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Posts Tagged ‘Cole White’

Wolves make a new town cry every night

Posted in Boys Basketball, tagged , , , , on December 12, 2023| Leave a Comment »

Cole White hit a personal milestone Tuesday, while Coupeville cruised to another road win. (Photos by JohnsPhotos.net)

They’re running the gauntlet, and not just surviving, but thriving.

The Coupeville High School varsity boys’ basketball squad has opened with four of five games on the road, and three of those against bigger schools.

And yet, a quarter of the way through the regular season, with their Northwest 2B/1B League opener set for this Friday, Brad Sherman’s squad is a shiny 4-1.

The latest thrill came Tuesday, when the Wolves got points from eight different players — two of whom hit career milestones — as they shredded host Granite Falls 63-52.

Coupeville led from first bucket to last basket against a 1A school which may move up to 2A in the next round of classification musical chairs and pushed that lead out to as much as 23 at one point.

All it took to deflate Granite Falls was one play.

Wolf senior Logan Downes, who passed hardwood immortals Denny Clark and Brad Sherman on the CHS career scoring chart Tuesday, got things started with a bang.

Slicing through a narrow gap in the defense, he went hard to the hoop, knocked down a driving layup while being hammered, then calmly sank the ensuing free throw for a three-point play the hard way.

Very next possession, sophomore Chase Anderson got his own three-point play, minus the whole “being hammered while shooting” part, as he lofted a trey from the parking lot.

Chase Anderson, ready to terrorize defenses everywhere.

Up 6-0 before the hometown fans could even begin to complain about the refs, the Wolves kept gnashing, tearing off chunks of points.

Anderson scored on a layup set up by a superb Downes pass, then the duo flipped the script, with an Anderson steal leading to his older teammate flying coast to coast for a bucket.

Toss in Cole White peppering the net (while not bleeding during a game for possibly the first time this season), and mom Morgan’s Facebook Live fans were busy doing the wave in the comfort of their own homes.

Up 18-9 heading into the second quarter, Sherman unleashed the Battling Bronec Brothers — rebound-hungry twins Hunter and Hurlee — and high-flying Nick Guay, giving the Tiger defense 99 more problems to deal with.

Coupeville pushed the lead out to 27-12 late in the half, then took a brief team-wide nap, allowing Granite to claw back to within 27-21 at the break.

Perhaps the Wolves pounded some caffeine during the halftime sit-down, or maybe Sherman chose his rally speech well.

Or maybe this squad of hardcourt assassins just likes to live dangerously at times.

Whatever the case may be, the Wolves dallied for a minute or two in the third quarter, then looked at each other and said, “Now we unleash Hell.”

Raining down shots from all angles, Coupeville closed the third frame on an 18-5 game-buster of a tear, with Anderson accounting for eight of those points.

The Bronec Bros?

Each of them bounded high to snare a crucial rebound, before promptly sticking the ball right back through the hoop, dropping a one-two haymaker of destruction which deflated whatever remained of Granite’s resistance.

Things threatened to get out of hand in the fourth, with Wolf big men William Davidson and Zane Oldenstadt moving with the grace of (muscular) ballerinas as they notched buckets, sending their fans into hysterics.

Up by 23, Sherman doled out minutes to everyone in the rotation, giving hard-working Timothy Nitta and Mikey Robinett their first on-court action of the season.

Five players firing as one.

Downes finished with a game-high 26, running his career total to 895 points.

He breaks a tie with Denny Clark (869), passes Brad Sherman (874) and is coming up fast on Pete Petrov (917) for 7th on a career scoring chart which stretches across 107 seasons.

Also hitting a personal milestone was White, who notched the 250th point of his high school career on a twisting layup set up by a steal.

Anderson, who’s just getting rolling on his own prep tale, tallied 13 points to back Downes, while White (8), Hunter Bronec (6), and Guay (4) also kept the scorekeeper busy.

Davidson, Oldenstadt, and Hurlee Bronec rounded out the attack with a bucket apiece, while Quinten Simpson-Pilgrim, Ryan Blouin, Robinett, and Nitta all saw floor time for the Wolves.

Tuesday’s win was the start of a busy week for Coupeville, which travels to Friday Harbor this Friday, then pops home for a rare visit Saturday, with South Whidbey coming to Cow Town.

