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A million little points!!

Posted in Basketball, tagged , , , , on July 27, 2017| 7 Comments »

Hoops hotshot Jeff Stone (top, left) is joined by (clockwise from top right) Mike Bagby, Randy Keefe, Jeff Rhubottom, Bill Riley, Pete Petrov, Brad Sherman, Denny Clark, Arik Garthwaite, and Bill Jarrell.

Want to impress people with random stats? I’m here for you.

As I pursue the basketball history of Coupeville High School, I’ve reached a milestone, having tracked down (fairly complete) scoring stats for every boys basketball season from 1960-61 to 2016-2017.

That’s 57 seasons and provides a pretty good overview of the Wolf program.

Now, CHS hoops has been playing since 1917, so I still have work ahead of me, though those early decades (with the possible exception of the ’50s) are fairly certain to be low-scoring affairs.

But, as I take a momentary break from digging through the dusty archives, let’s pause a moment and see if you can guess the answer to a bit of trivia.

Over those past 57 seasons, as shorts got longer, three-point bombs became a reality, and numerous sets of brothers passed through the school, how many players do you think scored at least one point in a varsity basketball game?

If you guessed 328 players, you’re either uncanny … or you looked ahead and cheated.

Either way, that’s what my research shows.

Having plowed through newspaper articles (some more helpful than others), yearbooks and (when they could be found) score-books, here’s everyone who put the ball into the hoop for the Wolves from 1960-2017.

With one small caveat. No one is claiming this is 100% correct down to the last point.

When your research is in a million little pieces and scattered to the wind, if you can walk away and say, “Hey, this is 98.6% correct,” then I think we’re OK.

And I feel OK.

CHS boys varsity basketball scorers (1960-2017) — * indicates active player:

