Ethan Spark threw down a season-high 27 points Friday as Coupeville crushed Chimacum 81-34. (Photos by JohnsPhotos.net)
Bob Barker (left), longtime coach and teacher, and Jeff Stone, who still holds most of the school’s scoring records 48 years later, returned Friday for the 101st anniversary of Wolf basketball.
When the legends come to watch you play, you bring your A-game.
Attacking relentlessly, the Coupeville High School boys basketball squad went for a season-high in points Friday, thrashing visiting Chimacum 81-34 on the 101st anniversary of the first hoops game in school history.
The win, which played out in front of a who’s-who of former Wolf hardwood players, coaches, managers, time keepers, stat counters and cheerleaders, lifts CHS to 3-2 in Olympic League play, 5-10 overall.
With Klahowya shocking top dog Port Townsend 52-51 Friday, that sets the stage for an important showdown Saturday in Silverdale.
If the Wolves knock off the Eagles (4-1), they’ll force a three-way tie for first with Klahowya and Port Townsend (4-2).
Chimacum, which is suffering through a rebuilding season, sits at 0-6 in conference action.
Friday night was about the past, present and future of Wolf basketball coming together, and it brought a jolt of electricity to the CHS gym which has been largely absent in recent years.
Eight decades of former players were in attendance, from Al Sherman, who played in the late ’40s, up to the current generation of shooting stars.
A large portion of the 1969-1970 Wolves, the first Whidbey Island boys hoops team to win a district title and still the best offensive team in school history, took the court at halftime.
Along with them came almost every one of the top 15 career scorers, with #3 scorer Randy Keefe moving like he was still playing back in the ’70s.
The irrepressible gunner sprinted out to center court upon introduction, pumping his arms and sending the crowd into convulsions.
From Jeff Stone to Jeff Rhubottom, Bill Riley to Arik Garthwaite, the packed house welcomed home Wolf greats, with the biggest cheers going to legendary coach Bob Barker.
Looking dapper in the red blazer he once wore on the sidelines, the man who led Coupeville to its greatest basketball heights, while influencing generations of athletes and students alike, was mobbed.
As he held court, shaking hands and accepting hugs, Barker might have been in a different gym than the one in which he once coached, but one thing was certain — he was home.
With all the hubbub around them, it might have been easy for the current Wolves to lose focus, especially facing a struggling foe.
Instead, they came out and played up to the crowd, instead of down to the opponent.
Ethan Spark curled in a pair of long three-balls, each one coming from opposite sides of the court, to kick things off and the Wolves were unstoppable.
With Spark (11) and Hunter Smith (8) combining for 19 points in the opening quarter, Coupeville roared out to a 21-4 bulge at the first break.
From there, the massacre was on.
Playing in front of a lot of guys who never got three points on a single shot, no matter how far away from the basket they shot, the modern-day Wolves rained down treys, hitting 12.
Spark knocked down six, sophomore swing player Mason Grove went bonkers, hitting four in limited time, while Joey Lippo and Cameron Toomey-Stout also netted three-balls.
If the game was ever in doubt (it wasn’t), the Wolves settled that with a 25-3 surge in the second quarter.
Six different players scored during that run, with the prettiest basket coming from Jered Brown.
The sophomore guard snagged a loose ball, led a sprint down the floor, then went airborne and rolled under a defender while being hacked. Brown’s reverse layup splashed home, and so did the ensuing free throw.
By the time the current Wolves were ready to cede the floor so the legends in attendance could have their halftime celebration, Coupeville had scored an eye-popping 31 points in the second quarter and led 52-17.
The only thing helping Chimacum in the second half was a running clock, triggered when CHS opened a 40-point lead, which put the Cowboys out of their misery quicker.
Coupeville finished with balanced scoring across the board, with eight of the 10 guys who saw the court putting their name in the books.
Spark rained down a season-high 27, while Smith added 20.
Both seniors hit milestones, with Spark passing the 300-point career barrier (he has 315 and counting) and Smith moving into 15th place on the career scoring chart.
Smith’s 20 gives him 745, and he passed Dan Nieder (729) and Steve Whitney (730), while pulling within 15 points of catching Hunter Hammer (759) for 14th.
Grove singed the nets for 14, Brown banged down seven, Lippo and Toomey-Stout each added five, and rebound-happy hard workers Hunter Downes (2) and Kyle Rockwell (1) rounded out the scoring.
Dane Lucero and Gavin Knoblich also saw floor time.
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