I’m one missing season away from fully-recognizing Jack Elzinga’s high school hoops legacy. Who’s sitting on scoring stats from 1953-54? (Photo courtesy Sandy Roberts)
Running this blog is one part writing, one part detective work.
When it’s really humming, I want Coupeville Sports to span the entire length of athletics here on the prairie that sits in the middle of a rock out in the water up in an area which is still shrouded in mystery.
We should celebrate the young girl who is playing middle school basketball for the first time, sporting her first pair of hardwood-ready shoes, her pigtails flying in different directions as she learns to reverse and get back on defense.
And we should also pay tribute to the guys who once played football in leather helmets, raw-boned farm kids who carved out some time from their chores (and feeding the pigs) to chase a pigskin around.
The one can be written about in the moment, while the other takes research, leafing through old newspapers and yearbooks, stirring people’s memories and hoping, always hoping, for some new discovery to fill in a vital part of the story.
Since launching Coupeville Sports in mid-2012, I have discovered one truth — not everyone held on to the past in the way I would have liked.
For every former coach like Randy King, who had complete scorebooks for 19 of his 20 seasons running the CHS boys basketball program, there’s a peer who tossed everything into a closet, or a filing cabinet, or worse, into the round file.
But I have also been pleasantly surprised from time to time by the sudden reveal of mementos, clippings, and photos, pulled from attics, or basements, or the back rooms of various local barns.
While things I wish were easy to find often aren’t, things I never expected to see often surface when least expected.
So I’m putting the call out for what we’ll call the “holy grails,” records and artifacts which currently top my list of wish-we-could-find-them items.
If you or someone you know has these items, or can find them, you will earn eternal membership on my best friend’s list.
And if you have something that’s not on my list, but something you consider interesting, something you wish I would write about, don’t hesitate to contact me.
Coupeville Sports is now, has always been, and will always be, a community effort. I write the words, but I can’t do it without your help.
With that, a few of things I most wish would pop up.
**Individual scoring totals for the 1951-1952 and 1953-1954 Coupeville High School boys basketball teams.
I have stats for 70 of the 102 Wolf boys hoops squads, and, while I would love to find scoring totals for teams from the ’20s, ’30s, and ’40s, these two teams from the ’50s are the biggest remaining missing pieces to the all-time scoring story.
There just wasn’t enough offense in those early decades for any players from that time to compete with the CHS stars of the ’70s and beyond.
But Jack Elzinga, who played on the 53-54 team, and Tom Sahli, who played for both those squads, could shake up the top 20, maybe even top 10, if I could finalize their numbers.
Elzinga is already #25 all-time, and that’s with me missing a full season. Sahli, who went on to be a great college basketball player, is #88, based on just his junior campaign.
Both players were among the first big-time scorers in school history, and deserve to have their legacies fully honored.
**Scoring totals for the 1974-1975 CHS girls basketball team, the first to play after Title IX changed the landscape.
Other than a paragraph or two (and I mean that literally), the Whidbey News-Times completely ignored the season as if it never happened.
And, while I obtained a roster from the school yearbook, there were no stats included.
Of the 45 seasons of Wolf girls hoops in the modern era, it’s the only one for which I don’t have scoring totals, and that is a mighty big airball.
**Video of girls hoops supernova Zenovia Barron and film of the 1969-1970 boys basketball team.
The former is the #2 scorer in school history, girl or boy, and those who saw her play describe her in reverent tones.
Having left the News-Times right before she hit high school, I was busy renting Jurassic Park and hyping The Hudsucker Proxy during the start of my 12-year run at Videoville when she shook up the hardwood scene beginning in the winter of 1994, and I never saw her play.
I wish I had, and I hope someone out there used a camcorder to capture Novi in her prime.
The 69-70 team, which played before I was born (so I have a good excuse for not being there) was the first Whidbey Island hoops squad to win a district title.
Playing before the creation of the three-point shot, those Wolves, led by Jeff Stone and his 644 points, set scoring records which haven’t been touched in 50 years.
This is a longer shot than Barron, maybe, as someone would have needed to operate a film camera in those days, but I’m betting it’s a possibility.
**A complete season stat sheet for the 2002 CHS softball team, which went 24-3 and finished 3rd at the state tourney, winning four of five games at the big dance.
Led by Sarah Mouw, Ashley Ellsworth-Bagby, and Erica Lamb, the Wolves only loss at state came in the semis to the eventual state champs, Adna, who captured the sixth title in program history.
When I went through News-Times articles of the day during the 2017 season, when that year’s softball sluggers made a run at matching their predecessors, I was able to recreate, after a fashion, 24 of the 27 games.
But the paper, for reasons unknown, completely omitted any write-ups on three mid-season games, and only gave a general overview of stats for the games covered.
If it’s still out there, a complete look at the stats compiled by the 16 Wolves who suited up in ’02 would be a nice find.
**An interview with Jeff Fielding, the first CHS athlete to win a state title, back in 1979.
Eight Wolves have brought home the ultimate prize, combining for 17 championships.
Natasha Bamberger (1985) and Tyler King (2010) won cross country crowns, while the same duo joined Kyle King, Jon Chittim, Chris Hutchinson, Amy Mouw, Steven McDonald, and Fielding as track champs.
Eight of Coupeville’s 15 track titles have come in the 3200, with Bamberger and Kyle King each winning three times, and Tyler King and Fielding striking gold once.
Toss in three wins in the 1600 (one each for the King boys and Bamberger), plus titles in the 200 and 400 (Chittim), 800 (Mouw), and 4 x 400 (McDonald, Hutchinson, Chittim, Kyle King) and those eight athletes form Coupeville’s Mount Rushmore.
I’ve spoken, in person or by email, some more frequently than others, with every one of those eight except the trailblazer.
Not every former Wolf athlete (or some current ones) want to talk about their prep sports careers.
If that’s the case with Fielding, no worries.
But if he should ever want to look back on the first-ever Wolf state title, and his own enduring legacy, I’m here, ready to listen.
Have any of the things I’m looking for, or something else you think would make a great story? Contact me at davidsvien@hotmail.com today!
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