Jeff Stone 1137
Mike Bagby 1104
Randy Keefe 1088
Jeff Rhubottom 1012
Bill Riley 934
Pete Petrov 917
Brad Sherman 874
Denny Clark 869
Arik Garthwaite 867
Bill Jarrell 855
Corey Cross 811
Barry Brown 769
Hunter Hammer 759
Steve Whitney 730
Dan Nieder 729
Chris Good 688
Gavin Keohane 677
Virgil Roehl 674
Foster Faris 668
Pat Bennett 659
Wade Ellsworth 659
Jason McFadyen 654
Rich Morris 637
Kramer O’Keefe 636
Wiley Hesselgrave 632
John O’Grady 611
Greg White 604
Joe Whitney 601
Brian Miller 597
Mike Syreen 594
Gabe McMurray 592
Randy Duggan 552
Roy Marti 551
Jim Syreen 550
Marc Bissett 549
Brad Miller 526
JJ Marti 520
Gary Faris 518
Cody Peters 518
David Lortz 502
Jason Bagby 499
Pat O’Grady 472
Sean Dillon 469
Hunter Smith 465 (*)
Frank Marti 462
Del O’Shell 440
Tony Ford 432
Caleb Powell 421
Ben Biskovich 407
Casey Clark 407
Nick Sellgren 406
Tom Logan 385
James Smith 382
Chad Gale 373
JD Wilcox 373
Ty Blouin 369
Caesar Kortuem 369
Ray Harvey 368
Pat Brown 355
Dick Smith 352
Glenn Losey 350
Timm Orsborn 345
Robin Larson 342
Byron Fellstrom 340
Kevin Faris 339
Michael Vaughan 337
Aaron Trumbull 330
Brad Brown 328
Charlie Tessaro 328
Ian Smith 324
David Ford 323
Bob Rea 320
Chris Marti 319
Gabe Wynn 316
Nick Streubel 314
Utz Conard 313
Ben Hayes 306
Allen Black 305
Noah Roehl 301
Blake Day 299
John Beasley 293
Risen Johnson 291
Brian Fakkema 290
Matt Frost 290
Mike Mallo 282
Keith Jameson 277
Terry Roberts 277
Kit Manzanares 275
Boom Phomvongkoth 275
Zepher Loesch 274
Alex Evans 272
Aaron Curtin 271
Tyler King 270
Joe Tessaro 270
Eric Hopkins 265
Harvey Wainio 265
Rick Keefe 259
Troy Blouin 256
Sean Callahan 256
Greg Fellstrom 248
Casey Larson 247
Jim Yake 247
Brandon Huff 245
Brad Haslam 235
Geoff Hageman 227
Curt Youderian 226
Ed Wood 219
Joel Walstad 217
Richard Cook 216
Ryan Keefe 214
Jordan Ford 210
Andrew Mouw 204
Vance Huffman 203
Tim Quenzer 202
Alan Hancock 198
Shawn Ryan 197
Trevor Tucker 194
Mike Millenbach 188
Dale Sherman 188
Scott Stuurmans 188
Wayne Hardie 178
Chris Cox 177
Evan Tingstad 177
Jerry VandWerfhorst 177
Anthony Bergeron 176
Mike Ankney 173
Ron Naddy 172
Dale Libbey 169
Tim Walstad 168
Randy Blindauer 166
Mark Bepler 165
Chad Brookhouse 163
Noel Criscuola 162
Monty Moore 155
Geoff Wacker 154
Bill Baas 153
Jim Faris 151
Steve Konek 149
Gavin O’Keefe 149
Ryan McManigle 148
Ryan Griggs 147
Hugh Abell 145
Ethan Spark 136 (*)
Craig Anderson 132
Mitch Aparicio 130
Scott Franzen 129
Ben Etzell 127
Pat Millenbach 126
Brian Shank 125
Jessie Smith 119
Scott McGraw 116
Christian Townsdin 116
Mitch Pelroy 115
Taylor Ebersole 114
Eric Taylor 112
Brian Barr 108
Joe Donellon 101
Jason McManigle 101
Bryan Hamilton 99
Brian Knoll 98
Morgan Payne 96
Christian Lyness 95
Ted Weber 91
James Meek 89
Dan Miller 89
Steve Bissett 87
Andrew Cashen 87
Carson Risner 86
John Sinema 86
Roy Mattox 83
Nick Morris 83
Caleb Valko 78
Ross Buckner 77
Matt Shank 77
JJ Johnson 76
Duane Score 76
Quinten Farmer 75
Matt Ortega 75
Mike Ellsworth 74
John Zimmerman 72
Jason Fisher 71
Tony Prosser 70
Les Jacobson 69
Tom Conard 68
Dean Grasser 68
Matt Bepler 67
Zack Swerdfeger 66
Ron Lamphere 65
Ben Hancock 63
Randy Stone 63
Mike Brown 62
Jason McDavid 62
Jeremy Staples 62
Brian Hageman 61
Erik King 61
David Davis 60
Tom Mueller 59
Brandy Ambrose 58
Steve Smith 58
Martin Walsh 58
Matt Helm 57
Dennis Terrell 57
Drew Chan 56
DeAndre Mitchell 56
Ellis Schultz 56
CJ Smith 54
Asa Owensby 52
Marc Aparicio 51
Chris Chan 51
Joe Kelley 51
Marvin Darst 50
Troy Hurlburt 49
Dalton Engle 48
Jerry Helm 48
Dalton Martin 47
Eddie Fasolo 45
Keith Dunnagan 42
Erick Harada 40
James Jorgensen 40
Nevin Miranda 40
Jeff Thomas 40
John Wyatt 40
Danny Bonacci 36
Hunter Downes 36 (*)
Charlie Toth 36
Jim Marti 35
Zeb Williams 35
Dante Mitchell 34
Dave Brandt 33
Ryan Kelley 33
Joey Lippo 33 (*)
Brian Roundy 32
Richard Barber 31
Ray Cook 29
Tim Leese 29
Ralph Lindsay 29
Rick Marti 28
Toby Martinez 28
Daniel McDonald 28
Joe Rojas 28
Todd Smith 28
Scott Sollars 28
Richard Benson 27
Mike Duke 27
John Holmes 26
Cameron Toomey-Stout 26 (*)
Mark Short 25
Tim Youderian 25
Jared Helmstadter 24
Trent Diamanti 23
Trevor Mueller 22
Dan Schleiffers 22
Jay Roberts 21
Dustin Van Velkinburgh 21
Matt Douglas 20
Jordan Emerson 20
Dean Strom 20
Scott Fisher 19
Scott Losey 19
Matt Petrich 19
Jason Raymond 19
Rob Blouin 18
Rick Keith 18
Marvin Mitchell 18
Gary Boyke 17
Jim Keith 17
Cedric McIntosh 17
Rick Frieze 16
Chad Nixon 16
Josh Wilsey 16
Steven Cope 15
Eric Dyer 15
Mike Lester 15
Brad Rogers 15
Henry Edwards 14
Todd Brown 13
DJ Kim 13
Mike Eaton 12
Guy George 12
Kole Kellison 12
Desmond Bell 11
Bill Hamilton 11
Ken Pickard 11
Jon Roberts 11
Chris Squires 11
Ben Winkes 11
Ron Edwards 10
Travis Hooker 10
Daniel Graham 9
Kyle King 9
Bruce Seiger 9
Fred Wyatt 9
Erik Anderson 8
Rob Fasolo 8
Kraig Gordon 8
Robert Shafer 8
Dave Wells 8
Charlie Cook 7
Brian Folkestad 7
Wayne Hesselgrave 7
Ed Cook 6
Chuck Hardee 6
Kevin King 6
Robert Kirkwood 6
Nic Anthony 5
Ariah Bepler 5 (*)
Jered Brown 5 (*)
Scott Davidson 5
JD Myers 5
Nate Steele 5
Andrew Bird 4
Bill Boze 4
Jason Legat 4
Morgan Roehl 4
Rusty Bailey 3
Luke Currier 3
Frank Mueller 3
Tracy Wilson 3
Teo Benson 2
Norm Enders 2
Chris Locke 2
Jeremy McCormick 2
Rich McCormick 2
Denny Moss 2
Tony Sherman 2
Stephen Stietenroth 2
Robbie Wanamaker 2
Oscar Liquidano 1

