Clay Hughes plays through the blood and churns for yardage back in 2006. (Photos courtesy Willie Smith’s spring cleaning)
Concrete’s defenders are already too late.
Hughes was also an accomplished ballet dancer in his spare time…
Who knows what lurks in the back rooms at the Coupeville High School gym complex?
Go digging through old boxes, like I’ve done recently after Athletic Director Willie Smith went on a spring cleaning binge, and I’ve found treats galore.
Old stat sheets, middle school basketball photos and a lot of rosters from rival schools (Tom Roehl liked to horde them).
Buried in one box were a couple of discs containing photos from the 2006 CHS football season.
Who the photographer was, I have no clue.
And, to my great disappointment, no incriminating photos of any Wolf coaches taking Bellevue-style payoffs or players involved in raging keggers.
Come on man, where’s my decade-old scandal?!?!?, he said with a grin.
Anyways … back in reality, the one thing that popped out from the photos was the frequent image of Clay Hughes, gridiron stud extraordinaire, hard at work.
Mr. Hughes, now a wildly successful businessman, was a junior during the ’06 gridiron campaign and the Wolves primary rusher.
Working in tandem with Casey Larson and Trevor Tucker, he led Coupeville’s ground game in a season in which they churned out 2,042 yards over a 4-6 season.
Larson had the biggest single game of the year, ripping South Whidbey for 182 yards and four touchdowns in a 27-8 Wolf win.
But it was Hughes who carried the brunt of the offense, piling up 907 yards in the nine games he played, while Larson tallied 784 yards in 10 games.
Twice the duo combined to smash the 300-yard barrier that season.
South Whidbey, of course, where Hughes tacked on 119 yards as the Wolves battered the Falcon defense silly.
Their best game, though, came in an 18-7 win over Concrete in week two, in which Larson went for 165 and Hughes 164.
Coupeville gained an astonishing 411 yards that day — Sept. 8, 2006 — on 58 carries, allowing quarterback James Smith to throw the ball just twice.
Larson and Smith are already in the Coupeville Sports Hall o’ Fame, and Hughes will likely join them one day soon.
Until then, as we approach the 10-year anniversary of the Concrete Massacre, let’s look back at some photos of Hughes in action and reflect on one of the best seasons ever thrown down by a Wolf rusher.
La Conner — 17 carries for 69 yards
Concrete — 28-164
ATM — 13-38
Sultan — 28-159
Granite Falls — OUT
South Whidbey — 19-119
King’s — 29-158
Lakewood — 18-85
Cedarcrest — 12-42
Friday Harbor — 27-74
Totals: 192-907 with 5 TDs; averaged 4.7 yards a carry and 100.8 yards a game.
Also had 26 tackles on defense.
PS — He added 675 yards and another 9 TDs as a senior.
So, a tip of the hat, Clay. Once a beast, always a beast.
Coupeville Sports 