Hope Lodell will be in center field when a new softball season begins. Her aunt, Teresa Terry, was a starter in 1978. (Mike Lodell photo)
One family, 40 years, a ton of history.
When Coupeville High School senior Hope Lodell charges out to center field this spring, she’ll be following in the footsteps of her aunt.
Lodell, a four-year starter who has multiple All-Conference honors to her name, is keeping alive a family tradition.
Her aunt, Teresa (Lodell) Terry, was a freshman who started in the very first softball game in CHS history.
That came back on Mar. 16, 1978, when the Wolves battled through extra innings before falling 20-17 against Island rival Langley.
Coupeville and South Whidbey actually open the 2018 season against each other, with the Wolves traveling down Whidbey Saturday, Mar. 17 for a non-conference game.
If school officials were as obsessed with anniversaries as I am, they’d bump the game up a day to fall on the 40-year anniversary.
Hint, hint.
Anyways, that first game for CHS softball was a doozy, at least from the (very) limited recap in the newspaper of the time.
Slow-pitch was the game back then, with the Wolves not becoming a fast-pitch team until 2002.
At which point Ashley Ellsworth-Bagby, Sarah Mouw, Lindsey Tucker and crew promptly won four of five games at the state tourney, claiming a third-place finish in their first try at the quicker version of the sport.
In 1978, Kris Severns was the coach, and players in the first lineup included Teresa Lodell, Laurie Estes, Cheri Cass, Micki Boettger, Yvonne Jameson and slugging freshman Pam Jampsa.
Jampsa bashed a home run and a pair of doubles in the first game, as Coupeville turned an early 3-0 deficit into a 16-8 lead after five innings.
Then, the offense which had racked up five runs in the second inning, and another eight in the third, cooled off, letting the dastardly South Enders rally.
Langley plated seven runs in the sixth, then scraped out one more in the seventh to forge a 16-16 tie and force extra innings.
Both teams came up empty in the eighth, before Langley put four across in the top of the ninth to make things dicey.
Coupeville got one run back in the bottom half of the inning, but fell short of an Opening Day miracle.
But, while a win wasn’t in the cards, that game set the table for what has turned into a successful four-decade run for the Wolves on the diamond.
Last year’s squad went 19-5, the best record since the immortal 2002 team, and came within a single strike of earning Coupeville softball’s third trip to state.
With virtually their entire lineup back, the 2018 Wolves are intent on joining the 2002 and 2014 teams in punching a ticket to the big dance.
Whether it happens or not, the past and present of CHS softball will come together frequently during this 40th season, whenever Teresa Terry pops by to cheer for her niece.
One family creating a ton of diamond memories.
