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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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Still legends, 10,000+ days later!!

Posted in Boys Basketball, tagged , , , , on July 15, 2017| Leave a Comment »

   Chad Gale scored 225 points during the ’87-’88 basketball season. The biggest four came in overtime against La Conner. (Photo courtesy Carmen McFadyen)

There’s been a bit of a dry spell.

It’s been 10,726 days since the last time a Coupeville High School boys basketball squad stepped on the court at the state tournament.

That day — March 3, 1988 — the Wolves were rocked 77-46 by Bridgeport, ending a very strong 19-6 season.

It was the fifth time a CHS boys hoops squad made it to the big dance, a figure which still stands as third-most in school history, trailing just baseball (nine trips) and girls basketball (seven).

But, as we look towards this winter, and the 30th anniversary of the ’87-’88 squad, the question has deepened — when will someone join them?

The 29+ year gap between state tourney trips is the longest for any Wolf program, edging out football, which last went in 1990.

With the exception of girls soccer, which has never made the trek in its short history as a team sport at CHS, every other active sport at the school has advanced to state at least once in the 2000’s.

Heck, cross country, which currently sends a handful of runners to train and travel with South Whidbey (with hopes of restarting its own program soon), saw Tyler King win a state title in a Wolf uniform in 2010.

The last time each active program tasted state glory:

Track – 2017
Girls basketball – 2016
Baseball – 2014
Boys Tennis – 2014
Softball – 2014
Boys Soccer – 2010
Girls Tennis – 2010
Volleyball – 2004
Football – 1990
Boys basketball – 1988

This winter, Brad Sherman, a star player in the early 2000’s, returns to take the reigns of the boys basketball program at his alma mater.

While preparing to bust the state tourney drought, he uncovered a stash of score-books jammed into a filing cabinet deep in the bowels of the CHS athletic complex.

One of those books is from the ’87-’88 season, giving us a chance to wander back through history and shine a spotlight on the last great run.

So, here we go, from someone who was still living in Tumwater when this season played out.

First observation — no one knew how to spell Timm Orsborn’s name (either part of it) as Coupeville’s leading scorer fluctuated all season from one M to two M’s and often had an E slapped on the end of his last name.

Future CHS baseball coach Marc Aparicio had a similar fate, becoming Marcus in the book for two games, then quickly reverting back to Marc.

But what about the games?

Regular season:

Coupeville 59, Granite Falls 48 — Orsborn opens the season with 27 on the road, and does it with perfect symmetry, nailing nine field goals and nine free throws.

La Conner 61, Coupeville 46 — The Braves, who go on to finish 5th at state, crack the game open with a 17-10 surge in the second quarter and steadily pull away.

Coupeville 69, Darrington 60 — The first home game of the season for the Wolves, and this time it’s Dan Nieder with the hot hand, as he banks in a game-high 26.

Things stay close all the way, but CHS swishes 9 of 11 free throws in the final quarter to seal the deal.

Coupeville 68, Snohomish County Christian 25 — Best defense of the season, as the Wolves hold their hosts to five or less points in three of four quarters. Meanwhile, Orsborn and Joe Tessaro each drop 10 in a single quarter on their own.

Coupeville 66, Concrete 38 — The game’s over after eight minutes, as CHS romps to a 22-5 lead. This edition of the Wolves was not a huge fan of the three-ball, hitting just 39 all season, but Neider nets three treys to fuel the attack.

Coupeville 81, Orcas Island 56 — Again with the quick start, this time to a 21-9 tune, and again with Neider on fire, as he hits for a season-high 29.

The teams combine for 48 points (28-20 CHS edge) in a wild fourth.

Coupeville 89, Quilcene 34 — The Wolves blow out fast (again), turning a 20-6 first quarter run into their most points of the year. Nine CHS players score, with four in double figures, yet not a single three-ball all day.

Friday Harbor 61, Coupeville 53 — Free throws send CHS to its second loss. Despite playing at home, the Wolves get only nine shots at the charity stripe (netting seven), while the visitors swish 18 of 25.

Coupeville 72, Crescent 71 — Wolves survive a 34-point barrage from Greg Halberg to pull out a thriller.

Tessaro knocks down 27, and this time, CHS gets to the line 23 times, including hitting 6 of 8 in the game’s final moments.

Coupeville 74, Lopez 59 — Five Wolves get into doubles figures, topped by Tessaro with 16, as CHS once against survives a 30+ point outburst from a rival. This time it’s Jason Kreul, who ripples the twines for six treys on his way to 34.

Future Central Whidbey Little League coach Fred Farris adds nine for Lopez. He averaged 19 per game for the season, but ran into a buzz-saw on defense in Wolf defender Brad Brown, who “was like glue on me.”

Lopez, which loved the three-ball, was the highest-scoring team in the state that year, but Coupeville was the one team which haunted them.

“They had me so frustrated I pulled up from half court (to shoot) with over two minutes to go,” Farris said. “Coupeville had a great squad that year.”

Coupeville 59, Watson-Groen 58 — One of those games that by virtue of its score was probably a nail-biter. The book only reveals so much, though.

Nieder tosses in 19, the lead is never more than four at the end of any quarter and CHS survives being out-shot at the line (13-17 to 6-15).

