Steven Cope lines up a free throw during an early practice. (John Fisken photo)
He’s back.
After spending the last two years in Spokane, Steven Cope has returned to Coupeville High School, and the timing couldn’t be better for the Wolf boys’ basketball squad.
With only two returning varsity players, competition for playing time is wide open, and Cope, a senior, is solidly in the mix.
The move back to the Island reunites him with his grandparents, among others, while offering him a chance to play alongside former teammates such as Gabe Wynn and Hunter Downes.
As a middle school hoops player, Cope was a demon on the defensive end, once blocking three straight shots against Northshore.
That continued over to high school, where he played football for the Wolves as a freshman.
In a JV game against Granite Falls that year, Cope picked off a pass and brought it back 75 yards for a game-busting touchdown.
Now that he’s back in Coupeville for his senior year, he’s back in the school band and plans to follow basketball up with a stint on the Wolf track team as a javelin thrower.
First up, though, is a chance for Cope, a post player who first picked up basketball in the fifth grade, to help his on-court buddies.
“I want to help this team make something out of it,” he said. “The boys basketball team hasn’t really been a definite force in a long time and I hope while I’m here I can either set the tone for what we need to do to win, or be that team to win.”
Cope is looking forward to working both with former teammates and new playing partners.
One of the reasons he enjoy the sport is “the diversity you can have with basketball players and how you can come together with all these playing styles and make a strong foundation of a team.”
He hails his height and “my work ethic to constantly get better” as strengths, while continuing to fine-tune his skill-set.
“I would love to get better dribbling with my right hand more, along with building a strong jump shot,” Cope said.
Away from the court, he’s a regular Dungeons and Dragons player, and enjoys splitting time between working out and watching YouTube, often at the same time.
Even though he was gone for two years, Cope has deep roots in Coupeville and is thankful for the support he gets from his relatives.
“My family, they really hold me to my own responsibility and to be a respectable human being.”
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