Taya Boonstra, a queen of volleyball, basketball, softball, cheer and photo-bombing during her time as a Wolf.
Kit Manzanares is joined by Boonstra (middle with David King), and Jodi Crimmins (top) and Linda Cheshier, who had big roles in big moments.
Game-changers.
The athletes who are part of the 40th class inducted into the Coupeville Sports Hall o’ Fame were just that.
We’re mixing it up a bit today, with two athletes, four-sport whiz kid Taya Boonstra and three-sport rampaging beast Kit Manzanares, being joined by two great moments, one a solo effort, one very much a team accomplishment.
After this, both moments, and both of our athletes for all seasons, will be found at the top of the blog, under the Legends tab.
Our first moment comes to us courtesy of Jodi (Christensen) Crimmins, who’s already in the Hall for her career work on the hardwood.
Today we’re remembering one night (Jan. 11, 1994), in a bit of a lost season, when the senior whirlwind came within a steal of getting a triple-double the hard way.
Playing on the road at Meridian, Jodi collected 13 points, 12 rebounds and a season-high nine steals, doing all she could to keep a severely undermanned team afloat.
While she couldn’t save the Wolves, who were missing key players Misty Sellgren and Emily Wodjenski, while a third (Marlys West) spent the night chained to the bench with foul trouble, Christensen went down fighting like always.
“Jodi had an out-of-sight game,” her coach, Deb Whittaker, told me at the time. “She played an outstanding game.”
Of course, that quote could have fit Jodi every time she took the floor.
Our second moment arrived Feb. 7, 1992, when the CHS girls’ basketball team pulled off one of the biggest upset wins in program history.
Hosting a King’s squad that came in at 16-1 and ranked #4 in the state, the Wolves, behind Linda Cheshier, Emily (Vracin) Kosderka and Sellgren, stunned the hoops universe.
Hitting 23 free throws, including 14 in the fourth quarter, Coupeville toppled the Knights 55-39, blowing the roof off the CHS gym.
“It’s an incredible boost for us. It was our turn, and we wanted this one really bad,” Vracin said in the moments after the game.
The wily senior dropped in seven, while Cheshier banked home 17, Sellgren netted 11 and Joli Smith tickled the twine for four.
“The first two quarters (when they led 33-18) were the best we’ve ever played,” legendary Wolf coach Phyllis Textor said. “This was the biggest win of the season. Make that the biggest win in many a season.”
Joining our two bright, shining moments is Manzanares, one of the first breakout players I covered back in my early days as a writer at the Whidbey News-Times.
The father of current Wolf star Ryan Griggs, Kit was a star in every sport he picked up for Coupeville. Football, basketball, track, he could do it all and do it all well.
A strong mix of height, speed and power, he tore up defenses on the gridiron, was a tower of power alongside Virgil Roehl and Boom Phomvongkoth on the hardwood and showed blazing speed on the oval, where he went to state.
His ability to raise his game regardless of the sport is matched by Boonstra, who was rock-solid in volleyball, basketball and softball, while also helping anchor the Wolf cheer squad.
One of the smartest, friendliest, most energetic forces of nature ever to stroll through the hallways at CHS, Taya also joins McKayla and McKenzie Bailey and Hunter Hammer as the absolute gold standard when it came to pulling off photo-bombs as an athlete.
While always remaining fully aware of everything going on around her in the game, Boonstra had an uncanny ability to know just when the camera was going to click, and where best to position herself for maximum impact.
Plus, she bakes incredible cookies.
No, seriously, I mean Hall o’ Fame-worthy cookies. Yeah, that good.
There’s a billion reasons to honor Tatiana, but let’s face it, after she delivered fresh-baked cookies to me at a softball game last spring, she was guaranteed induction.
Yes, I’m that easy.