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Chasing history, a bucket at a time!!

Posted in Basketball, tagged , , , , on July 26, 2017| Leave a Comment »

   One of many blast from the pasts as I wander through Coupeville High School’s 100-year basketball history. (Megan Hansen photo)

Where have you gone, Jeff Rhubottom? Wolf Nation turns its lonely eyes to you.

As I plow through my current project — trying to track down the history of Coupeville High School basketball — it’s a mad swirl of players, some of whose exploits have unfairly slipped away into the mists of time.

But we’re going to change that!

Jeff Stone and Corey Cross, Bill Riley and Bill Jarrell, Randy Keefe, Denny Clark and Del O’Shell will once again get their moment in the spotlight, along side latter day legends like Brad Sherman, Mike Bagby and Pete Petrov.

Going through 100 years of hoops history (the first official CHS game was Jan. 19, 1917) is a daunting task.

There is no magical back room at the school where all the records were faithfully kept, so I’m relying on score-books which still exist (less than you’d think), old yearbooks and the dusty newspaper archives at the Whidbey News-Times.

The first thing I had to make peace with was there is simply no way to come up with a definitive historical record for rebounds, assists, steals, blocked shots, etc.

Even with the years where I have score-books to work from, the stat sheets have long vanished and newspaper articles were seriously lacking in non-scoring stats.

For example, Randy King coached CHS boys basketball from 1991-2011 and I obtained 18 of those 20 score-books. But not a single stat sheet.

