Basketball | Coupeville Sports

Posts Tagged ‘Basketball’

Your eyeballs? Destroyed!!

Posted in Boys Basketball, tagged Basketball, CHS Wolves, highlight reel, Risen Johnson, thriller and a killer, video, YouTube on September 1, 2016| Leave a Comment »

Risen Johnson, floatin’ like a butterfly, stingin’ like a bee. (John Fisken photo)

So, you find yourself here, on a Thursday afternoon, desperately looking for a way to make it through the day.

As long as your job doesn’t prevent you from accessing YouTube (mine doesn’t, but Coupeville Sports World Headquarters is my house…), I have a quick answer.

Go spend the next seven minutes and 18 seconds basking in some of the best plays thrown down last season by Risen Johnson.

The electrifying one, who graduated this spring from CHS, gave us two years of basketball good times, and enough spectacular moments to fuel a highlight reel.

Obviously.

One of the classiest guys I’ve covered, and one of the most entertaining to watch, Risen was a thriller and a killer.

He’ll be missed, but we’ll have the memories, and now, thanks to Trent Diamanti, a reel of Risen slicin’ ‘n dicin’ which will live on the internet for all eternity.

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We love you, Bennett!!

Posted in Hall o' Fame, tagged Basketball, Bennett Boyles, cancer, CHS Wolves, Hall of Fame on August 28, 2016| Leave a Comment »

Bennett Boyles (Photo courtesy Pat Kelley)

Bennett Boyles, welcome to the Coupeville Sports Hall o’ Fame. (Photos courtesy Pat Kelley)

The rock outside CHS speaks for us all.

Bennett and his basketball teammates hang out. (Konni Smith photo)

Hall of Fame inductions are normally about looking to the past.

Today, we’re looking to the future.

I want to put a little different spin on today’s ceremony, in which we welcome the 62nd class to be enshrined inside the hallowed digital walls of the Coupeville Sports Hall o’ Fame.

So, let’s open the doors and welcome the youngest inductee in Hall history, and one of the bravest, Bennett Boyles.

After this, he’ll be found up at the top of the blog alongside his athletic brothers and sisters, under the Legends tab.

Bennett is an 11-year-old basketball player, son of Coupeville High School grad Lucienne Rivera, and he has a boundless future on the court and off.

He’s a smart kid, a fun kid, a well-liked kid, a talented kid.

He is also battling through something no one of any age should have to deal with.

Bennett has been fighting (and fighting is the right word) inoperable tumors on his brain stem, undergoing weeks of radiation therapy.

His mom, whose sweetness of spirit still shines years after I first met her at Videoville, his little sister and his family have been with him every step of the way.

So has, in spirit, the community he has called home since birth.

Through fundraisers, through prayer, Coupeville has rallied around Bennett and his family, covering them in love.

Cancer affected my two families — my blood relative one and the other that was comprised of the people I worked with for 12 years in the video store business.

I have seen the fight, and I have seen the fight won.

As important as medicine is, a huge factor often is sheer willpower.

You can not give in to the darkness. You have to know that others love you, and you have to take their strength and make it your own.

So, Bennett, and I want to speak directly to you right now — what I’m giving you today is an invitation.

An invitation to prove my faith in you as an athlete, as a fighter, is very, very justified.

I’m putting you in my Hall o’ Fame because your spirit is unbeatable, because you can, and will, win this fight.

Your induction is deserved and you can stand, shoulder-to-shoulder, with any of your fellow Hall of Famers.

For what you have accomplished in the first 11 years of your life and what you will accomplish in the many years to come.

You will walk back out on that basketball court again, wearing the red and black of Coupeville.

I believe this, we all do, and you should too.

You are us, we are you, and together, we all are one Wolf Nation.

I have my notebook and pen ready, and I will be in the stands the day you return to the court. I promise you that.

Every day that you fight, know we are all by your side.

You are not forgotten. Ever.

You are not alone. Ever.

Bennett, you are a Hall of Famer, every step of the way, every day.

We love you, man. We believe in you. And we will see you on the court again, very soon.

