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Posts Tagged ‘anniversaries’

Carry on my wayward (Wolf) son!!

Posted in Boys Basketball, tagged , , , , , , on January 18, 2018| Leave a Comment »

It was nothing but net for the Wolf boys basketball program in the ’70s.

Little padding on the bench seats? Just made you tougher.

   Wolf cheerleaders had plenty to yell about as CHS made four trips to state in “The Me Decade.”

And they danced all night long…

The horn section rocks the house.

Bring back the socks, and Coupeville goes back to state. Just sayin’.

Celebrating with Coach Bob Barker.

“Psst … unleash Hell on my command, boys.”

The ’70s ruled.

Coupeville High School has been playing boys basketball for 101 years — seriously, Friday is the anniversary — but one decade stands above the others.

The program has been to the state tourney five times, and four of those came during the 1970’s.

The Wolves reached the promised land in 1970, 1975, 1976 and 1979, then waited until 1988 to return.

Trip #6 has been a long while coming…

Scan both the best single-season scoring marks and career scoring totals for individual players, and more came in the ’70s than any other decade.

It’s not that there weren’t good CHS players and teams before “The Me Decade,” or after.

Mike Criscuola was a man among young boys by the time he was a mere 8th grader, and his numbers from the ’50s have rarely been equaled.

Newspaper stories and tales passed down from those who saw him in person describe him as the barrel-chested second coming of Paul Bunyan.

Hunter Smith, who is shooting up the career scoring chart during the 2017-2018 season, his senior year, is among the best I have covered in person.

A huge part of that is because he is the rare modern-day player who I think would have survived and thrived in previous decades.

Simply put, he “plays the game the right way,” and I think the older players who are returning to CHS tomorrow night will come away impressed with him.

As we count down the hours until Friday’s epic anniversary shindig (3:30 JV, 5:15 varsity, with festivities at halftime and post-game), it’s the ’70s we’re marinating in at the moment.

The photos above are courtesy Renae (Keefe) Mulholland and capture a slice of time when the Wolves owned the hardwood.

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Hoppin’ through hoops history!!

Posted in Boys Basketball, tagged , , , , , on January 16, 2018| Leave a Comment »

   Sean Dillon (22) goes airborne, but the basketball refuses to make the trip with him.

   Randy Keefe knows when you’re the #3 scorer in school history, somebody, somewhere, is always going to be taking your photo.

   The rough-and-tumble hoops legends of the early ’50s look ready to start a back alley brawl.

Wolf coach Bob Barker rocks legendary pants.

   Praying to the hardwood Gods. Oh wait, they could be just looking for Marc Bissett’s lost contacts lens…

Foster Faris cuts down the nets.

Trophy in hand, Keefe waits for his post-game radio interview.

Old-school or new-school. Short shorts or long shorts. Layups or three-balls. All-League or bench warmers.

Doesn’t matter what decade you played, what style you used or how much floor time you got.

If you wore the Wolf uniform, or coached, or kept stats, or managed, or cheered at any point during the 101 years Coupeville High School boys basketball has been active, this Friday is for you.

CHS is throwing an anniversary shindig centered around its home game with Chimacum (JV 3:30, varsity 5:15), and everyone is invited back.

The school, with a lot of help from tech whiz kid Katey Wilson, is producing a snazzy collectible game program, which will feature info on the first CHS hoops game in 1917, the immortal ’69-’70 team and the Top 15 career scorers.

There will be festivities at halftime, then every former Wolf in attendance can be part of an epic “team” photo after the game.

Finally, current Wolf basketball moms are providing refreshments (cake!!) for a post-game reception in the health room, which is right outside the entrance to the gym, inside the same building.

As we head towards anniversary day, we’ve been dropping vintage photos left and right here on Coupeville Sports, and today’s come to us courtesy Renae (Keefe) Mulholland and Kimberly (Stuurmans) Bepler.

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You make me possible!!

Posted in Ranting and Raving, tagged , , , , , on January 15, 2018| Leave a Comment »

   It’s like I’m the net and your donations are the ball dropping softly through. (Maddie Vondrak photo)

Today is the official five-year, five-month anniversary of Coupeville Sports.

65 months, of which the last 31.5 I have gone without a “real” job, instead living one step ahead of The Man as a full-time writer, researcher and rabble rouser.

