Former CHS cheer coach Sylvia Arnold (left) shares a moment with Sydney Autio (John Fisken photo)
Cameron Boyd (center) gave his tooth for the greater glory, something Jared Dickson (left) and Brett Arnold can appreciate. (Sylvia Arnold photo)
Shelli Trumbull (left) and her two most frequent camera targets, son Aaron and daughter Alexis.
Exuberance.
It is what ties together the members of our second class to be inducted into the Coupeville Sports Hall o’ Fame.
Our newest inductees (now enshrined under the Legends tab at the top of this blog) are Sylvia Arnold, Shelli Trumbull and Cameron Boyd.
Boyd is being tabbed for creating a great Moment, Trumbull is our first Contributor to enter the Hall and Arnold is being honored for her work as a Coach.
Up first is Boyd, the very definition of laid-back intensity during his time on the soccer pitch.
Except for a night in late March of 2014, when he sacrificed his face and sparked one of the biggest wins in program history.
Taking a knee to the mouth, Boyd lost most of a tooth, but stayed on the field, as Coupeville’s defense held on for a shocking 2-1 home victory over arch-rival South Whidbey.
The win was a stunner, coming over a team that openly talked about competing for a 1A state title but proved to have a lot less fire in the belly than Coupeville.
Caught up in the celebration, Boyd posed for photos with his giddy teammates before getting his shattered tooth looked at by a doctor, forever sealing his rep as a stone-cold killer.
Winner, winner … no, he couldn’t eat no chicken dinner.
But he can go in the Hall o’ Fame for one shining moment.
Trumbull, who used her camera to capture many shining moments, is reason enough to create a new category for the Hall just two weeks into the process.
Devoting countless hours of her time to taking pics at CHS sporting events, starting with those played by children Alexis and Aaron, and then spinning off to just about anything she could fit into her already-overflowing schedule, Shelli is an unsung legend.
Without her photos, Coupeville Sports might never have taken off.
Words are fine, but glossy pics bring the eyes in, and Shelli’s willingness to shoot, shoot and shoot some more, while allowing me, and everyone else, to poach away, is extraordinary.
A CHS grad who married another CHS grad and produced two more CHS grads, she is Coupeville at its best. Pure and simple.
And that description also fits our third and final honoree this week.
Sylvia Arnold coached Wolf cheerleaders for 20 years, and that commitment alone is impressive.
But there is more, so much more, to what this woman brought to her school, her town, her young women (and men).
She threw out the conventional cheer coach book and welcomed everyone to her team. Show up, put in the time and effort and buy into being part of a team, and you were hers for life.
And once you were one of hers, she would go to the mat for you with a passion that can not be faked.
A perpetual hug-and-laugh machine, Sylvia made every one of her cheerleaders, and every other person who wandered into her path, realize they were loved, they were appreciated, they were needed.
It can not be overstated how much joy and compassion the woman has brought to everyone in her life.
There are people born to be cheerleaders, and Sylvia embraced them.
And then there are countless others who would never have been given a shot at another school, and Sylvia embraced them with all her heart and soul.
If we count the number of young women (and men) who genuinely shocked those around them by becoming Wolf cheerleaders during her two decades, we’d be here for ever.
Sylvia transformed cheer and built an empire around “Ohana means family; family means no one gets left behind,” and the benefits of what she did will radiate through this community, and many others, for decades to come.
If that’s not worthy of induction into the Hall o’ Fame, then I don’t know what is.
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