So, my goals shifted slightly.

While it would be great to raise a basketball record board which showed the full range of stats, it ain’t happenin’ any time soon.

Instead, my plan is to have two boards, one for boys and one for girls, which will showcase the top 10 scoring leaders for a single season and a career.

In addition, the single-game scoring record will be honored.

For the boys, we know Jeff Stone poured in 48 against Darrington during the 1970 district title game, so game over on that one.

When I get to the girls, which will be easier (a lot less years to look at) and harder (painfully thin newspaper coverage in the early days), Judy Marti starts as the player to beat, based on a 32-point night in the early ’80s.

Doing this research, and working towards getting basketball its own record boards like track, football and volleyball, is long hours sprinkled with aha moments.

One of those comes from the aforementioned Rhubottom.

I had heard his name, in passing at least, and knew he was a player likely to appear on my charts, but I was surprised to find just how successful he was back in the day.

Having arrived on Whidbey in 1989, a decade after Rhubottom wrapped up his CHS hoops career, I had no clue he torched the nets for 459 points in the 1977-1978 season.

While my list is still a work in progress, with 55 of 100 seasons accounted for, what remains to document is mostly pre-1950s, when scoring would be much lower.

At the moment, Rhubottom sits with the second-best single-season performance (Stone’s mind-boggling 644 in 1969-1970 is untouchable) and is #4 career-wise.

I’m still working on stats for Corey Cross and Tom Sahli, so final standings could change a bit, but Rhubottom is golden. He will be on that board, two times.

And that is what has driven me, through the creation and installation of the school’s Wall of Fame for team titles, the revamp of the football record board and now the pursuit of basketball boards.

By bringing the greats of the past like Rhubottom back into the modern-day conversation, we pay tribute to what they accomplished, remind them they are not forgotten, and give today’s athletes genuine records to shoot at.

Past, present and future, all brought together, as I slowly go cross-eyed in the archives.

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Here there be giants!!

Posted in Basketball, tagged , , , , on July 19, 2017| Leave a Comment »

   Utz Conard (22) rules the hardwood in the early ’60s. (Photos courtesy Tom Conard)

The ’59-’60 Wolves finished even with Darrington and shared a league title.

Conard sails in for a bucket.

   The ’60-’61 team included Denny Clark, one of the highest-scoring players in Wolf hoops history.

The early ’60s were a strong time for Coupeville High School basketball.

With local legends like Denny Clark, Utz Conard and Robin Larson rampaging across the hardwood, the Wolves were frequent title contenders.

The photos above capture a few moments out of time from seasons during that time period, and come to us courtesy Tom Conard, who followed his dad onto the court.

And he did pretty well for himself.

The younger Conard was a member of the ’87-’88 CHS squad which stands as the last Wolf boys hoops team to make it to the state tourney.

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Sing the ballad of Jason McFadyen!!

Posted in Basketball, tagged , , , , on July 18, 2017| Leave a Comment »

   A few years have passed since his high school glory days, but Jason McFadyen can still shoot the rock with the best of them. (John Fisken photo)

First things first, it’s McFadyen, not McFayden.

You would think if a guy played varsity basketball for three solid seasons, and that guy led the team in scoring back-to-back years to cap his career, they would know how to spell his name.

But, you would be wrong.

During his run on the court at Coupeville High School from 1987-1991, McFadyen, who also was the starting QB on the undefeated ’90 Wolf football squad, had his last name misspelled 43 out of 61 times.

By the HOME team’s scorekeeper.

A lesser player would have been stung by the indignity. Maybe even stopped in their tracks.

McFadyen, if he even knew about it at the time, paid no heed, and worked his way into becoming one of the best, and possibly, most underrated, players the Wolf hoops program has ever seen.

As I work my way through CHS basketball history, I have compiled scoring stats for 37 of the 100 Wolf boys teams.

