Coupeville Sports

   CHS girls tennis, sparked by players like McKenzie Bailey, has been dominant over the past three seasons. (John Fisken photo)

It’s not always about wins and losses, except when it is.

There are many ways to look at the success or failure of a high school sports program — titles, players who move on to compete in college, improvement shown by the current players, size of the fan base and on and on.

But ultimately they play games to decide a winner.

And while we can argue all day long in favor of other things, that’s what sits there in black and white forever.

I acknowledge there are a lot of hidden factors in win/loss records.

Who did you play, for one?

In scheduling, did you punch upwards and maybe absorb losses against bigger schools, AKA “moral victories”, or punch downwards against smaller schools and fluff up the ol’ record a bit?

Did you have one great year and that was enough to balance out some weaker campaigns, or were you consistent, but maybe never reached the mountain top?

A lot of ifs, ands and buts, and to go through all of them would require much more patience and research on my part (and a lot more rambling for you to read).

For the moment, here’s what we’re going with.

I went back through the entire run of the 1A Olympic League, which began with the 2014-2015 school year and is currently heading towards the finish line on Year 3.

I went with each team’s complete record, league and non-league, through games played Apr. 19, 2017.

Spring is obviously not done and winning percentages will change, but, in three of four sports (baseball, girls tennis and boys soccer), the all-time front runner can’t be caught this year.

Softball, which is the closest sport in the Olympic League by far, could change. If so, we’ll talk about that another day.

I went with 10 of the 11 sports Coupeville plays (track win/loss records from dual meets are arbitrary and worthless), so no swimming or wrestling or gymnastics.

And what did I find?

Klahwoya girls soccer, which won a state title in 2015 behind the 1-2 punch of Izzy Severns and McKenzie Cook, has been the most successful program in any sport.

Hardly surprising.

But, as good as the Eagle booters have been, they do not boast the biggest advantage over their league rivals.

When you compare records, both Coupeville girls tennis and girls basketball have a far bigger edge over the second-best school in the league in their sport when you compare winning percentages.

Another interesting tidbit?

Klahowya, which has the best winning percentage as a school, owns the best record in four sports (girls and boys soccer,  volleyball and baseball).

That allows the Eagles to edge out Coupeville (girls basketball, girls and boys tennis), Port Townsend (football, boys basketball) and Chimacum (softball).

But, Klahowya also has the worst record in both girls and boys basketball.

Port Townsend (3) and Chimacum (5) split the other cellar dwellers, while Coupeville is the lone school NOT to have any of its programs mired in last-place.

And one final bit of quirkiness.

In boys basketball, Coupeville and Chimacum have virtually the exact same record over the past three seasons. Same losses and the Cowboys have just one more win.

And yet Chimacum won back-to-back league titles before falling to Port Townsend this winter, piling up league wins while the Wolves were far better against non-conference foes.

You just shrug your shoulders and move on, I guess.

Records from Sept. 2014 to Apr. 19, 2017:

Volleyball:

Football:

Girls Soccer:

Boys Tennis:

Girls Basketball:

Boys Basketball:

Softball:

Girls Tennis:

Baseball:

Boys Soccer:

Read Full Post »