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Lil’ ballers sprout into hoops stars

Posted in Basketball, tagged , , , , , on December 6, 2023| Leave a Comment »

Three of these four kids are current Coupeville hoops stars. The other one? Likely only the FBI knows where he is now. (Photos courtesy Morgan White)

Every basketball journey begins with that first step, and first shot.

Today’s photos take us back a couple years, or a full decade, to capture some of today’s biggest Coupeville stars at the start of their hoops careers.

From Wolf stalwarts like Lyla Stuurmans and Cole White, plus that one kid who possibly vanished into the witness relocation program and was never seen again, this is where it all began.

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Painful night for hoops stars

Posted in Boys Basketball, tagged , , , , , on December 2, 2023| Leave a Comment »

Cole White, seen in a rare moment where a rival player is NOT smacking him in the face. (Jackie Saia photo)

This one hurt. Literally.

The Coupeville High School varsity boys’ basketball team suffered its first defeat of the season Saturday, falling 52-38 to visiting Toledo in a game marred by pain, lopsided officiating, and an offensive attack which sputtered at clutch time.

The good news is the rumble was a non-conference affair, so while the Wolves fall to 2-1 after a busy first week, it doesn’t put a ding in their pursuit of a league crown.

What did have a serious ding put in it was Cole White’s face, and Chase Anderson’s back.

The senior ballhandler, who has now bled in all three of his team’s games, got belted in the mouth by a Toledo elbow and was lost with Coupeville clinging to a one-point lead in the third quarter.

No foul was called on the play — not totally surprising on a night when the refs whistled the Wolves for 25 fouls to just 14 for the visitors — and White’s exit came at a point where he was the game’s leading scorer.

Anderson, who was making his season debut after sitting out the first two games with an injury, got launched into the floor by a pack of Riverhawks earlier in the third quarter.

The springy sophomore later returned to action, but only after first applying a large bag of ice to his back, while momentarily moving like a senior citizen who just lost an intense game of shuffleboard.

Toledo was big, it was physical, and it was a solid test for the Wolves, who responded strongly much of the way.

White and Ryan Blouin knocked down three-balls in the opening minutes, packaged around a slash to the hoop by top scorer Logan Downes as CHS opened with an 8-0 run.

The Wolves eventually got the lead out as far as 17-7 right before the end of the first quarter, with Blouin slapping home a breakaway layup, but the good times hit a pause after that.

With fouls piling up, Coupeville had to sit several key starters for large chunks of the first half, and Toledo took advantage.

An 11-0 surge, starting with two free throws to exit the first, allowed the Riverhawks to take the lead for the first time at 18-17 midway through the second frame.

White and Anderson, before they got bushwhacked, hit buckets to keep things close, but the visitors went in at the half up 25-21.

Coupeville slipped further behind at 29-21, then launched an 11-3 run of its own to knot things at 32-32.

Overcoming the exits of White and Anderson, the Wolves relied on hustle defensive plays from William Davidson and the Battlin’ Bronec Brothers, Hunter and Hurlee, while Downes connected on a three-ball off of an inbounds play.

Toledo slipped a pair of free throws through the net to claim the lead heading into the fourth, but Downes immediately responded with a runner, forging the last tie at 34-34.

That was when the rim turned unforgiving for the Wolves, however, with the visitors tearing off an 18-4 run to pull away.

Two three-point plays, one on a three-ball from the top, and one on a bucket and foul, sealed the deal.

Overall, Toledo hit 13 of 23 free throws, while Coupeville was 5-10.

While fans like to complain about the disparity in fouls, Wolf coach Brad Sherman is quick to shrug that off.

“A few hard-fought games this week,” he said. “Got a couple good wins, just had a tough one tonight.

“Mostly just proud of our boy’s toughness and the way they fight for each other.”

With the next game on the schedule not until Dec. 9, when the Wolves travel to Sultan, the team will have time to fine-tune things and get healthy.

“We will get back at it this week,” Sherman said. “Clean up a few things offensively, keep building on our stuff – and that starts with me.”

Downes paced Coupeville Saturday with 13 points, scoring 11 in the second half while haunted by foul trouble, with White knocking down 11 before being maimed.

