Coupeville High School Athlete of the Year winners (clockwise from left) Hunter Smith, Katrina McGranahan and Valen Trujillo. (John Fisken photos)
Many competed, and three rose to the top.
Coupeville High School coaches honored a trio Tuesday night, naming juniors Hunter Smith and Katrina McGranahan and senior Valen Trujillo as CHS Athlete of the Year winners.
It’s the first time any of them have received the school’s highest athletic honor.
All three will see their photos go up in the hallway of the CHS gym, joining previous winners such as Corey Cross, Sherry (Bonacci) Roberts, Brad Sherman and Makana Stone.
A look at what earned them the award, in alphabetic order:
McGranahan — She started and ended the year as an MVP.
In the fall, she teamed with Trujillo to lead the CHS volleyball squad to its first league title since 2002.
The Wolves went 8-1 in Olympic League play and made a run at the program single-season record for wins (13), finishing 11-6 after two down-to-the-wire losses at districts.
Among the state leaders in kills and service aces, McGranahan was tabbed as league MVP, then took the winter “off” to get ready for her #1 sport, softball.
The spring was the season of the Kat, as she used her electric pitching arm and ferocious bat to lead the Wolves to a 19-5 record (second-best in program history) and within an out of advancing to state.
Throwing every pitch at districts, she hurled 33 innings in less than 26 hours as Coupeville split four games, two of which went to extra innings.
McGranahan, who led the Wolves in almost every offensive category and went 18-5 in the pitcher’s circle, shared Olympic League MVP honors with Shanya Nisbet of Chimacum.
Smith — A First-Team All-Conference pick in all three of his sports (football, basketball, baseball), with football coaches honoring him on both sides of the ball.
He opened the year by setting new CHS single-season records for receiving yards (916) and touchdowns (11) and sits on the threshold of owning Coupeville’s career records in both those categories, as well as interceptions.
As a defensive back who teams rarely dared to test, he recorded 49 tackles and three picks.
During the winter, Smith led the Wolf boys basketball team in scoring, dropping 332 points in 20 games, including 29 in a playoff loss to Bellevue Christian.
When the spring came, he worked both as a pitcher and infielder, while holding down lead-off duty in the lineup for a CHS squad which finished second in league play behind Klahowya.
In a quirky side note, Smith beat the odds, twice named a WIAA Athlete of the Week winner, despite the award’s rules stating an athlete can only receive it once a school year.
Trujillo — The anchor to two league-title winning teams, as she helped pace the volleyball and girls tennis teams to triumphant seasons.
On the court, she exits as the school record holder for digs in a game, season and career.
A three-year starter, the Wolf libero was a constant tumbling ball of fire, racking up more floor burns than any player in the league.
Needless to say, she was a First-Team All-Conference player three years running.
When spring rolled around, she returned to the court for another season as Coupeville’s #1 singles player and went on to win a second-straight individual league title.
She followed that up by placing third at districts, winning the final three matches of her prep career.
Led by her play, and her quiet but very effective leadership (Trujillo never left a match until all of her teammates had finished playing), the Wolves won their third consecutive regular season team title, remaining unbeaten in Olympic League action.
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