I’m not wearing pants in this photo. If I had a “real” job, I’d have to wear pants.
Everything about Coupeville Sports is irrational.
If I was being rational, I wouldn’t have thrown a hissy fit when the Coupeville Examiner sold itself to the same Canadian newspaper conglomerate that already owned the Whidbey News-Times and South Whidbey Record and stomped off to start this blog in August, 2012.
Of course, when years of my freelance stories (many of which were never paid for) got deleted in a single keystroke, it was fairly easy to feel all pissy and self-righteous.
If I was being rational, I would have accepted one of the overtures I have received since then, and taken my writing skills back inside the conventional newspaper industry.
But once you get a taste of freedom, with its double-exclamation point headlines, you can’t go back. Or, at least, I doubt I could.
While Coupeville Sports has never made me rich (focusing on a small town in the middle of nowhere apparently is not catnip to national advertisers), I have gotten far more enjoyment out of the last 43 months than I did out of the previous 15 years of freelance writing.
Now, for the first 33 months of this blog, I balanced it with a “real” job at Christopher’s on Whidbey, which helped pay the bills.
Last May I decided to take some time off, mainly to help my fingers, which are kinda, sorta important to writing.
Dish-washing and onion peeling are brutal on the hands, and, while owner Andreas Wurzrainer was exceedingly helpful when it came to juggling schedules so I could cover sports, three-plus years in the pit was more than enough.
Having never been without a “real” job for longer than 2-3 weeks since I was a pre-teen (my dad enjoyed having his children work for his window washing/carpet cleaning business), taking what I thought would be a month or two off seemed quite exciting.
Then, things happened, my personal life imploded (I’ll spare you the details) and I developed a serious resistance to plunging back into the “real” job world, something that has only intensified in the months that followed.
So, I doubled down on Coupeville Sports, greatly expanding my coverage, both in terms of what I covered in person and how in-depth I’ve gone.
I sold all my DVDs (2,500+), radically reduced my bills (rent, propane, internet and car insurance on “The Beast That Will Not Die” is all I have), finally got an EBT card and have managed to stay one (small) step ahead for almost 10 months now.
During that time, I have been a regular at middle school games, hitched rides with people to cover stuff on the road, written a billion (give or take one or two) birthday articles and gone extensively into local sports history in a way not done before.
With all due respect to the local newspapers, and my mentors like Jim Waller and Keven Graves, I offer something they don’t have the time, patience or desire to do.
They have to juggle two towns, they face deadlines, they have to be more professional, than I do. Comes with the job.
They are the dad sitting in the easy chair, reading the paper and occasionally looking over it to tell you what’s going on in the world. And don’t get me wrong, they are very good at what they do, and they fill an important role.
I have no desire to see the newspapers go away.
But me?
I’m the little kid who has crawled up to the top of the fence, and then, as I’m rocking back and forth, trying not to crack open my head, bellows “Hey, hey, hey, guess what I heard?!?!?!?”
I’m the gossip guy, the builder of myths, the nickname-giver, the idiot who is entertaining himself (and hopefully a few others).
Still tick off some people (especially if they live in South Whidbey and are softball fans), but hopefully have mellowed a bit. But just a bit.
In the end, all my writing, all the photos, all the hyperventilating hyperbole is meant to do one thing — to make all the other towns, and their athletes and coaches, jealous.
If they lived in Coupeville, they’d be immortalized.
But they live in Darrington, or Seattle, or, God help them, the wilds of South Whidbey, and they’re lucky to get one story a year.
We may not have as many championships as other towns, but we’re damn sure going to be the kings and queens of story-telling.
When our kids, the kids you raised and the kids I wrote about, graduate and move on, they will be able to look back and say “I was part of something special, something that hadn’t happened before.”
At least I’d like to think so.
But then, I’m an unemployed idiot, so take everything I say with a grain of salt, maybe.
And now we get to the point of all of this (’bout freakin’ time…) ranting and raving.
As we sit here in the middle of March, I have hit the wall.
Even with my sparse bills (did I mention I don’t waste money on cigarettes, booze or Netflix?), I either need to get some help or I will need to return to the “real” working world before the month is done.
Either way, Coupeville Sports is not going anywhere. And I will never charge you to read my stories like the newspapers do.
But, if I go back to “real” work, coverage will change.
Birthday stories and a lot of the deep history stories will most likely have to be cut. I won’t have the time.
Covering events in person, which allows me to be much more creative than merely writing off of emails from coaches (with the exception of David and Amy King, who spin beautiful stories while riding school buses), could be greatly affected, depending on the time constraints of a real job.
I would prefer to remain a “shiftless bum,” with writing my main priority.
If you want to help, there are three ways.
Donations, either one-time or monthly, are greatly appreciated. There is a handy button on the top right of this blog, I have a mailbox (165 Sherman, Coupeville, WA 98239) or you can slip something in my pocket at a game.
Not your wadded up candy wrapper, maybe, but you get the point.
I also sell ads (they go down the right side of the blog) for $100, and, once purchased, are good for the life of the blog.
Yes, yes, yes, selling them once raises less money than repeatedly charging people (I know how advertising works), but it’s how I started and it wouldn’t be fair to those who supported me in the beginning to change the rules now.
Irrational, maybe. Loyal, definitely.
The third option is to have me write stuff for your business, like I do with places such as Ashley’s Design and The Pacific NorthWest Art School.
Typically I charge $30 for an article per month (topic of your choosing) or, if you sign up for a year and hand me $300, I’ll give you two free months.
Heck, I’ll write the Christmas letter you send to family, if you like. Make lil’ Johnny and Sally sound like superstars!
Coupeville Sports, in all its irrational glory, has always been what we all make of it. And that will always hold true.
We’ll keep moving forward, and see where this wacky ride ends up going.
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