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Posts Tagged ‘CHS Wolves’

She’s a Stone cold awards magnet

Posted in Basketball, Wolves in college, tagged , , , , on July 10, 2020| Leave a Comment »

Makana Stone continues to reel in awards. (Photo by JohnsPhotos.net)

She’s still in the game.

Even though Coupeville’s Makana Stone graduated from Whitman College earlier this spring, her name keeps popping up every time an award is announced.

Earlier, the former Wolf was tabbed as the Northwest Conference women’s basketball MVP, won Whitman’s Mignon Borleske Award — the school’s highest athletic honor for a female athlete — and landed on the NWC All-Academic First Team.

Now, Stone has been nominated by Whitman for the big-time NCAA Woman of the Year Award.

She’s one of seven senior student/athletes across all sports honored by NWC officials.

The league’s senior female administrators will pare that list of seven down to one athlete, and announce their pick Tuesday, June 14.

Whether it’s Stone or a fellow athlete, the NWC selection enters the national competition, where the NCAA Woman of the Year selection committee picks a top 30, with 10 athletes apiece from D1, D2, and D3.

The committee then selects a top three for each division, with one athlete eventually emerging as the ultimate winner.

Angela Mercurio, a triple jumper from the University of Nebraska, won the award in 2019, while Canisius College distance runner Mary Beth Riley claimed the inaugural honor back in 1991.

Two basketball players (Rebecca Lobo – University of Connecticut – 1995, and Nkolika Anosike – University of Tennessee – 2008) have previously won the award.

The NCAA Woman of the Year recognizes “graduating female student-athletes who have exhausted their eligibility and distinguished themselves in academics, athletics, service, and leadership throughout their collegiate careers.”

Stone finished her four-year run at Whitman having made the most starts of any female basketball player to ever attend the Walla Walla school.

She and her fellow Blues seniors went to the NCAA tourney three times in four seasons, won a league title, and captured more wins than any group in program history.

When Stone wasn’t flying down the court, slapping layups high off the glass or rejecting rival shots, she was a standout in the classroom and the community.

Coupeville’s progeny was part of the Whitman College mentor program, an ACE representative, and a member of the Whitman Elementary School Science Night Committee.

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Fall sports pushed back, not cancelled yet

Posted in Football, tagged , , , , on July 7, 2020| Leave a Comment »

If Ben Smith and other Wolves get to play this fall, their season will start later than normal. (Photo by JohnsPhotos.net)

Fall prep sports, if they happen in 2020, will begin later than in most previous years.

As the world deals with the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, the Washington Interscholastic Activities Association Executive Board met Tuesday and made that decision.

The board opted to push the start of the high school football season until Saturday, September 5, and the start of practices for all other fall sports until Monday, Sept. 7.

The original start dates were August 19 and 24, respectively.

Coupeville’s first football game, from a schedule put together before the pandemic seized the stage, was originally to be a home game Sept. 4 against Port Townsend.

Now, in a best-case scenario, practices would begin the next day instead, with games not starting until mid to late September.

Football players need to put in 12 practices to be eligible for games, while all other athletes need 10 prior to their first contest.

But this is where a big “BUT…” comes in.

Under current WIAA guidelines, the only sports which can compete in Phase 3 of the state’s reopening plan are “low risk” activities such as tennis and cross country.

To play “moderate risk” sports such as basketball, soccer, and volleyball, a school will have to be in a county in Phase 4 of the four-phase plan, while the WIAA has yet to set a time frame for “high risk” sports (football and wrestling) to start competition.

Island County is currently in Phase 3, but positive cases of COVID-19 have increased in recent weeks.

Also, Washington state officials have frozen the ability for any county to move up a phase, and no county can currently apply for Phase 4.

So, while Tuesday’s announcement is a glimmer of hope, it is only that – a glimmer.

In a press release Tuesday night, the WIAA said the following:

The Board will continue to work with staff, member schools and state agencies to monitor the impact of COVID-19.

The Board plans to make its next statement concerning the start of fall sports on July 22nd following its next scheduled meeting.

In the interim, a committee of Board members, staff, and select WIAA stakeholders will work to create a fall schedule with the adjusted start dates.

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Coupeville harriers keep running

Posted in Cross Country, tagged , , , , on July 5, 2020| Leave a Comment »

Wolf cross country runners put in summer work. (Photos courtesy Elizabeth Bitting)

Cross country endures in the age of COVID-19.

As things are currently shaping up, runners may be the only prep athletes allowed to compete this fall.

But, September’s still a long way off, and much can change.

