Carolyn Lhamon runs in 2021’s first high school athletic event — which didn’t happen until March. (Photo by JohnsPhotos.net)
We’re going to (mostly) ignore the elephant in the room.
Covid, in all its many mutations, touched all sports activity in 2021.
The ongoing pandemic pushed the start of games until March, compressed the first round of seasons, and started endless arguments.
Now, as we sit hours away from the arrival of 2022, we’re still stuck in unstable times, with several recent basketball games postponed.
But, as much as possible, this year in review story is going to focus on what happened between the lines when athletes were allowed to play, sometimes in masks, sometimes not.
The first athletic event for a Coupeville High School team arrived March 4, when the Wolf track team hosted an eight-team meet with no fans allowed in the stands.
That broke a run of 387 days without a school sporting event of any kind held in Central Whidbey, while track and field had been inactive for 650 days.
And yes, spring sports went first in the compressed 2020-2021 school athletic year, payback for those programs completely losing seasons in 2019.
The first time out, senior Logan Martin claimed shot put and discus titles, while Catherine Lhamon (1600), Carolyn Lhamon (shot put), and a 4 x 100 relay squad (Sam Wynn, Reiley Araceley, Dominic Coffman, and Ben Smith) also won.
Martin repeated those wins at the Northwest 2B/1B League championships, with Catherine Lhamon (3200), Wynn (100), and the 4 x 100 team — now with Aidan Wilson in the mix — standing atop the podium.
It was a strong spring overall for Coupeville, with Wolf softball (12-0) and girls tennis (6-0) rolling to league titles, while baseball (7-3) finished second in a seven-team race.
The diamond dandies were brutally-efficient, outscoring foes 154-41, while trailing a grand total of just one time all season.
Covering all spring sports, CHS claimed 25 league wins, while the other six NWL schools combined to net just 27.
With one compressed season slamming into another, the Wolves began fall sports even as the spring session was still wrapping up.
Boys tennis failed to field a team, something which would repeat later in 2021, but other sports shone brightly.
Cross country hosted a home meet for the first time in 30+ years, while Catherine Lhamon won a league title.
Catherine Lhamon, Northwest 2B/1B League champ. (Helene Lhamon photo)
Meanwhile, Wolf volleyball finished 6-3, with its only losses to two-time defending state champs La Conner, and Kylie Chernikoff and Chelsea Prescott were tabbed as First-Team All-League picks.
Football finished 3-2, claiming a second-straight winning season, while Cael Wilson became the first eighth grader to score a goal in a CHS varsity soccer game.
The Wolves finally got a chance to reclaim the hardwood for the finale of the 2020-2021 school year.
Sunlight flooded into the gym in May and June, creating a different atmosphere than the normal mid-winter feel embraced by hoops.
Hawthorne Wolfe dropped 38 points on Mount Vernon Christian, best by any Coupeville player since the 2003-2004 season, then made sure we knew it wasn’t a fluke by repeating the feat against Orcas Island.
The Wolf boys won six of their final seven games to finish 8-4, earning the program’s first winning season since 2010.
They also came agonizingly close to winning a league title, finishing a half-game off of MVC (8-3) — who they beat twice — with the Hurricanes benefiting from not playing a 12th game.
Lyla Stuurmans rumbles on the hardwood. (Photo by JohnsPhotos.net)
While the CHS girls finished 5-7, they did make history, with Savina Wells and Lyla Stuurmans the first 8th graders to suit up in a varsity game.
Wells finished #2 on the team in scoring, even while being run ragged by bouncing between high school basketball and little league softball near the end.
The highly-compressed school athletic year came to an end with Xavier Murdy and Chelsea Prescott named as CHS Athlete of the Year winners, while a former two-time winner of that award ascended to a higher level.
Having wrapped a torrid first year of basketball in England playing for Loughborough University, Makana Stone signed a pro contract with the Leicester Riders.
Back on Whidbey, Wells was a vital part of the Whidbey Inferno, an All-Star Juniors softball squad built out of a mix of Coupeville and Oak Harbor players.
Mia Farris (center) and the Whidbey Island Inferno All-Stars Juniors softball squad finished 4th at state. (Jackie Saia photo)
After sweeping to a district title, the Inferno won two games at the state tourney, thunking Puyallup and Mukilteo en route to finishing 4th at the big dance.
The biggest bop at state came courtesy Madison McMillan, who crushed the very soul out of the ball with a game-changing, over-the-fence home run at a moment where the Inferno found itself on the edge of elimination.
And then we were back to school sports, only this time in a semi-normal phase. Sort of.
Fall sports reverted to being first on the docket, with mostly-full schedules again, and the promise of playoffs, which hadn’t happened during the compressed seasons.
CHS cross country made some serious noise, with Helen Strelow following in the footsteps of Catherine Lhamon, winning a NWL title.
Helen Strelow, league champ. (Photo by JohnsPhotos.net)
Strelow, Claire Mayne, and Mitchell Hall advanced to state, giving the Wolf harriers their most participants in a single season since the ’80s.
Wolf volleyball, playing without a senior on the roster, went 11-6 overall, 10-2 in league play.
Again, Coupeville’s biggest stumbling block was La Conner, which swept three matches from the Wolves, including eliminating CHS in the district finals.
To no one’s surprise, the Braves went on to win a third-straight state title, the sixth in program history.
Both Wolf soccer teams were competitive against schools featuring tons of travel ball players, while CHS football left everything on the field in a triple-overtime loss to Friday Harbor with a playoff berth on the line.
Brian Casey holds his ground. (Photo by JohnsPhotos.net)
Eddy Perera, a member of the Wolf soccer squad, proved adept with the trombone, and was named to the All-State Honor Band.
Some of the most-positive news arrived late in the year, with Nancy Conard, Morgan White, and Sherry Phay all elected to the school board.
Which means Coupeville Sports went 3-for-3 in political endorsements. Something to remember when the next election rolls around…
Our school board is in good hands. (Photo courtesy Morgan White)
With winter storms starting to savage Whidbey (first wind, then snow and ice), we sailed into the start of another basketball season, one which has gotten off to a stellar start.
The Wolf boys are 5-0 heading into 2022, which includes a 70-64 upset of 3A Oak Harbor, which will hear about the defeat to a 2B school for decades.
Meanwhile, the Coupeville girls, in their first season under former Wolf star Megan Smith, are 4-2 and looking for more.
As are we all.
Less Covid, more games. That’s a good place to start with New Year’s wishes.
Coupeville Sports 