There have been many times during that second stretch when I figured the gig was about up, that it was probably time to head back to a dish pit or farm and beat the crud out of my fingers.

Now, if video stores made a sudden, jaw-dropping comeback, the decision would be easy.

Getting paid to watch movies, and harass people into renting Bottle Rocket or Bugsy Malone, was 15 years of easy street.

Of course, it ain’t happenin’ and we all know that, no matter how much I may daydream.

So, I plug on, making just enough to survive in my one-step-above-the-Unabomber existence.

Writers (or at least those of us not named Stephen King or JK Rowling) don’t get indoor/outdoor swimming pools.

If I wanted one of those things (and you know I do), I should have spent more time in school studying to be a doctor or lawyer, and less time driving creative writing teachers nuts scrawling stories about Adam and Eve rolling dice with Satan in the Garden of Eden.

That one came back with BLASPHEMOUS scrawled in scarlet, capitol letters across the top of the first page, followed by a lecture about my eternal soul.

Good thing Tumwater was a public school, and not a private, Christian one, or I might have vanished into the dungeons I assume they have beneath those institutions, presumably never to be seen again.

I don’t have many needs and am fairly happy to exist as I do, with a beat-up car which continues to shock the world by refusing to die, and my one “splurge” being the $8.69 I sometimes cough up for Netflix.

Now, I should have a long-term plan for Coupeville Sports, a way to ensure the financial stability of an “empire” built on … writing about sports in a small town on a rock in the water in the middle of nowhere.

Yes, well…

Anyways, I have gotten far more personally out of this blog, and its side projects, than I did out of all the years I wrote for the newspapers on the Island, so I persevere.

With no “real” job competing for my time, I have ramped up the number of stories I publish (5,821 so far, which averages out to three a day, every day), the speed with which I publish (why not read about the game you just played while you’re still on the bus ride home?) and those side projects.

With time to dig through dusty back rooms, attics, basements and half-forgotten memories, plus opportunity to drive local sports officials batty with frequent, grandiose requests, we’ve made a difference.

The Wall of Fame that runs the length of the CHS gym and honors teams and athletes from multiple decades.

The revamped football record board, which now more accurately tells the history of Coupeville’s gridiron accomplishments.

And now, this Friday’s 101st anniversary shindig for Wolf boys basketball, hopefully followed fairly shortly by a record board for girls and boys hoops.

If I was working a “real” job, none of that is likely to have happened, as I would never have had the time to research, beg, cajole and relentlessly drive those in charge batty.

Since I painted myself into a corner on advertising years ago, and steadfastly refuse to drop a pay wall on Coupeville Sports (never means never), I get by on the goodwill of my readers.

Your donations and your support are what keeps this going, and I thank you.

So, as we head towards the basketball shindig, and kick off the start of our 66th month on the blog, if you like what I’m doing (or just don’t want to see me cripple my fingers in a dish pit anymore), maybe think about actively supporting the cause.

And I call it a cause, because I am just the conduit.

This is about the athletes, coaches, managers, stat keepers, fans, cheerleaders, parents and family who came before us, the ones who are active now, and the ones still to come.

Past, present, and future, coming together to build the legend of Wolf Nation.

Me, I’m just the guy who is trying to document it all, and, if I can pay for some propane along the way, so much the better.

 

Want to help? You can donate by mail (165 Sherman, Coupeville, WA 98239), in person (I’m at almost every home game, for every sport) or via PayPal (there’s a donate button on the top right side of the blog). 

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You complete me!!

Posted in Fundraisers, tagged , , , , on August 6, 2017| Leave a Comment »

   Won’t someone think of the children?!? Your donation today can keep me from returning to the work of my younger days.

We’re about to hit a major milestone.

Next Saturday, Aug. 12, marks the five-year anniversary of Coupeville Sports and, together, we’ve accomplished quite a bit.

The local newspapers have a job to do, and they do it well. In particular, Jim Waller at the News-Times is my Mr. Miyagi, and I have great respect for his work.

But, what we’ve concocted over here on the fringes of journalism, me the writer and you the reader, is its own thing.

No one else is as fanatical about Cow Town, or as prone to writing about it at 2 AM.

Through 5,417 articles, a book (get your copy today!) and side projects like creating the CHS Wall of Fame or working on football and (coming soon) basketball record boards, we’ve sparked a revolution.

