who have a roster full of exciting servers, struggled at the stripe, launching way too many balls into the bottom of the net.

Coupeville is off for a week, returning to action September 13, when it hosts Neah Bay, which will give coach Cory Whitmore and his staff time to refine things.

The new-look Wolves, who lost five players to graduation, are a work in progress, and that was never more evident than in the opening set.

Powered by strong serving from seniors Issabel Johnson and Grey Peabody, and one particularly nasty spike off the fingertips of high-bounding Lyla Stuurmans, Coupeville built an 11-6 lead.

Then everything which could go wrong did, quickly, allowing South Whidbey to tear off a 15-2 run and reclaim the lead at 21-13.

The Wolves looked disorientated, and lost, until they didn’t.

Flipping the switch back to positive, Coupeville got a burst of energy from Mia Farris, who tore off a Falcon arm with a wicked ace.

With McMillan catching fire as she was everywhere and nowhere all at once, dancing from side to side while spraying winners, the Wolves closed the set on a 13-3 surge to come all the way back.

Farris rose up to the ceiling and cracked straight fire right down the middle of the floor to seal the 26-24 set win, and the Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde evening was well underway.

The second set featured four ties, with neither team able to pull away.

In a preview of things to come, South Whidbey held off two set points before Farris ended things with a ferocious spike which caught the top of the net, skidded along it as the Falcons watched it go by, then flopped on the other side for a winner.

The Wolves built a 5-0 lead in the third set behind the serving of Katie Marti, only to see the plucky Falcons hang around, eventually forcing eight different ties, the last at 22-22.

Peabody slammed a winner to stake CHS to a 24-22 lead, putting the home team on the brink of ending things in time for everyone to enjoy dinner at a reasonable time.

But it wasn’t to be, as the Falcons scored the final four points of the set, pulling victory from the jaws of defeat and prolonging things.

That delay turned into another hour, however, with the action resembling a slow-motion wreck at times for the Wolves.

Calkins, making her varsity volleyball debut after a stellar summer of smacking big base knocks for her select softball squad, rustled up a series of big-time hits, raining down pain on the Falcons.

But even with their sophomore sniper hard at work, the Wolves never led in the fourth set, and only once, at 5-4, in the fifth.

That lead vanished as quickly as it arrived, with Coupeville falling behind 10-5, and never getting closer than two points the rest of the way.

 

Wednesday stats:

Taylor Brotemarkle — 7 digs
Teagan Calkins — 8 kills, 2 digs
Mia Farris — 8 kills, 4 digs, 5 aces
Issabel Johnson — 2 digs, 1 ace
Katie Marti — 1 kill, 7 digs, 25 assists, 1 ace, 1 block assist
Madison McMillan — 2 kills, 15 digs, 5 aces
Grey Peabody — 8 kills, 3 digs, 1 block assist, 1 solo block
Lyla Stuurmans — 5 kills, 10 digs, 1 ace

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New season, same winning style

September 6, 2023 by David Svien

Coupeville’s JV spikers are off to a winning start. (Photo by JohnsPhotos.net)

Ashley Menges is putting up some nice numbers.

The former Wolf volleyball star kicked off her fourth season as Coupeville High School JV spiker coach Wednesday, leading her team to a 25-18, 25-17, 10-8 win over visiting South Whidbey.

The only thing slowing down Menges‘ mashers was the clock, with the third (practice) set ending prematurely to allow the varsity to take the floor.

Coupeville’s second squad is 31-8 under its current coach, giving the fiery one the best winning percentage (.795) of any active Wolf coach in any sport, varsity or JV.

The spike squad actually started a bit slowly against South Whidbey, then roared to life midway through the first set.

Freshman Dakota Strong, making her debut for the school where mom Danette Beckley was a CHS Athlete of the Year, launched a spike crosscourt to spark the Wolves, and the match turned for the better in an instant.

Chloe Marzocca zipped one of her team-high four service aces past the Falcon defense to stake Coupeville to its first lead at 9-8, with Haylee Armstrong, Capri Anter, and Aby Wood adding lethal support from the service stripe.

Bounding back into the spotlight, Strong tipped a winner over a rival’s outstretched arm to ice the opening set.

Round two was a back-and-forth affair, with seven ties, the last at 14-14.

Coupeville closed like champs, running off an 11-3 surge to capture the match win.

Wood stood tall, collecting winners via both spikes and tips, while Myra McDonald, Lexis Drake, and Carly Burt chipped in with big-time hustle plays.

While the third set was just for show and destined to end when the clock hit 6:00 PM regardless of the score, Coupeville took care of business.

Marzocca sacrificed her body to save a ball, sliding across the floor to flick the falling orb back skyward, while Armstrong dropped a gorgeous tip winner which froze three Falcons in place.

Coming off their season-opening win, the Wolf JV heads back to practice.

Up next on the schedule is a non-conference home match Sept. 13 with Neah Bay.

 

Wednesday stats:

Capri Anter — 1 kill, 2 digs, 1 ace
Haylee Armstrong — 4 kills, 1 dig, 3 assists, 1 ace, 1 block assist
Chloe Marzocca — 1 kill, 2 digs, 4 aces
Myra McDonald — 1 ace
Dakota Strong — 4 kills, 1 block assist
Aby Wood — 1 kill, 5 digs, 2 aces

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