Coupeville 56, La Conner 55 (OT) — Revenge for the earlier loss, but it doesn’t come easy. Wolves storm out to a 10-point lead at the half, go cold in the second half (just 16 points), then slip away for the win in extra time.

With Nieder fouling out in the fourth, Gale steps up and hits four of his six points in overtime.

Coupeville 57, Darrington 47 — Up by nine at the half, the Wolves fall apart in the third, then rally in the fourth behind Nieder to keep win streak alive.

Coupeville 72, Snohomish County Christian 58 — 10 different CHS players put points in the scoring column in a romp which features one of the odder stats I’ve seen.

SNC shoots 40 free throws (including 29 in the second half), while the Wolves get just seven attempts.

Coupeville 62, Concrete 33 — Must have been different refs, as only 15 fouls are called all game. Concrete’s offense stalls out, failing to hit double digits in any quarter.

Coupeville 72, Orcas 59 — Rival gunner Rob Rancourt goes off, hitting 21 of his 29 in the fourth. But, even with a 29-14 Orcas rally over the final eight minutes, Wolves cruise to another win.

Coupeville 71, Friday Harbor 61 — Rally time, as Wolves use a 29-15 fourth quarter to storm from behind. Brown and Neider, who both score 21, tally 11 apiece in the final period.

Key to the rally? Free throw shooting, as CHS, which is 5-13 through three quarters, goes 11-12 in the fourth, including an 8-8 performance from Nieder.

Coupeville 84, Lopez 55 — Five players in double figures, led by Orsborn’s 19.

Coupeville 76, Watson-Groen 60 — CHS closes regular season by getting six guys into double digits. Gale drops 18 and Tony Ford goes off for 10 of his 14 in the fourth.

Districts:

Coupeville 65, Watson-Groen 59 — Wolves open district play with an immediate rematch, and this time it’s closer.

Take away the third quarter (a 21-14 edge for CHS) and the game is a one-point affair, with the advantage to W-G, which only has four players score.

Tacoma Baptist 73, Coupeville 55 — The 12-game winning streak hits a wall.

The game is tied at the half, and Wolves trail just 46-45 heading into the fourth. Then, disaster. Tacoma rolls 27-10 over the final eight minutes, with Chris Kovacs scoring 13 of his game-high 36.

Free throw disparity (22-25 including 17-19 in the fourth for Tacoma vs. 7-15 for the Wolves) is a killer.

Coupeville 65, Crescent 54 — A quick bounce-back, keyed by an 18-9 second-quarter run in which six Wolves tally points.

La Conner 62, Coupeville 53 — The rubber match in the three-game season series goes to the Braves. Keys: an 18-8 second quarter and, once again, CHS gets clobbered at the free throw line (22-35 vs. 13-24).

State:

NW Christian 55, Coupeville 35 — Down by one after one, Wolves hang around, trailing 23-18 at the break. They go cold in the third, though, and NWC, which claims 3rd in the tourney, puts the hammer down.

CHS hits a season-low at the charity stripe, with just one made free throw out of seven attempts.

Bridgeport 77, Coupeville 46 — Again, a close game for two quarters. Trailing 32-27 at the half, CHS gets waxed 24-6 in the third quarter.

Surprisingly, Bridgeport, which gets points from 11 different players, doesn’t place at the tourney, winning only this game.

So, in the end, a great run with a bit of a disappointing finish.

The ’87-’88 squad finished 19-6 overall (a win shy of the ’69-’70 team), 10-2 in league, a game from tying La Conner for the title. 12 straight wins, and 17 of 18 at one point.

Most importantly, those Wolves (and coaches Ron Bagby, Sandy Roberts and Cec Stuurmans) stand as the last CHS boys hoops team to reach the promised land.

Time for a new team to join them in making the trek.

Final ’87-’88 scoring stats:

Timm Orsborn 345
Dan Nieder 313
Joe Tessaro 260
Brad Brown 253
Chad Gale 225
Tony Ford 80
Tom Conard 64
Marc Aparicio 49
Brandy Ambrose 4
Andrew Bird 4
Morgan Roehl 4
Jason Legat 2
Chad Nixon 2

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Wolves soar to summer success!!

Posted in Boys Basketball, tagged , , , , on July 14, 2017| Leave a Comment »

   CHS basketball players huddle around coach Brad Sherman during a timeout. (Kali Barrio photo)

The work continues.

Coming off of a string of summer practices under new coaches Brad Sherman and Chris Smith, the Coupeville High School boys basketball squad had a chance Thursday to flex its muscles against rival schools.

Playing in scrimmages at La Conner, the Wolves lost an overtime thriller to Mount Vernon Christian, then rebounded to blast their hosts 37-27.

The solid win, coming over a perennial power, was a solid exclamation point on the afternoon.

Seeing action for CHS were Joey Lippo, Ethan Spark, Cameron Toomey-Stout, Hunter Downes, Hunter Smith, Jacobi Pacquette-Pilgrim, Sean Toomey-Stout and Koa Davison.

The first five in that lineup are returning varsity players, while the final trio are hoping to make the jump up after starring on the Wolf JV as freshmen.

A ninth CHS player, point guard Jered Brown, battling back from an injury, was in street clothes and on the bench to support his teammates.

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