And Coupeville Sports isn’t fading away anytime soon.

I hit a rough patch a few months back, and thought about walking away, but cleared my head and realized other things in my life needed to change, not my writing.

So, as we head towards another school year — fall sports practice begins Aug. 16, with the first game Sept. 1 — I am newly re-energized and ready to drive Athletic Director Willie Smith bonkers with 10,001 emails a day.

Through these five years, the thing which has driven me forward, which continues to lift me up, has been your support.

Whether financial or a pat on the back (or, sometimes, just a good kick in the rear…), knowing you’re reading, you care and you’re appreciative, is huge.

Since leaving Christopher’s on Whidbey two summers back, I have scraped out a living solely as a writer.

While I’m not getting that indoor/outdoor swimming pool with a waterfall in the middle anytime soon, I haven’t missed my rent (my landlord thanks you) and my middle-aged fingers don’t miss the dish pits.

As I fire back up for a new school year, this is a perfect opportunity to be the wind beneath my wings.

If you’ve ever thought about supporting Coupeville Sports, my writing and researching, now is a perfect time.

Buy an ad ($100 for the life of the blog), purchase a copy of Bow Down to Cow Town or flip a few bucks my way.

There’s a large Donate button on the top right of the blog or you can mail something to 165 N. Sherman, Coupeville, WA 98239 or stuff dollar bills in my pockets in person.

I’ve never charged to read Coupeville Sports, and never will. If you want to read it for free, so be it.

But, if you want to be one of David’s Best Ever Friends, even better.

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Your money, my words!!

Posted in Ranting and Raving, tagged , , , , on June 26, 2017| Leave a Comment »

Currently the 679,065th best seller on Amazon.

We’re less than two months away from the five-year anniversary of Coupeville Sports.

During that time, all of us, working together, have produced 5,359 articles, published a book, erected a Wall of Fame in the CHS gym honoring titles won by Wolf athletes and teams from 1900-2017, and brought the school’s football record board up to date.

I say all of us, because while I am doing the writing (and a lot of the agitating), none of this would be accomplished without you.

The readers. The advertisers. The supporters.

No one is ever going to get rich writing about small town sports.

My dream of an indoor/outdoor swimming pool with a waterfall in the middle will probably have to wait.

But I have been able to stay ahead of my very limited bills, and stay away from “real” work for the past two years.

My fingers thank you. My back thanks you. I thank you.

Not having to wash dishes allowed me the chance to do the research necessary for the Wall of Fame and the football board, giving me time I wouldn’t have had if I was still balancing writing with a day-to-day job.

Going forward, I’d like to do more research, to maybe get basketball its own record board, so the sport which holds the key to the CHS gym could be on an equal footing with volleyball, football and track.

Then, of course, there’s softball, baseball, soccer and tennis, which I’m sure would like their own boards, as well.

To do any of that, to put in research time, to get the backing of those in charge to add new boards, to, frankly, be a (semi-pleasant) pain in the tush, I need your help.

How, you ask?

Well, every time someone gives me info on CHS sports history, it helps.

Every time someone says “Good job,” it helps.

Every time someone thinks twice about throwing rotten tomatoes at me (even when I write something they don’t appreciate), it helps.

But, most of all, a little financial help goes a LONG way.

There are three ways to keep the Coupeville Sports machine rollin’ along.

Donations:

Whether it’s a one-time gift or you like to make it rain on a regular basis, this is the lifeblood of the poor but plucky writer.

You can hit the donate button which sits conveniently at the top of the blog, or, if you don’t like PayPal, my mailing address is 165 N. Sherman, Coupeville, WA 98239.

Or slip something into my pocket at a game. Well, maybe not your discarded candy wrappers…

Advertising:

I’m the best deal in town — $100 gets you an ad for the life of the site.

Ads run down the right side of Coupeville Sports and when readers click on them, it shoots them to your website or Facebook page.

Don’t have either one? No worries. I can link your ad to a page on my blog where I make your business sound like the greatest thing since sliced bread.

Buy my book:

Hop over to Amazon —  https://www.amazon.com/dp/1547255544/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1497205922&sr=8-1&keywords=David+Svien — or buy one from me in person (as soon as I get more copies in).

Christmas gifts, man, Christmas gifts. Gotta be thinking ahead.

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