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Posts Tagged ‘CHS Wolves’

It’s the thrill of victory!!

Posted in 1A Olympic League, tagged , , , , , on April 20, 2017| Leave a Comment »

   CHS girls tennis, sparked by players like McKenzie Bailey, has been dominant over the past three seasons. (John Fisken photo)

It’s not always about wins and losses, except when it is.

There are many ways to look at the success or failure of a high school sports program — titles, players who move on to compete in college, improvement shown by the current players, size of the fan base and on and on.

But ultimately they play games to decide a winner.

And while we can argue all day long in favor of other things, that’s what sits there in black and white forever.

I acknowledge there are a lot of hidden factors in win/loss records.

Who did you play, for one?

In scheduling, did you punch upwards and maybe absorb losses against bigger schools, AKA “moral victories”, or punch downwards against smaller schools and fluff up the ol’ record a bit?

Did you have one great year and that was enough to balance out some weaker campaigns, or were you consistent, but maybe never reached the mountain top?

A lot of ifs, ands and buts, and to go through all of them would require much more patience and research on my part (and a lot more rambling for you to read).

For the moment, here’s what we’re going with.

I went back through the entire run of the 1A Olympic League, which began with the 2014-2015 school year and is currently heading towards the finish line on Year 3.

I went with each team’s complete record, league and non-league, through games played Apr. 19, 2017.

Spring is obviously not done and winning percentages will change, but, in three of four sports (baseball, girls tennis and boys soccer), the all-time front runner can’t be caught this year.

Softball, which is the closest sport in the Olympic League by far, could change. If so, we’ll talk about that another day.

I went with 10 of the 11 sports Coupeville plays (track win/loss records from dual meets are arbitrary and worthless), so no swimming or wrestling or gymnastics.

And what did I find?

Klahwoya girls soccer, which won a state title in 2015 behind the 1-2 punch of Izzy Severns and McKenzie Cook, has been the most successful program in any sport.

Hardly surprising.

But, as good as the Eagle booters have been, they do not boast the biggest advantage over their league rivals.

When you compare records, both Coupeville girls tennis and girls basketball have a far bigger edge over the second-best school in the league in their sport when you compare winning percentages.

Another interesting tidbit?

Klahowya, which has the best winning percentage as a school, owns the best record in four sports (girls and boys soccer,  volleyball and baseball).

That allows the Eagles to edge out Coupeville (girls basketball, girls and boys tennis), Port Townsend (football, boys basketball) and Chimacum (softball).

But, Klahowya also has the worst record in both girls and boys basketball.

Port Townsend (3) and Chimacum (5) split the other cellar dwellers, while Coupeville is the lone school NOT to have any of its programs mired in last-place.

And one final bit of quirkiness.

In boys basketball, Coupeville and Chimacum have virtually the exact same record over the past three seasons. Same losses and the Cowboys have just one more win.

And yet Chimacum won back-to-back league titles before falling to Port Townsend this winter, piling up league wins while the Wolves were far better against non-conference foes.

You just shrug your shoulders and move on, I guess.

Records from Sept. 2014 to Apr. 19, 2017:

Volleyball:

School W/L Win Pct.
Klahowya 32-19 .627
Chimacum 21-27 .438
COUPEVILLE 18-27 .400
Port Townsend 12-30 .286

Football:

School W/L Win Pct.
Port Townsend 24-7 .774
Klahowya 18-10 .627
COUPEVILLE 9-21 .300
Chimacum 2-27 .069

Girls Soccer:

School W/L Win Pct.
Klahowya 46-10-3 .805
COUPEVILLE 20-21-5 .489
Port Townsend 8-34-3 .211
Chimacum 8-32-1 .207

Boys Tennis:

School W/L Win Pct.
COUPEVILLE 14-16 .467
Klahowya 16-22 .421
Chimacum 2-30 .063

Girls Basketball:

School W/L Win Pct.
COUPEVILLE 46-19 .708
Port Townsend 19-39 .328
Chimacum 20-42 .323
Klahowya 12-46 .207

Boys Basketball:

School W/L Win Pct.
Port Townsend 27-34 .443
Chimacum 20-41 .328
COUPEVILLE 19-41 .317
Klahowya 12-47 .203

Softball:

School W/L Win Pct.
Chimacum 31-19 .620
Klahowya 29-19 .604
COUPEVILLE 24-24 .500
Port Townsend 0-37 .000

Girls Tennis:

School W/L Win Pct.
COUPEVILLE 23-9 .719
Klahowya 12-24 .333
Chimacum 7-22 .241

Baseball:

School W/L Win Pct.
Klahowya 40-10 .800
COUPEVILLE 25-28 .472
Chimacum 14-30 .318
Port Townsend 1-38 .026

Boys Soccer:

School W/L Win Pct.
Klahowya 40-9-4 .792
Port Townsend 19-20-3 .488
COUPEVILLE 11-27-2 .300
Chimacum 4-32 .111

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Rain haunts netters!!