Blouin (5), Anderson (4), Hurlee Bronec (3), and Nick Guay (2) also scored, with Zane Oldenstadt, Davidson, Quinten Simpson-Pilgrim, and Hunter Bronec also getting floor time.

Hurlee Bronec’s points, which came on a three-point play the hard way, were his first as a varsity player.

He is the 414th Wolf boy we’ve been able to document scoring in the program’s 107-year history.

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Wolves invade Seattle, bring home a win

Posted in Boys Basketball, tagged , , , , , on November 29, 2023| Leave a Comment »

Whether shooting three-balls or eating burgers, Ryan Blouin is all business. (Photos by JohnsPhotos.net)

Sammy Hagar couldn’t drive 55, but Brad Sherman can win 55.

The former Van Halen lead man had a problem with the speed limit, while the Coupeville High School varsity boys’ basketball coach kept his squad humming along Wednesday night.

Taking control early in Seattle, and never relenting during a physical, chippy battle with The Bush School, the Wolves wrapped up a 42-35 victory.

The non-conference win, its second straight against a 1A school, lifts CHS to 2-0 on the season and hands Sherman his 55th career win.

Now, the prairie roundball sage gets to come home, for a moment at least, to lead his team into battle with Toledo Saturday.

The Riverhawks (1-0) will be playing back-to-back games on an Island-hopping adventure, visiting Friday Harbor a day before arriving in Cow Town for a 4:45 tip.

The Wolves stayed undefeated Wednesday by playing stellar defense, sharing the ball on offense, and not spending all night complaining to the refs like the fairly whiny Blazers.

Maybe they just make ’em tougher in Coupeville.

That was shown early, as Wolf big man William Davidson, who got banged up in warmups, had the coaches slap some tape on there, then told his mentors to go and sit down, cause “Big Sexy” needed to go to work.

Corralling a rebound while fending off three players — one for each arm, and his leg aimed at someone else’s fanny — the prairie legend went right back up for a bucket to tie the game at 2-2.

While Ryan Blouin put the Wolves ahead for good by draining a gorgeous three-ball shortly thereafter, Bush went all soft (and whiny) as soon as Davidson flexed.

Once up, Coupeville took it right at the Blazers, with Logan Downes ripping the ball away and hurtling downcourt for layups on back-to-back plays.

The Wolves were savages on defense, drawing three charging fouls in the first quarter alone and picking off enough passes to make Gary Payton proud.

2-0 and lookin’ for more.

Coupeville’s superior toughness continued to shine brightly in the second quarter, as Cole White got smacked in the face, potentially drawing blood while the three refs combined to call zero fouls on the play.

Shrugging if off, the lanky one left the court for a brief second, then came flying back into battle, a glint of danger in his eyes.

CHS pushed the lead out to 18-4, with Blouin netting a trio of three-balls in the first half, before Bush made its one comeback push.

The hosts missed a ton of shots from close range, skipped a bunch of free throws off the rim, but somehow got hot from behind the three-point line.

That helped Bush close the gap to 21-18 at the half, but there was no break in Coupeville’s swagger.

White drilled his own three-ball to open the third quarter, with Nick Guay sucking in the defense, then alertly kicking the ball out to his fellow senior for the open shot.

From there the Wolves kept the lead around 10 the rest of the game, with the Battlin’ Bronec Brothers (Hunter and Hurlee) crashing the boards and White winning a wild battle for control of the ball while sprawled on the floor.

Up 32-23 heading into the fourth, Coupeville got a game-icing three ball from Downes late, while White rampaged from one side of the court to the other, netting three buckets in the final minutes.

The Wolves put three players in double digits, with Downes (14), Blouin (11), and White (11) combining to score 36 of Coupeville’s 42 points.

Guay chipped in with three, Davidson had his highlight reel bucket, and Hunter Bronec made sweet music while dropping a free throw through the net.

For the second straight game, Downes moves up another rung on the CHS career scoring chart.

His 14 points gives him 823 and pushes him past ’70s legend Corey Cross (811) for 13th on a list which began in 1917.

White also hits a numerical sweet spot, reaching 222 and counting for his run on the hardwood.

Sherman put nine players on the floor in Seattle, with Quinten Simpson-Pilgrim, Hurlee Bronec, and Aiden O’Neill also earning minutes.

