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Posts Tagged ‘CHS Wolves’

Bumpy trails, brilliant results

Posted in Cross Country, tagged , , , , on August 18, 2024| Leave a Comment »

State cross country champ Tyler King, always signing autographs for the fans. (Photo courtesy Sarah Stuurmans)

The history, like a lot of the trails used, is a bit bumpy and uneven.

Coupeville High School has had an on and off, then on again, relationship with cross country over the years.

The Wolves boast two individual state champs, but one of those only competed in a Coupeville uniform at the very end of his career.

That’s because, for a long chunk of time, CHS didn’t have its own in-house harrier program, having shut down the sport in the ’90s.

So, when Tyler King came along in the 2000’s, while he attended school in Coupeville, he ran for Oak Harbor.

Up until his senior season, when paper shuffling between the schools kicked him out of the 4A classification that the Wildcats were part of and put him running as a one-man Wolf crew back in 1A.

King promptly closed his senior season by claiming the 2010 state title, joining 1985 champ Natasha Bamberger, who won at the B/1A level, finishing in the top eight at state in all four of her seasons at CHS.

Going through records held by the Washington Interscholastic Activities Association, marks for state cross country meets go back to 1959 for boys, 1973 for girls.

Though, looking up small school activity from 1977-1979 currently gets you a “404 – File or directory not found” notice. So, as usual, there will always be gaps in my research, apparently.

And that does directly affect this story, as the CHS boys won league and district titles in 1977, before finishing 5th as a team at state.

But, with no access to old Whidbey News-Times archives — they’re locked-down off-Island these days — and no WIAA info, I can’t definitively list those runners for you today.

But here’s what I have found, with a surge in the ’70s and ’80s, then a long gap as CHS largely shied away from the sport, and now the rebirth of recent years after Willie Smith, Elizabeth Bitting, Bamberger, and others revived the program.

 

CHS cross country at state:

 

1975:

Boys — 9th

Bob McClement (23rd) 13:47
Mike Ellsworth (40th) 14:05
Mike Allgire (60th) 14:21
Jeff Fielding (61st) 14:21
Tom Clark (77th) 14:40
Danny Miller (88th) 14:48
Ryan Keefe (107th) 15:23

 

1976:

Boys — 5th

Bob McClement (12th) 13:19
Jeff Fielding (27th) 13:42
Ryan Keefe (37th) 13:54
Mike Allgire (45th) 13:59
Charlie Ellsworth (74th) 14:22
Don Sherman (85th) 14:40
Tom Clark (92nd) 14:47

 

1977:

Boys — 5th

???

 

1981:

Girls — 8th

Kerry McCormick (38th) 22:06
Debbie Logan (41st) 22:16
Terri McLane (48th) 22:30
Kristine Macnab (61st) 23:17
Sharon Brown (79th) 25:11
Karen Reuss (85th) 26:22

 

1982:

Girls — 4th

Natasha Bamberger (8th) 19:08
Kerry McCormick (38th) 21:02
Debbie Logan (40th) 21:09
Kristine Macnab (55th) 22:04
Molly McPherson (66th) 22:53
Becky Seely (77th) 24:24
Kristy Brown (80th) 25:19

 

1983:

Natasha Bamberger (2nd) 18:56.3

 

1984:

Natasha Bamberger (3rd) 19:11

 

1985:

Natasha Bamberger (1st) 19:51

 

2010:

Tyler King (1st) 15:16.9

 

2017:

Danny Conlisk (124th) 18:06.90

 

2019:

Catherine Lhamon (92nd) 21:44.70

 

2021:

Mitchell Hall (58th) 18:44.40

 

Helen Strelow (58th) 24:48.90
Claire Mayne (62nd) 25:06.00

 

2022:

Mitchell Hall (19th) 17:58.90
Carson Field (74th) 19:27.90

 

Girls — 8th

Claire Mayne (42nd) 24:05.30
Helen Strelow (49th) 24:28.20
Cristina McGrath (63rd) 25:57.70
Reagan Callahan (72nd) 28:20.60
Erica McGrath (73rd) 28:21.80

 

2023:

Boys — 10th

Carson Field (44th) 18:23.40
Landon Roberts (63rd) 18:38.10
Ezekiel Allen (83rd) 19:08.40
George Spear (93rd) 19:24.90
Thomas Strelow (106th) 19:34.90
Kenneth Jacobsen (110th) 19:40.60
Axel Marshall (157th) 21:54.60

 

Noelle Western (46th) 23:28.30

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Suddenly he’s the sage veteran

Posted in Volleyball, tagged , , , , on August 16, 2024| Leave a Comment »

Cory Whitmore preaches patience. (Photo by JohnsPhotos.net)

He’s #1 with a spike.

With softball guru Kevin McGranahan’s departure, volleyball wizard Cory Whitmore is now the winningest active coach at Coupeville High School.

Even with the 2020 season cut in half by the pandemic, the court ace boasts an 88-43 mark during his time at CHS, with trips to the state tourney in 2017 and 2023.

Boys’ basketball head man Brad Sherman, who now doubles as the school’s athletic director, is #2 with 70 wins and counting.

