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Masks stay, more fans allowed

Posted in coronavirus updates, Fashionable Fans, tagged , , , , on March 11, 2021| Leave a Comment »

Attendance at high school sporting events can double in size, from 200 to 400, as of March 18. (Photo by JohnsPhotos.net)

A full return to high school sports competition in Washington state took a new, positive turn Thursday afternoon.

In a press conference, Governor Jay Inslee announced his Healthy Washington: Roadmap to Recovery plan will transition back to a county-by-county evaluation process Monday, March 22.

Island County will no longer be lumped into a region, and will stand on its own. Also, smaller counties will be held to different numbers than larger counties.

Under the plan, all counties will move into a new Phase 3, which allows for increased fans at outdoor and indoor sports events.

Currently, the cap is 200, and many leagues have opted not to allow fans for any sports.

The Northwest 2B/1B League, which includes Coupeville, currently allows home fans at baseball, girls tennis, and softball competitions.

Road fans are barred, and no fans at all are allowed at track meets.

As of Mar. 18, the limit jumps to 400 individuals at “outdoor venues with permanent seating with capacity capped at 25%” and “indoor facilities — so long as 400 people does not exceed 50% capacity for the location.”

Physical distancing and masking protocols will still be enforced.

Five of Coupeville’s six scheduled track meets, including a home event April 3, fall after the increase from 200 to 400 fans.

NWL Athletic Directors have not yet commented on how the change will affect the status of road fans, or whether fans will be allowed to attend track meets.

While many leagues opted to open with traditional fall sports, the NWL chose a spring-fall-winter format for this pandemic-afflicted school year.

That should prove to be a financial boon for the league.

By holding off on football, the leading money maker, until season two, the NWL will benefit from increased crowd capacity, something which has dinged most schools currently playing on the gridiron.

The transition also makes it much more likely winter sports, considered the “highest risk” by the State Department of Health, will play during the planned season of May 3 to June 12.

“The sports guidance applies to a safe and healthy expansion of youth sports,” Inslee said on his official Twitter account. “High-contact sports like basketball, wrestling, and cheerleading will be allowed to have competitions again.”

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One more time, with feeling

Posted in Basketball, tagged , , , , on March 9, 2021| Leave a Comment »

Makana Stone drills a jumper during warm-ups. (Photo property Loughborough University)

This one was a slam dunk.

Coming off of her most-dominating performance in England, Coupeville grad Makana Stone was tabbed Tuesday as the National Basketball League Player of the Week.

It’s the third time this season she’s received the honor.

The former Wolf was lights-out Saturday, when she went off for 20 points, 26 rebounds, six steals, four blocked shots, and three assists as she helped Loughborough University top Worcester 73-64.

That victory avenged an earlier-season loss to the same team in a game in which Stone and a fellow starter were fouled out right before overtime started.

Coupeville’s progeny has amassed a double-double in every game she’s played overseas, a big reason why Loughborough is 8-3 overall, 8-1 with Stone in the lineup.

On the season, the American assassin has racked up 156 points, 147 rebounds, 20 assists, 31 steals, and five blocks, while also working on her master’s in exercise physiology.

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Don’t hurt ’em, Kana (too late)

Posted in Basketball, tagged , , , , on March 6, 2021| 1 Comment »

Makana Stone threw down a 20-point, 26-rebound performance Saturday in England. (Photo property of Loughborough University)

The wrecking crew has arrived.

Going on the road Saturday, Coupeville’s Makana Stone delivered maybe her most explosive basketball performance since arriving in England.

The former Wolf went off for 20 points, 26 rebounds, six steals, four blocked shots, and three assists as she helped Loughborough University avenge an earlier-season loss.

Using a fourth-quarter run to pull away in a nail-biter, the Riders exited with a 73-64 victory against host Worcester.

That was sweet payback for an overtime loss in November, a game in which refs fouled out Stone and another key Loughborough player right before the extra period.

This time around, the zebras were more realistic, assessing just two fouls on Coupeville’s progeny as she played all but 35 seconds of the game.

With the win, Loughborough improves to 8-3 overall, 8-1 with Stone in the lineup, and 8-0 in games where she’s allowed to play until the final buzzer.

Saturday’s rematch went back-and-forth until the Riders pulled away in the final nine minutes of the game.

Trailing 21-19 after one quarter, and 36-35 at the half, Loughborough slipped back in front 50-49 headed to the game’s final frame.

Worcester had one last push, briefly pulling ahead 54-50, then fell apart as Stone took control down the stretch.

Pumping in 10 of her 20 points in the fourth quarter, she sparked Loughborough to a 23-10 finish to seal the deal.

The Riders cracked Worcester with a 12-0 run, with Stone banking home a team-best five points during the surge.

She now has a double-double in all nine games she’s played in England, and sits with 156 points, 147 rebounds, 20 assists, 31 steals, and five blocks on the season.

The Riders, who played Saturday without big-time basket producers Robyn Ainge and Katie Januszewska, got 20 points from Molly James and 11 out of Hannah Bird in support of Stone.

Loughborough, which is second in the National Basketball League behind Ipswich (9-1), returns to action next Saturday, March 13, when it hosts winless BA London.

 

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Still a Stone-cold hoops assassin

Posted in Basketball, tagged , , , , on February 27, 2021| Leave a Comment »

Makana Stone brings the ball up court Saturday in England. (Photo property Loughborough University)

It’s an effective formula.