While there’s still a lot to be unearthed, and many hours in the archives ahead, many of the teams still left will undoubtedly be lower-scoring ones based on the pace of the game during the early decades in which they played.

So, while McFadyen’s place among the best scorers of all time may shift a bit as I go forward, I doubt he’ll tumble very far.

As of the moment, out of all the Wolf gunners whose stats I have, he is the #12 scorer all-time, having rattled home 654 points from the seventh game of his sophomore season to the final game of his senior campaign.

To put that in perspective, the all-time CHS leader is Jeff Stone, who knocked down 1,137 points in three seasons (1967-1970) and the current #10 on my list, Virgil Roehl (1990-1994), tallied 674.

As I continue to dig, there are a couple of old-school legends whose stats I expect to be strong, but I can’t see any way McFadyen isn’t in the top 20 when I’m done.

His place among the greats is a testament to his hard work, his sweet shot and not giving up.

During his freshman season in ’87-’88, McFadyen was busy shooting out the lights for the JV team, while that year’s varsity squad was on its way to qualifying for the state tourney, the last Wolf boys hoops squad to make the trip.

Twice that season CHS coach Ron Bagby brought his frosh phenom up to the varsity bench (where his name was misspelled both times in the book), but neither time did the wily round-ball guru send McFadyen into the game.

Either playing the long game (or not realizing what he had), Bagby started off the next year by giving the now-sophomore gunner exactly three fourth-quarter appearances in the season’s first six games.

Having lost most of their state team to graduation, the Wolves were struggling in ’88-’89, with Tony Ford often left high and dry as the team’s lone scoring weapon.

Until game #7 — Dec. 17, 1988 — when Bagby finally unleashed the beast.

McFadyen entered the game, another double-digit CHS loss, in the fourth quarter. This time he made his mark.

Coupeville had hit exactly one three-point shot all season up to that moment, but McFadyen drained two treys in the final quarter, part of an eight-point explosion which left him as the leading scorer on the night.

And then nothing. Or almost nothing. Two points in a little bit of playing time over the next two games.

Welcome to Dec. 29, 1988, the first time Bagby allowed McFadyen to play all four quarters in a varsity game.

It was the tenth game of the season, Sultan was the foe, and McFadyen took control, raining down 17 points, with two three-balls and a flawless 5-5 performance at the free-throw line.

CHS lost 49-44 (it was a rough rebuilding season), but suddenly there was a new sheriff in town, and he had a license to shoot.

Ford continued to bang away, leading the team in scoring with 276 points on the season, while McFadyen hit double digits six more times in the second half of the season.

He topped out with back-to-back 18-point games against Orcas and Lopez and finished the year second on the team in scoring, compiling his 122 points in basically half a season.

With Ford set to graduate, the torch was passed. They still couldn’t spell McFadyen’s name, but there was little doubt he was the #1 scoring option moving forward.

During his junior and senior seasons, Coupeville, having built its roster back up, made strong runs at postseason glory.

In ’88-’89 only two Wolves had cracked 100 points, but in ’89-’90, that figure shot up to six, with McFadyen raining down a team-high 271.

He was joined by Ben Biskovich (213), Sean Dillon (200), Frank Marti (177), Wayne Hardie (143) and Jesse Smith (111).

Then, during McFadyen’s senior campaign, CHS came within six points of having five different players top the 200-point mark.

McFadyen banked home 261, while Dillon (258), Brad Haslam (230) and Marti (221) were close on his heels.

Give Biskovich (194) three more baskets and the ’90-’91 team would have been just the second team in the last four decades to achieve the five-guys-with-200-points feat.

Instead, that ’87-’88 state squad, with Timm Orsborn (345), Dan Nieder (313), Joe Tessaro (260), Brad Brown (253) and Chad Gale (225) stands alone.

Though, fun side fact, even with all that firepower, the ’87-’88 team is still NOT the highest-scoring in school history, a record handily owned by Jeff Stone, Corey Cross and the immortal ’69-’70 team.

