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Posts Tagged ‘coaching change’

Wolf JV spiker guru departs

Posted in Volleyball, tagged , , , , on November 15, 2024| Leave a Comment »

Ashley Menges guides CHS volleyball to yet another win. (Photos by JohnsPhotos.net)

Smashley is bound for the Sunshine State.

Coupeville High School is losing its JV volleyball coach, as a family move will send Ashley Menges from Cow Town to Florida.

The former Wolf spiker compiled a 47-18 record across five seasons after being hired in 2020.

Her .723 winning percentage was the best mark posted by any CHS coach during that time, varsity or JV.

A 2019 Coupeville grad, Menges was a two-sport wonder as a youngster, playing volleyball and riding horses in competition.

At the high school level, she was a team captain, helping CHS win back-to-back league titles, compile three straight 10+ win seasons, and qualify for the state tourney in 2017.

Menges enjoys her Senior Night festivities along with running mate Emma Smith.

After graduation, she was inducted into the Coupeville Sports Hall o’ Fame, something she acknowledged with one slightly arched eyebrow.

When she returned to the sideline at her alma mater, Menges was an immediate hit.

As a coach, she fielded winning teams in four of five seasons, but more importantly, prepared players to be successful at the next level.

Menges also worked closely with varsity coach Cory Whitmore, operating as his top assistant during a time of great success for the #1 squad.

Her final moments were spent helping her mentor guide the Wolves to a 4th place finish at the 2B state tourney this week — the first time a CHS volleyball squad earned a state meet trophy.

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Lucero tabbed to lead CHS softball

Posted in Softball, tagged , , , , on October 24, 2024| Leave a Comment »

Aaron Lucero is your new CHS head softball coach. (Photos by JohnsPhotos.net)

The new leader is a familiar face.

Coupeville High School assistant softball coach Aaron Lucero is moving up to claim the top spot with the Wolf diamond program.

He replaces Kevin McGranahan, who stepped down after a nine-year run when he and wife Justine moved off-Island earlier this year.

Lucero’s hire was announced Thursday by CHS Athletic Director Brad Sherman and will be official once approved by the school board.

Lucero chats with Chelsi Stevens during a game last spring.

Since he and wife Jess moved their five children to Coupeville from the sports hot bed of St. Louis, Aaron Lucero has been a key member of the local coaching community.

He worked alongside McGranahan with the Wolf softball program, while also helping lead very-successful Central Whidbey Little League diamond squads.

The owner/financial advisor at Terra Firma Wealth Management, Lucero has also worked extensively with the Coupeville Booster Club and the Community Foundation for Coupeville Public Schools.

He will be stepping into a prime position, with the CHS softball squad capable of returning every player from last year’s team, including daughter Ava, from a team which went 14-5.

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Wolf football coach departs

Posted in Football, tagged , , , , , on April 1, 2022| Leave a Comment »

After four seasons at 2B Coupeville High School, head football coach Marcus Carr is jumping to 4A Inglemoor. (Photos by JohnsPhotos.net)

Coupeville High School is in the market for a new head football coach.

After four seasons at the helm of the Wolf gridiron program, Marcus Carr confirmed Friday he has accepted a similar position with Inglemoor High School in Kenmore.

Carr replaces Steve Hannan, who went 12-27 at the 4A school across the past five seasons.

Inglemoor is a member of KingCo, a 24-team “super league” which features 2A, 3A, and 4A schools.

Carr’s first game as Vikings head coach is set for Sept. 2, with Juanita the opponent.

He makes the jump to 4A football after spending two seasons at 2B Concrete, where he went 13-6 and won a Northwest 2B/1B League title, then four shepherding Coupeville through unsettled times.

When Carr was hired, he was the program’s fifth head coach in a nine-year span.

During his time stalking the sidelines at Coupeville’s Mickey Clark Field, he went 14-17, helped the Wolves transition from 1A to 2B, endured a worldwide pandemic, and guided Coupeville to back-to-back winning seasons in 2019 and 2020.

Carr began his four-year run at CHS with a 28-18 win over Port Townsend and ended it with a 28-13 victory over Evergreen of Seattle.