In honor of Bennett’s Hall o’ Fame induction, please consider helping him and his family in their fight by popping over to:

https://gobennett.givingfuel.com/go-bennett

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Once were giants!!

Posted in Boys Basketball, tagged Basketball, CHS Wolves, Marc Aparicio, Ron Bagby, state, Timm Orsborn on August 27, 2016| 1 Comment »

Marc Aparicio, now the baseball coach at CHS, played on the ’87-’88 Wolf boys’ basketball team, the last one to make it to state. (John Fisken photo)

It has been 10,404 days since a Coupeville High School boys’ basketball team last played in the state tourney.

When the Wolf hoops squad exited the floor Thursday, Mar. 3, 1988, after taking a 77-46 loss to Bridgeport, it brought an end to one of the best seasons in program history.

And yet, now, 28 years, five months and 24 days later, it’s a team largely forgotten.

Which is a shame.

Even with the brand spanking new Wall of Fame which went up in the CHS gym this week, the ’87-’88 boys’ basketball players remain largely out of the spotlight, as they came a game short of sharing a league title.

Still, this was a team which went 17-2 in the regular season under coaches Ron Bagby, Sandy Roberts and Cec Stuurmans, undefeated in non-league play and 10-2 in Northwest B League action.

They split with La Conner, winning the second match-up in overtime, giving the eventual league champs (11-1), who finished 5th at state, their only league loss.

What killed Coupeville was an eight-point loss at mid-season to Friday Harbor, the third-best team in a seven-team league.

A very balanced squad — four Wolves (Timm Orsborn, Dan Nieder, Brad Brown and Joe Tessaro) averaged double figures — CHS split four games at Tri-Districts (which it hosted), then went 0-2 at state.

A 55-35 loss to NW Christian (Colbert), followed by their defeat at the hands of Bridgeport, sent the Wolves to the showers at 19-6.

Which stands with pretty much any boys basketball squad in school history.

The program has seven league titles, spread out from 1970 to 2002, one district title (1970), and is 2-10 in five trips to state.

While ’87-’88 can’t claim any of those eight titles, its win total is among the best single-season performances by a Wolf boys squad.

And, until a modern-day crew gets its act together, the players on that roster — Orsborn, Nieder, Brown, Tessaro, Chad Gale, Marc Aparicio, Morgan Roehl, Andrew Bird, Tom Conard, Tony Ford and Brandy Ambrose — stand as the last CHS boys hoops stars to punch a ticket to the Big Dance.

Going through boxes crammed full of random paperwork that were rescued from a back room in the CHS gym complex, I stumbled over a complete stats breakdown for ’87-’88.

In honor of their achievements back then, and their enduring legacy, let’s take a look, shall we?

The stats:

Player	GM	FG	3PT	FT	OREB	DREB	AST	TO	STL	PF	PTS	PPG

Gale	25	95		35	42	59	42	45	49	57	225	9.0
Brown	24	71	26	33	14	32	61	91	47	49	253	10.5
Nieder	24	102	14	65	35	72	91	84	58	70	311	13.0
Orsborn	25	138		71	91	142	28	44	39	65	347	13.9
Tessaro	25	114		32	103	127	14	54	24	79	260	10.4
Ford	15	35		10	38	31	8	21	10	26	80	5.3
Conard	23	30		4	15	32	21	36	18	18	64	2.8
Aparicio	25	22		4	16	30	18	47	22	30	48	1.9
Ambrose	13	2			2	9	5	15	6	12	4	0.3
Bird	12	2			3	4	2	7	1		4	0.3
Roehl	11	2			6	7	1	6	1		4	0.4
TOTALS	25	613	40	254	365	545	291	450	275	406	1600	64.0

And PS, Marc Aparicio, if you’re wondering where your letter certificate is for that year, it was buried in the back of a file cabinet.

You want it back, you know where I am.

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Stars since day one!!

Posted in Girls Basketball, tagged 1992-1993, Basketball, CMS Wolves, flashback, Jennifer Meyer, Ron Bagby on August 27, 2016| Leave a Comment »

You never know what you’re going to find when you start cleaning out the Athletic Director’s office. (Photo courtesy Willie Smith’s spring cleaning)

Sure, it’s Saturday, but you don’t always have to wait until Thursday for throwback photos.

