Marlene Grasser, bein’ awesome. (Photo courtesy Sherry Roberts)
It’s time to bring the ladies home.
For the past nine years, Tom Roehl’s family and friends have done a remarkable job keeping the former Coupeville coach’s memory alive and his legacy thriving with the annual Roehl Roundball Classic.
The yearly all-day basketball tourney raises money for scholarships and gives former Wolf hoops stars the chance to reunite and relive their high school days.
When I attended last year’s shindig, it was a bit like going through a time machine, seeing players from the early ’90s facing off with — and soundly beating — recent CHS grads.
It’s a huge success and everyone who has been involved, from the Roehls on down, deserves a huge hand.
But, there is one small thing.
The tournament has been, with very few exceptions, an all-male tourney.
Other than a player or two here and there, it’s just not real likely you’re going to get, say, a 5-foot-4 female point guard to get super-excited about catching elbows all game from 6-foot-5 guys who outweigh them by 100 pounds.
So, while we get to see a lot of the guys who once wore the Wolf uniform back in action, we don’t get to see the women who once repped the red and black as girls.
Which is too bad, since the largest portion of Coupeville’s prep hoops success was crafted by those young women.
It was Wolf girls who hung repeat state banners in the late ’90s and early 2000’s, not the guys.
It’s the Wolf girls who are headed towards a third straight Olympic League title this season, not the guys.
So, I say, we need to bring the ladies home, same as the gentlemen.
Someone, or several someones, needs to step up and pull together a similar one-day event aimed at former Wolf female hoops stars.
Not as competition to the Roehl Roundball Classic, but as a complement and a chance to honor all of our hoops history.
It doesn’t have to be played at the same time. Actually makes more sense to have it a different time, so both events can stand on their own.
My idea to kick-start it, is you name it in honor of one of the finest hoops players ever to pull on a Coupeville uniform, an amazing, well-loved women who unfortunately left us way too early.
Just as the guy’s tournament honors the legend and legacy of Tom Roehl, the women’s tournament could honor Marlene Grasser.
She had a tremendous impact on everyone around her, and it would be a fitting tribute to all she accomplished and all she means to a large group of people.
You put on the Marlene Grasser Roundball Classic and I think you get a huge turnout.
Right here on the Island, you could harass former CHS hoops stars ranging from Lexie and Brittany Black to Tina (Lyness) Joiner to Kacie Kiel to “old school” legends like Sherry (Bonacci) Roberts and Aimee (Messner) Bishop, and on and on.
Like with the guy’s tourney, if you plan it right, you can pull in players off at college or living real life, and give them a chance to see their families.
Ashley (Ellsworth-Bagby) Heilig, Brianne King, Ann Pettit, Kassie (Lawson) O’Neil, Madeline Strasburg, Makana Stone, Julia Myers.
The list is endless and I think a lot of them would come.
Since girl’s teams tend to use more strategy than boy’s teams (my own opinion) you could incorporate coaches.
Willie Smith, who launched the CHS girls program into rarefied air, is sitting right there in the AD’s office. Not hard to find.
David and Amy King, who are racking up league titles as fast as the printers can make new plaques, are already in the gym all winter.
Heck, if we ask nicely, I bet Greg Oldham and Phyllis Textor might pop in for a visit and a chance to prowl the CHS gym one more time.
Now listen, I’m not the guy to set this up, but I would love to write about it, the same as I do with the guy’s tourney.
The template is there, and I’m sure Noah Roehl would be willing to answer questions about how he and his family pull off their event.
We just need someone to seize the moment.
Bring the ladies home. Honor Marlene. Celebrate the rich legacy of girls hoops at CHS.
It can happen. It should happen.
Coupeville Sports 