Posted in Girls Tennis, tagged , , , , , on April 18, 2017| Leave a Comment »

Bree Daigneault celebrates a well-played point.  (John Fisken photos)

Bathed in (brief) sunshine, Kameryn St Onge is ready to rock the world.

Valen Trujillo strides into another winner.

Tia Wurzrainer feels the love.

   And then the rain returns, though Zoe Trujillo remains locked-in regardless of the weather.

A wet spring continues to bedevil the Coupeville High School girls tennis squad.

Tuesday’s Olympic League showdown with Klahowya was halted mid-match when bright sunshine turned into a downpour in mere seconds.

A half hour later? The sun was back but the Eagles were well on their way home.

The match will be finished when the two teams meet Apr. 27 in Silverdale.

Unless it rains that day, too…

It was the third straight match affected by the liquid sunshine.

A trip Monday to North Kitsap was called off, then bumped to Thursday.

That comes on the heels of last Friday, when the Wolves had just boarded the ferry to travel over to Chimacum when the cancellation call came.

Tennis has been stung the hardest of any CHS sport by the damp spring weather.

While baseball has played 12 games, soccer 11 and softball nine, tennis is lagging far behind with just five completed matches.

Heck, even track is ahead of the netters now, having competed in six meets.

The constant rain-outs are creating a backlog for the Wolf netters.

If weather permits, they’ll travel to Kingston Wednesday, then North Kitsap Thursday.

Next week, CHS is scheduled to play 4.5 matches in four days — Monday (Friday Harbor) and Tuesday (Chimacum) at home, Wednesday (South Whidbey) and Thursday (Klahowya) on the road.

 

To see more photos from Tuesday’s match (purchases fund college scholarships for CHS student/athletes), pop over to:

http://www.johnsphotos.net/Sports/20162017-Coupeville-Tennis/GT-20170418-vs-Klahowya/

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Second-half scores sting!!

Posted in Boys Soccer, tagged , , , , on April 18, 2017| Leave a Comment »

   Wolf defenders like Teo Keilwitz, seen in an earlier game, held up strongly in the first half Monday. (John Fisken photos)

They hung with the big dogs for a half.

The Coupeville High School boys soccer squad put up a strong fight for the opening 40 minutes Monday, but a rain of second-half goals by host Klahowya proved to be too much to handle.

Trailing just 1-0 at the break, the Wolves fell 5-0 to the Eagles, who won their 17th straight 1A Olympic League game.

The streak is the third-longest across all league sports, trailing just Coupeville girls basketball (27-0) and Klahowya girls soccer (20-0).

With the loss, Coupeville drops to 2-3 in league play, 3-7-1 overall, and slides back into third-place in the standings.

It trails Klahowya (5-0, 7-2-1) and Port Townsend (2-2, 4-4), while holding a game-and-a-half edge (and a tiebreaker) on Chimacum (0-4, 2-6).

The Wolves return home to play three straight on their own field, starting with a visit from Chimacum Thursday.

The regular season ends on the road April 28 at Port Townsend.

Playoff info hasn’t been posted yet, but if things stay as they have in the first two years of the league, the top three schools will advance to districts.

Monday’s clash with the league’s titan was close for a half, then the Eagles took advantage of their speed on turf to blitz the Wolves, who normally play on natural grass.

“After break they came after us a bit harder and were able to put a few goals in to open up their lead,” said Coupeville coach Kyle Nelson.

Still, even in a loss, there were positives for Coupeville.

Ethan Spark, William Nelson and Aram Leyva, among others, had strong shots on goal which were rejected by Klahowya’s keeper, and the Wolves continue to show progress as a team.

“We keep improving and I really liked the effort the boys put out there,” Kyle Nelson said. “We had a few good opportunities and came close to putting in a goal of our own.”

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Chasing history, a swing at a time!!

Posted in Softball, tagged , , , , , , on April 18, 2017| Leave a Comment »

The best there ever was, and the team that’s chasing their records.

Separated by 15 years, but united by drive and desire.

Every time Katrina McGranahan stares down a batter from the pitcher’s circle, Hope Lodell chases down a fly in the gap, or Veronica Crownover crushes a ball so hard it leaves a dent, they are mirroring the most successful team in Coupeville High School history.

The high-scoring 1969-1970 boys basketball squad is arguably the most dominant ever to wear CHS uniforms, but the 2002 Wolf softball sluggers achieved heights never seen, before or since.