Playing an independent schedule ahead of the move back to 2B, CHS went 5-4 in 2019, the first winning season for Coupeville football since 2005.

The Wolves followed that up with a 3-2 mark during a pandemic-altered 2020 campaign.

KingCo, here he comes.

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The King has left the oval

Posted in Track, tagged , , , , on December 8, 2021| Leave a Comment »

Randy King celebrates as the Coupeville High School track team wins another title. (Photos by JohnsPhotos.net)

This is the end, my friends.

For really real this time.

First he departed as a teacher, and now longtime Coupeville High School track and field guru Randy King is calling it a career as a coach.

The longest-tenured coach at the school retired as a teacher in April, 2020.

King spent 42 years in the classroom, the final 29 at CHS.

At the time, the school board agenda indicated he was also bringing his coaching career to an end, but, to the joy of many, he agreed to stick around the track oval for a bit longer.

This time his departure is official, however, as CHS Athletic Director Willie Smith confirmed King’s resignation.

King has been involved with the Wolf track program since the mid-2000’s.

His run as coach produced 11 of the 17 individual state meet titles in program history.

Wolf state champs he coached include:

2006 — Jon Chittim (200, 400); Kyle King (3200); boys 4 x 400 (Chris Hutchinson, Chittim, K. King, Steven McDonald)

2007 — K. King (1600, 3200)

2008 — K. King (3200)

2010 — Tyler King (1600, 3200)

2019 — Danny Conlisk (200, 400)

Under Randy King’s tutelage, Coupeville track regularly proved quality could beat quantity, with his teams piling up strong league, district, and state finishes despite often having far fewer athletes than many of its rivals.

The high-water mark for CHS track came in 2006 and 2008, when the Wolf boys finished 4th in the team standings at the state meet.

His girls teams were some of the strongest in school history, and 11 of 18 Wolf girls track school records came on his watch.

On the boys side, 12 of 17 current school records belong to King-coached athletes.

King also led the CHS varsity boys basketball program for 20 seasons, ruling the sidelines between 1991-2011.

He led both his 1998 and 2002 squads to Northwest League titles, coaching four of the top 10 scorers in program history.

Mike Bagby (tied for #1 with 1,137 points), Pete Petrov (#7 with 917), current Wolf boys hoops coach Brad Sherman (#8 with 874), and Arik Garthwaite (#10 with 867) all called King their coach.

King also pulled a stint as a CHS assistant football coach, and, later in his career, led middle school programs for both boys basketball and volleyball.

The spikers who he taught as young women went on to provide the core of the most-recent CHS volleyball squad to earn a trip to state.

“It’s good to be the king, baby!”

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CHS cross country loses coach

Posted in Cross Country, tagged , , , , on May 24, 2020| Leave a Comment »

Coupeville High School cross country coach Luke Samford, seen here with Catherine Lhamon, has moved to Kansas. (Helene Lhamon photo)

Add another job opening to the list.

Coupeville High School will need to hire two new head coaches before the fall sports season begins – if the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic allows athletics to restart.

Wolf boys soccer coach Kyle Nelson has already stepped down from his position, and now CHS cross country guru Luke Samford is making a similar move.

Samford, who is also an assistant track and field coach, confirmed he has moved to Kansas with wife Hayley.

The decision was based on their jobs, and the cost of living difference between the states.

A former NCAA D-I athlete, Samford coached college runners for seven years before moving to Whidbey Island.

In his one season at the helm of the recently-revived CHS harrier team, he radically increased the number of participants in the program, and helped guide Wolf junior Catherine Lhamon to the state meet.

After much success through the early ’90s, Coupeville shut down its cross country program and it went dormant for two decades.

While a handful of Wolf runners such as Tyler King and Danny Conlisk trained and traveled with other schools over the years, with King winning a state title in 2010, the sport didn’t fully return to the school until 2018.

Natasha Bamberger, who won a state cross country title for CHS in 1985, coached the Wolves in their first season back, then stepped aside to focus on her real-world job.

Now, after Samford’s departure, Lhamon and Co. will have their third head coach in as many years.

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