Makana Stone plus a basketball usually equals a win.

When the Coupeville High School grad is in the lineup for Loughborough University this season, the Riders are 7-1.

Without her, 0-2.

So, it was a good thing Stone was back in uniform Saturday, and back to layin’ down a beatin’ on her opponents.

Going off for 15 points, 11 rebounds, three steals, and two assists, the former Wolf helped spark Loughborough to a wire-to-wire win over host CoLA Southwark.

The 81-55 victory keeps the Riders (7-3) in second-place in England’s National Basketball League, within shouting distance of frontrunner Ipswich (9-1), whose only loss came on a last-second Stone bucket earlier this season.

Saturday, Loughborough jumped on CoLA Southwark early, exploding to a 27-12 lead after one quarter of play.

From there, the Riders got methodical, ringing up 18-11, 18-17, and 18-15 advantages across the remaining three quarters of play.

Loughborough spread out its attack, with Molly James pumping in a game-high 18 points to lead four Riders into double-digits scoring.

Stone added her 15, while Robyn Ainge banked in 13, and Katie Januszewska rounded out the attack with 12 points and 11 boards.

Coupeville’s progeny has dropped a double-double in every game she’s played overseas, and now sits with 136 points, 121 rebounds, 17 assists, and 25 steals on the season.

Stone and Co. return to action next Saturday, March 6, when they face off with Worcester.

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One year, no games

Posted in Everything changes, tagged , , , , on February 11, 2021| Leave a Comment »

Coupeville gunner Mollie Bailey lofts a shot near the end of the 2019-2020 basketball season. (Photos by JohnsPhotos.net)

Wolves (left to right) Hannah Davidson, Tia Wurzrainer, Avalon Renninger, and Scout Smith join coach Scott Fox on Senior Night.

You never know.

A year ago today, the Coupeville High School girls basketball team was eliminated from the playoffs, KO’d by a barrage of three-balls off of the fingertips of hot-shooting Meridian players.

As the players and fans departed the CHS gym, until just Wolf coach Scott Fox was left standing in the half-darkened building, it seemed to be a time of transition.

February 11, 2020, said the calendar.

Winter sports were done, with the Coupeville boys hoops team having been similarly knocked out of the postseason a few days before.

It was the end of the road for Wolf seniors Scout Smith, Hannah Davidson, Tia Wurzrainer, and Avalon Renninger — a group which had played together since middle school.

“We fought really hard,” Fox said in the half-light. “Our seniors played their hearts out. They were our backbone and our leaders. I couldn’t be more proud of those girls.”

But, even as basketball faded from sight, the promise of spring sports helped pick up the mood.

Wurzrainer, who had celebrated her birthday that night, earning a huge roar from the crowd with a late-game bucket, was set to join Renninger for a final season of tennis.

Smith would return to the diamond, where CHS was primed to make a run at a second-straight trip to state.

There was even a chance Davidson, who had played softball in little league, might be talked into joining her for one last fling.

The Wolves needed a first-baseman, and she fit the bill — if Scooter could pull off the sweet-talk.

One season ends, another lurks on the horizon. It has been ever so.

As I left the gym, walking across the parking lot on a crisp evening, I coughed a couple of times.

Something I had done for much of the winter, as flu and cold season mixed with sitting crammed into gyms with other Wolf fans — a perfect breeding ground for my annual rite of “gym cough.”

There had been a few news articles about a new virus building in a place called Wuhan, but on Feb. 11, 2020, that was less than an afterthought.

Sports roll on, as they always have, and always will, and going outside to freeze during spring sports would ease the tickle in the back of my throat.

It was ever so … and then it wasn’t.

Very few people alive in the world the night of Feb. 11, 2020 were also alive when the Spanish Flu did its dirty work, so COVID-19 is a new experience for most of us.

The thought which was never present — that a girls basketball playoff loss to Meridian would be the final live high school sports event in Coupeville for a year — came at us fast.

The virus erupted.

Schools closed.

Spring sports vanished without being played.

There were a handful of middle school basketball games played after Feb. 11, before the CMS hoops season was also shut down, but high school sports ended that night.

And now, here we are on Feb. 11, 2021, and they haven’t returned. At least in Coupeville.

There have been some practices, as the COVID rules have shifted over the months, but no seasons, no games, no return to play.

Plans are in place for CHS and its partners in the Northwest 2B/1B League to restart Feb. 22 — just a week and a half from now — with spring sports first up.

Whether that happens depends on a number of factors, including whether Island County continues to get shafted by being lumped together with Whatcom County under Governor Jay Inslee’s new regional reopening system.

In a best-case scenario, a Coupeville High School sports team will compete against a rival at some point this month, whether it’s Wolf baseball, softball, girls tennis, or track and field which draws the first game on a schedule which hasn’t been made public yet.

Worst-case scenario, things drag on, and we lose the entire 2020-2021 school athletic year, tacked on to the loss of spring 2020 sports.

I have no clue, and neither do you.

Unless you’re a NWL Athletic Director like Coupeville’s Willie Smith, to pretend otherwise is pointless.

But at least we know both options, best-case and worst-case, are possibilities, as well as some middle compromise.

Which makes it somewhat easier to deal with. Sort of.

The night of Feb. 11, 2020, we left the gym, headed to our vehicles, wrapped in blissful ignorance.

It was just another game. The end of one season, and the start of another.

Until it wasn’t.

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