An 8-0 start, then later a 12-game winning streak, before finishing with four wins in five games at the state tourney to finish 24-3 and owners of a 3rd place trophy.

And all of that in the program’s first year playing fast-pitch.

This season, Coupeville has slapped foes around, winning its first seven games en route to an 8-1 start.

Heading into a three-games-in-three-days test this weekend (Thursday at home vs. La Conner, Friday at Klahowya, Saturday at home vs. Lynden Christian), the current Wolves have matched the best start in program history.

Only now they’ll need to rip off 12 straight wins — pushing their win streak to a program-record 13 — to stay even with the 2002 sluggers, who opened 20-1.

No pressure…

The numbers are equal — 16 players and five people on the coaching staff, including volunteers — both bash the ball and are led by a core of successful, veteran three-sport athletes.

That being said, there is one huge difference between the 2002 and 2017 squads, and it’s not just the fact the ’02 players wore shorts as part of their uniforms.

Her name is Sarah Mouw, and, with all due respect to the current sluggers, none of you are Sarah Mouw … yet.

When she and her family (including lil’ sis and future track state champ Amy) moved from Iowa to Cow Town right before her senior year, CHS sports took a giant leap.

I would argue (and win the argument) no transfer student has ever impacted sports in Coupeville the way Sarah Mouw did.

Meshing her talents with holdovers like Ashley Ellsworth-Bagby, Tracy Taylor and Erica Lamb (all perennial All-Conference players in multiple sports), she led CHS to state three times during the 2001-2002 school year.

Volleyball, basketball and softball all won league titles with Mouw leading the way, with basketball (6th) and softball both achieving the best finishes at state in the history of those programs.

When the Wolves took the diamond that spring, everything was in flux.

The Northwest Conference switched from slow-pitch to fast-pitch, and the two teams which had dominant pitchers, Coupeville and Archbishop Murphy, dominated.

Mouw and ATM hurler Kristen Linscott, who went on play college ball for Claremont Mudd Scripps, were co-MVPs, while the Wolves landed four other players on All-Conference teams.

Ellsworth-Bagby (SS) and Lamb (OF) were First-Team picks, with Ellsworth-Bagby a four-time honoree, while Lindsey Tucker (2B) and Taylor (OF) were Second-Teamers who should have been First-Teamers.

Randy Dickson rounded out the awards, being tabbed as Coach of the Year, an honor he shared with assistants Kim Meche and Jim Wheat and volunteers Dale Folkstad and Bruce Berg.

As the 2002 team reaches its 15-year anniversary, a look back at its season for the ages reveals how dominant the Wolves were.

CHS beats Sultan 24-5 — The first fast-pitch game in school history is a rout, as the Wolves torch the Turks for 11 runs in the fourth inning. Mouw and Ellsworth-Bagby combine for five RBIs.

CHS beats La Conner 11-1 — Mouw and freshman hurler Heather Davis combine to toss a one-hitter.

CHS beats Concrete 9-1 — Taylor goes 3-3, while Mouw tosses a no-hitter.

CHS beats ATM 6-5 in 8 innings — The only extra-innings game of the year, as the Wolves rally for two in the bottom of the seventh, then win on a walk-off RBI single from Lamb.

CHS beats ATM 6-5 — Different game, same score. This time Coupeville takes an early lead, then holds on for the win.

CHS beats Sequim 11-5 — Six straight wins.

CHS beats Orcas 20-1 — Davis is in the circle and throws her own no-hitter.

CHS beats Friday Harbor 3-2 — A thriller lifts the Wolves to 8-0.

Lamb, Christine Larson (her bloop single is the only CHS hit) and Tucker touch home as Coupeville builds a lead early, before things get dicey at the end.

Having surrendered a run in the sixth, the Wolves give up another in the seventh and Friday Harbor has the tying run at third with one out. Then disaster (almost) strikes.

A Mouw pitch gets past catcher Brook Croghan, but she alertly tracks the ball down and flips it back to her pitcher for a bang-bang play at the plate. The Wolves get the call, then Mouw mows down the final batter for her 13th K of the afternoon.

ATM beats CHS 5-1 — The first fast-pitch loss in school history arrives in game #9, as Linscott whiffs 12 Wolves.

CHS beats Friday Harbor 12-5 and 18-2 — The big bounce-back, as the Wolves rampage to a doubleheader sweep.

Total freakin’ domination, as Wolves rap out 33 hits. Lamb collects four hits, five steals and two RBIs in game two, while Mouw, Croghan, Ellsworth-Bagby and sweet-swingin’ Carly Guillory all have three-hit games.

CHS beats ?, ? and ? — The Whidbey News-Times somehow misses reporting on three games and I don’t have a time machine.

