Coupeville Sports

CHS hoops star Jack Elzinga kept his hair short and the nets jumpin’.

Longer history, smaller inner circle.

Sorta.

While the Coupeville High School girls basketball program didn’t kick off until 1974-1975, the Wolf boys have been throwing up buckets since 1917.

And throwing away their stat sheets almost from day one.

As I’ve attempted to compile complete scoring stats for CHS basketball, the boys side of things has been far more frustrating.

With the Wolf girls, I have pretty on-target individual totals for every season except the inaugural one, which the local newspaper and the school yearbook both essentially ignored.

Now, the boys…

I can tell you Roy Armstrong dropped in a team-high 80 points during the 1924-1925 season, thanks to an incredibly-detailed (and thick!) yearbook.

Other than that, from 1917 — where I have come up with a complete roster, just no stats — to 1954, I have been able to track down individual scoring totals for just three other seasons.

Once we get to the 1954-1955 season, we’re golden though, as I’ve charted every season successfully from there up through 2019-2020.

So, it’s a start.

But, with so many stats lost to time, it appears we’ll never have a true CHS boys hoops scoring chart. Or, at least not one which can match the girls program.

What I do have are 391 players, from old-school beast Banky Fisher to new-school sniper Daniel Olson, who have scored at least one varsity point for the Wolves.

While seven different Coupeville girls have held their program’s individual career scoring record at some point, from Jill Whitney to current #1 Brianne King, I can only really vouch for five guys being atop their program’s mythical big board.

Even then, the first three guys I’m about to list don’t have complete career totals.

But anyway.

Until I can obtain more than the 1924-1925, 1926-1927, and 1939-1940 stat sheets, we might as well start with 1952-1953.

Tom Sahli went off for 310 points that season, so we’ll call him our first true, semi-verified career scoring champ.

Except, he also played in 1951-1952 and 1953-1954, two “missing” seasons, so who knows what his real totals are?

Not me.

In 1954-1955 Jack Elzinga erupted for 337 points, taking the title away (though maybe not), before adding 309 more points the next season to finish with 646.

Except, Elzinga also played on that 1953-1954 team with Sahli, so his totals are also off.

But anyway.

On to Mike Criscuola, who, according to our incomplete totals for his two big-name predecessors, “officially” became the school scoring champ after the 1958-1959 season.

Big Mike had racked up 674 points by then, before adding another 305 the next year as a senior to finish with 979.

Except, we know Criscuola, already the most-imposing player on the floor, played a fair amount as an 8th grader.

He’s right at the center of the team pic in the yearbook, but the point totals listed for the season omit his name.

There’s also questions about points from playoff games in later seasons being left off his season stats, so it’s not hard to believe Criscuola likely topped 1,000 points.

If we could get a time machine, go back and grab all five years of his stat sheets, it’s very possible he still is the real all-time CHS boys scoring champ.

Since we can’t, and barring someone finding a stash in an attic or basement, Criscoula handed the title off to Jeff Stone during the 1969-1970 season.

The sweet-shootin’ Stone rippled the nets for 644 points as a senior, almost 200 more than the next-best performance in school history — Jeff Rhubottom’s 459 in 1977-1978.

Having played three years, as freshmen weren’t eligible for varsity ball in the ’60s, Stone capped his prep career with 1,137 points.

That endured for 36 years, and still hasn’t fallen.

Given a chance to play a full four years, Mike Bagby did the nearly impossible, with his last point during the 2005-2006 season being the 364th of his senior campaign, and the 1,137th of his career.

The duo have remained atop the charts (with the old-school trio of Sahli, Elzinga, and Criscuola lurking in their rearview mirror) ever since, with little to worry about.

Hunter Smith made a nice run before graduating in 2018.

Ultimately, though, a lack of varsity playing time as a freshman, and a handful of later injuries, stopped him at #12 all-time, with 847 points.

Two seasons into his own career, Hawthorne Wolfe is already at #55, with 410 points, but the ongoing pandemic has put his junior season into question.

The chase goes on, for scoring records long-held and stat sheets long-buried.

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