After that it drops down to baseball coach Steve Hilborn and girls’ basketball leader Megan Richter, at 28 and 26 respectively.

Boys’ soccer top dog Robert Wood (16) and football signal caller Bennett Richter (9) are the only other active CHS coaches with victories.

McGranahan won 111 games before exiting this summer.

This will be the ninth season at the helm of the Wolf spiker program for Whitmore, who has posted a winning mark in each campaign.

His tally:

2016: 11-6
2017: 13-5
2018: 11-5
2019: 14-5
2020: 6-3
2021: 11-6
2022: 10-6
2023: 12-7

Not counting tournaments, Coupeville is slated to play 14 regular season matches, then hopes to have a long postseason run.

That leaves open a very real possibility Whitmore could crack triple-digit wins this fall, putting a little distance between himself and Sherman before basketball gears back up in the winter.

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Turner earns gridiron promotion

Posted in Football, tagged , , , , on August 15, 2024| Leave a Comment »

Alex Turner rocks an impressive amount of hair last fall. (Photo by JohnsPhotos.net)

Coupeville High School football has a new assistant coach, and he’s a familiar face.

Former Wolf player Alex Turner, who has been working with the program as a volunteer, has been hired to replace Brett Casey, who stepped down at the end of last season to focus on his work as a teacher.

The hire was confirmed Thursday by Coupeville Athletic Director Brad Sherman and will be official once approved by the school board at its next meeting.

CHS gridiron gurus are shuffling their duties, with head coach Bennett Richter moving to the offensive side of the ball, while assistant coach Bobby Carr has taken over the defense.

Turner, who played his senior season for Coupeville after suiting up for South Whidbey for several years, will now coach special teams while continuing to work with position players.

The 2019 CHS grad attended school and played sports in Cow Town as a middle school athlete and high school freshman, before moving South before his sophomore year.

He was an All-Conference lineman for the Falcons, and a successful wrestler.

After returning to Coupeville, Turner was a force on the football field for the Wolves, then qualified for the 1A state tourney as the school’s lone grappler, going 2-2 at Mat Classic XXXI in Tacoma.

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Cernick pursues soccer dream

Posted in soccer, tagged , , , , on August 15, 2024| Leave a Comment »

Chris Cernick is chasing the dream, one drill, one shot, one practice at a time.

The Coupeville High School grad is back with the Snohomish Sky FC, a semi-pro soccer club, and was one of the booters featured in a Facebook post Thursday welcoming new players.

The Sky, who have men’s and women’s teams, participate in multiple leagues and play their home games at the Snohomish Sports Dome.

The club “places a strong emphasis on community engagement and social responsibility,” with their players “embodying strength not just as athletes, but as advocates for positive change.”

Cernick, who has been busy posting soccer videos on TikTok and finetuning his pitch skills, has embraced the Sky lifestyle.

“The training environment is more professional during training,” he said.

“We had a scrimmage against a Sunday league team, and I scored a goal, so things are looking good.”

Cernick, a 2020 grad, played basketball and soccer during his time at Coupeville High School.

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Play young, play now!

Posted in soccer, Tennis, tagged , , , , on August 13, 2024| Leave a Comment »

Adeline Maynes (left) and Mary Western were high school softball sensations while still attending middle school classes. (Bailey Thule photo)

Claim your destiny, young guns.

With the start of a new school year rumbling into sight, thoughts turn to the first days of practice for fall sports.

Coupeville High School offers volleyball, cross country, cheer, football, boys’ and girls’ soccer, and boys’ tennis — if enough athletes turn out.

In the case of soccer and tennis, participation numbers are a concern, and coaches and admins are pushing a push on getting enough players to be able to offer full programs.

Last year low numbers among female booters caused the school’s soccer programs to be compressed into one co-ed one, as the Northwest 2B/1B League allows girls to play on boys’ pitch teams if their school can’t field a full girls program.

That snapped a 20-year-plus run of Wolf girls’ soccer teams at CHS, and coach Kimberly Kisch and Athletic Director Brad Sherman are hopeful to revive the girls’ team as its own thing this time around.

Coupeville boys’ soccer coach Robert Wood is putting his own push on when it comes to building a solid roster and would be thrilled to see a packed field on day #1 of practice, which is set for August 26.

With boys’ tennis, low numbers put the program on hiatus several seasons back, but new coaches Tim Stelling and Starla Seal would like to revive the net squad.

With CHS boasting brand new tennis courts which were just finished, it would be a perfect way to kick things off without having to wait until the Wolf girls take the court next spring.

One thing to keep in mind is that Coupeville, as a 2B school, can use 8th graders on high school teams — varsity or JV — where there is a legitimate need.

So, while middle school students have their own volleyball and cross country programs — and the state doesn’t allow 8th graders to play high school football — you can attend CMS yet play soccer or tennis for CHS this fall.

Multiple Wolves have taken advantage of that recently in sports such as girls’ tennis, softball, baseball, and girls’ basketball.

That includes Tenley Stuurmans, who advanced to the state tourney in tennis this past spring as just an 8th grader.

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