But anyway, we were talking about McFadyen, a master of consistency.

He topped double figures in scoring 29 times over his final two seasons (14 as a junior, 15 as a senior) and this is sort of uncanny — scored a career-high 21 four times.

Never 22, never 20.

But 21, a winning mark in Vegas and on the hardwood, four separate times, against Mount Vernon Christian and Snohomish County Christian as a junior and against Orcas Island and Concrete in his final season.

Scan through the books and you notice he also scored consistently, mixing in three-balls and free throws with steady and dependable two-point shots.

Three-point shooting records are hard to track, and the shot itself only hit the high school stage in the late ’80s, but McFadyen would stand somewhere around #6 or #7 all-time for CHS.

He trails just Brad Sherman, Pete Petrov, Mike Bagby, Ty Blouin and Rich Morris and is right there in a tussle with Kramer O’Keefe and Alex Evans.

Every single one of those other players benefited from the game putting a bigger emphasis on the three-ball during their playing days — the ’90s and early 2000s — proving McFadyen was ahead of his time.

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Remember the trailblazers!!

Posted in Boys Basketball, tagged , , , , , on July 17, 2017| Leave a Comment »

   The first basketball team in Coupeville High School history. (Photo courtesy Megan Hansen/Whidbey News-Times)

It was a different time and a different game.

This Wednesday marks the 100-year (and six-month) anniversary of the first official basketball game in Coupeville High School history.

While CHS became a school in 1900 and graduated its first class (of three seniors) in 1904, the school waited until Jan. 19, 1917 to take an official stab at the game James Naismith invented in 1891.

Coupeville, under the direction of coach J.H. Hallock, blistered visiting Langley 29-7 that day, kicking off an inaugural season in which it went 7-3.

We can’t call them the Wolves, since that name didn’t get attached until years later — yearbooks from the ’20s refer to the school’s teams as the Cards — but they played like a ferocious pack.

According to stories in the Whidbey News-Times, the standout player on the six-player roster was Ed Kennedy, who led CHS to four straight Island County Championships during his playing days.

At a time when the pace of the game was far different from today, and scores were often equally muted, Kennedy would routinely score half of Coupeville’s output.

If you look at the photo above you can get a look at the high-scoring (for the time) center/forward in his later days, when he returned for the opening of Coupeville’s new gym in 1979.

Back in 1917, when Kennedy and his teammates were young lads, they waged war in a new gym of their own, referred to as a “play pavilion.”

Apparently it was so drafty fans kept their coats on while watching games, and the lighting in the joint was courtesy gas lanterns suspended from the ceiling on cables.

The floor was built from planks, and frequently gave players splinters if they were unfortunate enough to come in contact with it.

“I still have scars on my knees from that fir floor,” Kennedy is quoted as saying, while chuckling, in ’79.

Today, in memory of the seven who started our town’s long and successful basketball legacy, we’re doing two things.

One, we’re inducting them into the Coupeville Sports Hall o’ Fame, a chance to be immortalized in an internet world they never imagined.

Inducted, as a team:

Fred Barrett
Altus Custer
Ed Fisher
Ben Gaskill
Clarence Keith
Ed Kennedy
J.H. Hallock (Coach)

And, secondly, by weird coincidence, when the next boys basketball season rolls around, Coupeville is slated to have a home game against Chimacum Jan. 19, 2018.

So, I’m putting the call out to Wolf hoop coaches Brad Sherman and Chris Smith and CHS Athletic Director Willie Smith — we need to mark the moment.

Whether you want to do something big — find the oldest surviving Wolf basketball stars and bring them back for a reunion — or simply put a note in that night’s game program (heck, I’ll write one for you!), we need to celebrate the 101-year anniversary of Coupeville High School basketball.

When it comes to promotions, some things are just a slam dunk, and this is one of them.

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