This one comes to us from the “olden days” of 1992-1993, and gives us a glimpse into the early days of some of the best athletes to spring from Coupeville High School.

If you had to play a game of “pick the superstar before they were a superstar” it would probably come down between Jen Canfield and Marnie Bartelson.

Canfield, who is in the back row, far right, next to coach Ron Bagby, went on to be a two-time All-League hoops player in the Cascade Conference, easily one of the best to wear a Wolf uniform.

Her high school coach back in the day, Willie Smith, is now the CHS Athletic Director and the man who unearthed this pic for me.

Looking back, this is how he remembers Canfield:

“She was a complete joy to coach and completely personified what it means to be an athlete: competitive, hard working, coachable, leader, great all-around personality on and off the court.”

Bartelson was a solid hoops player herself, but soccer is where she made her name.

Playing with Oak Harbor (Coupeville didn’t have a team in the mid-’90s), she and fellow Wolf Amanda Allmer led the Wildcats to a league title and 4th place finish in 3A at state.

After winning league MVP honors in high school, Bartelson rewrote the record books at Utah State as a college player

But, while those two made the biggest post-middle school splash, at least athletically, all 12 girls featured here went on to shine, both in sports and off the court.

One, in fact, Emrie McCauslin (bottom row, far right) is the mom of a current Wolf hoops star — Maddy Hilkey.

The lineup (using maiden names):

Back row (l to r) — Jennifer Meyer, Bonnie Engle, Emily Wodjenski, Melanie Frost, Kristina Clark, Jen Canfield, Ron Bagby

Front row (l to r) — Sarah Miller, Marnie Bartelson, Rachel McIntyre, Nicole Monteleone, Jenny Christensen, Emrie McCauslin

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Briscoe down, but not out!!

Posted in Girls Basketball, Volleyball, tagged Basketball, CHS Wolves, injuries, Kyla Briscoe, volleyball on August 22, 2016| Leave a Comment »

Kyla Briscoe was a key player as a sophomore on last year’s girls’ hoops squad which went to state. (John Fisken photos)

Briscoe, seen here last year with Sarah Wright (left) and Katrina McGranahan, is a two-year letter winner in volleyball.

Briscoe models her new cast Monday. (Amy Briscoe photo)

One bad step during the off-season will put the Coupeville High School volleyball squad down a player this year.

Junior Kyla Briscoe, a two-time letter winner for the Wolf spikers, ripped seven ligaments and two tendons in her left ankle during a summer volleyball camp.

Coming down after a block, she landed on another player’s foot and rolled her own ankle, hard.

A small smidgen of good news was delivered Monday, however, as Briscoe learned she wouldn’t need surgery.

Instead, she will wear a cast for the next three weeks.

After that, Briscoe is expected to move into a boot and begin rehab.

While it’s expected she’ll miss the entire volleyball season, and the chance to play a final season alongside older sister Tiffany, the lack of surgery might put her back in play for basketball season.

Kyla Briscoe saw her playing time steadily increase as her sophomore hoops season played out.

A scrappy player on both sides of the ball, she helped lead the Wolf basketball squad to its first state tourney berth in a decade.

CHS hoops coach David King was planning on keeping Briscoe actively involved in the program, regardless of her playing status.

She is currently slated to assist Sherry Roberts with Coupeville’s fall ball team.

“One thing she knows is the plays and how we as a team want to play,” King said. “That insight is invaluable.”

A few days back, when it appeared Briscoe might be out for a substantial period of time, her coach expressed regret.

“Not having Kyla is going to leave a huge hole within our team,” King said. “The growth towards the end of last season and this summer really allowed her to gain confidence in herself and her game.

“We were looking forward to having her full time on varsity and being a contributor in all facets of the game.”

Monday’s prognosis may brighten the outlook for King, however, depending on how fast Briscoe’s ankle mends itself.

For now, it’s a waiting game, though one with more of a silver lining than it might have seemed at first.

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