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“Let’s peel some rubber!” (Photos courtesy Heather Tenore)

The Island was alive with the sound of feet hitting pedals.

The annual Tour de Whidbey biking extravaganza went down last weekend, and we’ve got a collection of photos to put you in the thick of things.

The event, which featured six different routes, ranging from a family-friendly 10-mile jaunt to a 162-mile endurance trek, is a fundraiser for the WhidbeyHealth Foundation.

It brought out bicycle enthusiasts of all ages, as well as the Coupeville High School cheerleaders, who provided an emotional boost for riders headed to the finish line.

Coupeville senior Lucy Crouch is a co-captain for the fall cheer squad. (Photos by JohnsPhotos.net)

They’re a sisterhood.

That’s the key to everything the Coupeville High School cheer squad does as it preps for a new school year.

“What we consider our biggest strength is our sense of sisterhood,” said assistant coach Tara Crouch.

“As coaches, we have worked diligently to make our cheerleaders feel more like a family whose members you can rely on,” she added. “We have team building exercises, study days, and many of our returners stay before and after practice to give extra support to our newer members.

“We want them to feel like they can come to us and each other for support.”

Crouch and head coach Jennifer Morrell have built a deep roster for their second year with the program.

The duo work with 20 athletes, including three foreign exchange students and Riley White, who wears the Wolf uniform as the team mascot.

Seniors Lucy Crouch and Karyme Castro are co-captains, while fliers Hayley Fiedler and Pamela Morrell and “our powerhouse base” of Hayley Thomas and Isabella Schooley help lead the squad.

Joining them are a strong group of newcomers, including fliers Ember Light and Miley Gerber, and “crowd rushers” Alysia Burdge, Abbigail Bond, and Makenna Jonker-Chambers.

Rounding out the Wolf roster are Sofia Bharati, Lynn Cosner, Melanie Foley, Gracie McFarlin, and Avery Williams-Buchanan, as well as two students from Spain and one from Italy.

Avery Williams-Buchanan is back and ready to get loud in support of her classmates.

The Wolves will be busy this fall, leading cheers at football games, working with junior cheerleaders, and spreading positive energy near and far.

“Our goal as a team this year is to continue to bring the spirit of cheer back to the Coupeville community,” Tara Crouch said.

“Our cheerleaders have been hard at work volunteering at many community events over the summer and really want to show Coupeville some love.”

The team is focusing on “perfecting our cheers and fine-tuning our stunting,” with an eye on returning to competition cheer.

“We aren’t there yet,” Tara Crouch said. “But we’re confident we have a great team of cheerleaders who will work hard to achieve their goal.”

Wolf coaches Jennifer Morrell (left) and Tara Crouch keep a watchful eye on things.

Coupeville High School football coach Bobby Carr makes a new friend — the lil’ bee hanging out on the Adidas logo on his jacket. (Alia Houston photo)

We’re in a bit of a holding pattern.

The first game of a new school athletic year is eight days away, arriving next Friday, Sept. 2.

Until then Coupeville High School teams continue to practice, and, hopefully, Wolf coaches are prepping responses to questions so we can pound out some Fall Sports Preview stories.

Looking to kill a few minutes? Turn your gaze on the photos above and below, which come from the early days of a new season.

Aby Wood bumps her way to stardom. (Photo by JohnsPhotos.net)

Malachi Somes eyeballs the defense. (Photo by JohnsPhotos.net)

Have ball, will shoot. (Photo by JohnsPhotos.net)

Preseason workouts lead to in-season success. (Nikki Breaux photo)

Grier Mooney flips the ball skyward. (Photo by JohnsPhotos.net)

Two goal-scorers passing in the night. Or, more likely, at about 2:37 in the afternoon. (Photo by JohnsPhotos.net)

There’s a story here… (Photo by JohnsPhotos.net)

CMS volleyball coach Katie Kiel is off to Cali. (Photo by JohnsPhotos.net)

New year, new adventures.

Coupeville Middle School volleyball coach Katie Kiel has left the Wolf bench after a season.

The change is due to her now living and working in California, which puts a pretty big crimp in commuting daily to Whidbey Island.

Kiel, a 2013 Coupeville grad who played volleyball and basketball for the Wolves, returned to her alma mater last year.

She joined fellow coach Cris Matochi in bringing the CMS spiker program out of a pandemic shutdown and was a lively presence in the gym.

Whether working with young spikers on a one-on-one basis or providing the local press with stats, info, and insights, Kiel had a very-positive impact.

CMS volleyball kicks off a new season with the first day of practice Sept. 12.

Kiel’s job has been posted, and Coupeville Athletic Director Willie Smith is hustling to find a replacement to work with Matochi.

If you’d like to apply, pop over to:

https://www.applitrack.com/coupeville/onlineapp/default.aspx?all=1

Longtime Coupeville tennis guru Ken Stange won’t have a chance to coach this fall. (Photo by JohnsPhotos.net)

The rackets remain unstrung, and the courts are empty.

Coupeville High School has cancelled its boys tennis season due to a lack of players, Athletic Director Willie Smith confirmed Thursday afternoon.

It will be the third-straight non-season for the Wolf netters, as the program has been beset from all sides.

Friday Harbor, which was Coupeville’s most reliable tennis opponent, cancelled its fall sports programs at the height of the pandemic.

During that lost season, many Wolf tennis players migrated to soccer, helping save that program from its own cancellation.

The biggest stumbling block for the netters might simply be Coupeville’s move back to the 2B classification in 2020.

At the 1A level, boys soccer is played in the spring. In 2B, those booters join the girls in playing their season in the fall.

With football, cross country, tennis, and soccer all vying for male athletes in the same season at a small school, someone is likely to lose out.

So far, that’s been tennis.

Coupeville is the only one of seven schools in the Northwest 2B/1B League attempting to field four male sports teams in the fall.

The other NWL schools offer:

Friday Harbor — tennis, football, soccer
La Conner — cross country, football, soccer
Concrete — football, cross country
Mount Vernon Christian — cross country, soccer
Orcas Island — cross country, soccer
Darrington — football

While boys tennis sits idle, girls tennis remains strong, and the CHS courts should once again be filled with aces and overheads next spring.