CHS beats Orcas 24-3 — Ellsworth-Bagby drops in four hits as the Wolves improve to 14-1. It’s feast or famine, as Coupeville gets 11 runs in the first, none in the second, then 12 in the third.

CHS beats La Conner 11-1 — Mouw with three hits and three RBI.

CHS beats Concrete 11-1 — Lamb with three hits, Croghan triples.

CHS beats Concrete 19-5 — Larson whacks two triples and misses a third only because she doesn’t see Dickson waving her in and stops at second.

Tucker, Ellsworth-Bagby and Mouw all collect three-baggers as well as Wolves bring the pain and reach 17-1.

CHS beats La Conner 18-8 — Wolves wrap the regular season with a 23-hit barrage. Tucker is high woman with four.

CHS beats Seattle Christian 12-4 — Coupeville opens Tri-District play by swatting a big city squad.

CHS beats University Prep 4-0 — The win which clinches the first trip to state in program history. 20-1 and 12 straight heading into match-up #4 with ATM…

ATM beats CHS 8-0 — Dickson rests Mouw (who will pitch all five games at state), while ATM keeps Linscott in the circle.

CHS beats Cle Elum 8-0 — Wolves make a flawless debut at the state tourney.

CHS beats Royal 3-2 — Showcasing its grit, Coupeville rallies for three runs in the bottom of the fifth after falling behind 2-0 and moves into the state semifinals.

Adna beats CHS 4-0 — Wolves stay close, but fall to the eventual state champs, who go on to shred ATM 6-1 in the final.

It’s the sixth of seven state titles for Adna softball (1987, ’90, ’92, ’94, ’95, 2002, ’15). The Pirates just miss in 2016, losing by a run in the championship game.

CHS beats Okanogan 6-1 — No back-to-back losses for the 2002 Wolves.

CHS beats Napavine 11-6 — Trailing 6-1 late, Coupeville rallies for 10 runs in the fifth as Kristin Gwartney lights the fuse with a key two-run single.

The 2002 Wolf squad, which also included Laura Crandall, Angel Black, Andrea Larson, Ashley Ginnetti, Samantha Roehl and Caitlin Harada, set a standard which hasn’t been touched since.

Taking into account we’re missing three games, they outscored foes 247-80.

But, through the first nine games of the season, the 2017 squad is scoring at a better rate than the 2002 team, with a 99-91 edge.

Though, this year’s team has also surrendered more runs (49-30), so it’s a bit of a toss-up.

After Mouw, Ellsworth-Bagby and Taylor graduated in 2002, Wolf softball took a few steps back.

Coupeville finally made it back to state in 2014, when this year’s seniors — Jae LeVine, Robin Cedillo and Tiffany Briscoe — were freshman playing for David and Amy King, but the Wolves went two-and-out.

But now, this season, a squad which starts four juniors and two sophomores, is off to a historic start, tying the 2002 unit for the best-ever record through nine games.

Can they keep it going? Can Kevin McGranahan’s young guns join Mouw and Co. as immortals?

Only time will tell. Swing away.

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Short-circuited in Sequim!!

Posted in Baseball, tagged , , , , on April 18, 2017| Leave a Comment »

   Joey Lippo, seen bunting in an earlier game, and the Coupeville offense were largely shut down Monday by Sequim’s pitchers. (John Fisken photo)

The fourth inning was great.

Everything else on either side, not as much, however.

Only able to get the offense clicking during one brief spurt Monday, the Coupeville High School baseball squad fell 9-3 at Sequim.

The non-conference loss drops the Wolves to 6-6 on the season.

It was the second time CHS faced Sequim this season, and, while the score was slightly better (the Wolves lost 14-4 at home Mar. 17), they still struggled with their 2A foes.

“We couldn’t stop them from scoring,” said Wolf coach Chris Smith. “And they controlled us and kept us off balance in all but one inning.”

During that fourth inning Coupeville sent nine batters to the plate, brought three around, but left the bags juiced.

Things started off with a resounding triple off the bat of Clay Reilly.

Singles from Dane Lucero and Matt Hilborn, wrapped around an RBI ground-out by Kory Score and two Wolf hitters — Julian Welling and Jake Hoagland — reaching on errors, kept the good times rolling.

Other than that, though, the Wolf offense sputtered.

Through the first three innings, Coupeville only had two base runners, with Welling drilling a single and Hunter Smith walking.

Then, after the fourth inning breakout, the final 10 CHS hitters went down in order.

Sequim, by contrast, never had a breakout inning, but steadily chipped away at the Wolf hurlers.

The hosts put up a two-spot in the first, then added three in the third and a solo run in both the fourth and fifth, before capping things with two more in the sixth.

Coupeville used three pitchers, with Taylor Consford (3), Jonathan Thurston (3) and Hilborn (1) combining for seven strikeouts.

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