Either way, neither the coronavirus or Whidbey’s spotty summer weather have slowed down the harriers.

While Coupeville High School looks for a new cross country coach, CMS running guru Elizabeth Bitting is keeping Wolf runners of every age busy flying across the prairie.

In week two of summer work, which just ended, Coupeville had eight runners submit mileage reports, with the group ringing up 86.6 miles.

That gives the Wolves a combined total of 201.4 miles so far.

Things get a new twist starting this week, as Bitting and Co. launch a virtual four-race series.

The Wolf coach sends out a set route to her runners, who then compete on their own and submit their times.

The deadline for race one is Saturday, July 11, with the results announced the next day.

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Behold the power and majesty of Jodi Crimmins

Posted in Not sports? Tough!, tagged , , , , , on July 3, 2020| Leave a Comment »

Jodi Crimmins

Give Jodi Crimmins an hour, and she’ll pump your brain up.

The Coupeville High School grad, once the most-ferocious basketball player to ever pull on a Wolf jersey, has traded flying elbows o’ death for outdoors learnin’.

Now a Garden and Sustainability Teacher on Special Assignment for Oak Harbor Public Schools, Crimmins enters the computer matrix next Saturday, July 11 to give an online talk, “How School Gardens Empower Young People.”

Offered by the Sno-Isle Library system, the talk runs from 9-10 AM on Zoom, and is free to enjoy for all who sign up.

During her days as a Wolf, Crimmins was a rampaging force of nature on the basketball court, ripping down rebounds and thrashing anyone who entered her danger zone.

Off the court, she remains one of the kindest human beings the planet has ever produced.

Jodi, who played basketball under her maiden name of Christensen, married fellow CHS grad Jon Crimmins, and the duo raised two more Wolves, with son Aiden and daughter Maggie also making off with diplomas from their parent’s alma mater.

An alumni of Miriam’s Espresso, Jodi is now a state Science Fellow who “provides training on environmental literacy and sustainability projects, school-wide composting systems, and outdoor learning opportunities linked to the U.S. Department of Education National Green Ribbon Schools program.”

With her help, the Oak Harbor school district earned the 2019 Green Medalist Award from Washington Green Schools.

For info on registering for Crimmins talk, pop over to:

https://sno-isle.libnet.info/event/4442059?_ga=2.268914294.682625211.1593744160-1372806721.1593744160

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Captain Cool embraces first responder role

Posted in A freakin' American hero, tagged , , , , , on June 30, 2020| Leave a Comment »

Coupeville grads CJ Smith (left) and Zane Bundy are both pursuing careers in law enforcement. (Photo courtesy Charlotte Young)

Captain Cool is switching up uniforms.

Coupeville baseball legend CJ Smith, who pitched CHS to its first league title in 25 seasons during his senior campaign in 2016, is the latest former Wolf to become a first responder.

Smith has been hired by the Mercer Island Police Department.

He joins Aaron Trumbull (Central Kitsap Fire and Rescue) and Zane Bundy (Kittitas County Sheriff’s Department) as CHS grads who have made the jump to the front lines in recent months.

Smith began his new job a day after serving as the best man at Bundy’s wedding to fellow Coupeville alum Rebecca Robinson.

Captain Cool arrived on Whidbey with his family midway through his sophomore year of high school, and immediately became one of the best athletes in a Wolf uniform.

Along with younger siblings Hunter and Scout, he approached every sport the way you would expect from the offspring of two coaches.

Dad Chris Smith and mom Charlotte Young raised children who mixed natural talent with a cerebral nature.

The trio never panicked in tense situations on the field or court, had a far greater understanding of rules and strategy than most rivals, and could drop the hammer of the gods when it mattered most.

CJ was a strong football and basketball player for the Wolves, but had his best moments on the baseball diamond.

A pitcher who never betrayed a flicker of doubt on his face when on the mound, he always seemed to pitch the same with a one-run lead as with a 10-run advantage.

That serene calm helped center his teammates, and, sometimes, his coaches, with Smith reaching the mountain top April 29, 2016, when he shut down Port Townsend to clinch the Olympic League crown.

It was the first baseball title for the Wolves since 1991.

After high school graduation, Smith studied Criminal Justice and played baseball for Green River College alongside his younger brother.

Making the jump from being a starting pitcher to a relief ace, CJ stormed out of the bullpen to become Auburn’s answer to Mariano Rivera, earning accolades as a shut-down closer.

While the COVID-19 pandemic cancelled this spring’s baseball season, both Smith brothers were awarded Green River’s Campus Life Leadership Award for “outstanding leadership and achievement.”

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