It was the varsity basketball debut for O’Neill, who has already earned two letters on the gridiron.

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Frantic finish, welcome win

Posted in Boys Basketball, tagged , , , , , on November 28, 2023| Leave a Comment »

Wolf seniors Quinten Simpson-Pilgrim (left) and Cole White are cold-blooded killers on the hardwood. (Photo by JohnsPhotos.net)

They keep this up, they’re going to turn their coach’s beard white.

We’re only one game into a new season, and already the Coupeville High School varsity boys’ basketball squad has a thriller and a chiller in the book.

Good thing is it turned out alright in the end, as the Wolves frittered away a 14-point lead late at Mount Baker Monday but came up with a series of huge gut-check plays in the waning moments to snatch back a 58-52 win.

Now someone go and check on Brad Sherman’s stubble before CHS gets back on the bus Wednesday to go play The Bush School in Seattle.

Monday’s rumble was controlled by Coupeville most of the way, before things got frantic late.

Down by 14 early in the second half, and still trailing by 10 in the fourth quarter, Mount Baker went on an 11-0 run to claim the lead at 50-49 with a fraction over three minutes to play.

That gave the Mountaineers their first advantage since way back at 10-9 and could have fractured the Wolves.

Except a team which features nine seniors, several of whom won a league title and went to state as sophomores, seems to be pretty battle-tested and not prone to flinching.

Instead, Coupeville responded with a three-minute master class in being the kind of closers Alec Baldwin loved in Glengarry Glen Ross.

While that’s probably not a movie reference many of the current Wolves will get, we can keep it simple and say it means this — be a killer.

And Sherman’s hoops assassins were.

Quinten Simpson-Pilgrim came off the bench, literally pushed onto the floor by his coach, and immediately hauled down a key rebound in the middle of a scrum.

Cole White, the wiry guard who has a huge Facebook following thanks to mom Morgan’s live broadcasts, made off with a steal and drew a HUGE foul on his foe, nimbly crashing hard to the floor while absorbing pain to get the call on an offensive charge.

And then there was Nick Guay, who hadn’t scored, drilling the bottom of the net out on a three-ball from the left corner to immediately put Coupeville back in front at 52-50.

Mount Baker slid one more layup through the net to knot things up, before the Wolves iced them the rest of the way.

Logan Downes went coast to coast for a swooping layup to stake his squad to a lead it wouldn’t relinquish, before Downes and White closed out the game at the line.

The Mountaineers had two charity shots of their own in the waning seconds but loudly clanged both of them off the rim to the delight of the Wolf fan section, which was much more vocal than the locals.

White opened the game, and the season, with a pullup jumper off a pass from William Davidson, then Downes and running mate Ryan Blouin traded buckets as Coupeville surged to a 20-12 lead at the first break.

Blouin was calm, composed, and a weapon of mass destruction.

He fired up a trio of three-balls in the first quarter, and netted all three, with the net barely rippling as each dagger sank through with a happy little sigh.

For his part, Downes worked his magic at the free throw line, accounting for five of his nine points while everyone else was standing still.

Once he got going, he was hard to stop, raining down 13 of Coupeville’s 15 points in the second quarter as the Wolves stretched their lead to 35-23.

Downes banged home his own trio of treys in the second frame, with the third one giving him exactly 800 career points, tying him with noted three-ball terror Hawthorne Wolfe.

The lone second quarter bucket not to come off of Downes fingertips came from Hunter Bronec, who banked in a layup off of a lob from Downes.

White was already busy on the defensive end, drawing an offensive charge to blunt a Baker fastbreak, while Zane Oldenstadt picked the pocket of a fellow big man for a crucial steal.

Coupeville looked like it would send the game into blowout territory after Davidson, channeling Hakeem Olajuwon for one play, snared a rebound and flipped the ball back up and in to kick off the second half.

Up 37-23, the Wolves were cruising in the yacht, only to hit some unexpected, choppy waters,

Mount Baker popped a pair of three-balls, turned up the heat a bit and closed back within four points late in the third quarter.

Well, actually within two, only to have the officials wave off a field goal due to offensive goaltending.

While the Mountaineers weren’t happy to lose the bucket, they barely complained, knowing and accepting that the botched play was so obvious even a pack of high school refs could see it.

White and Downes closed the third with a pair of free throws apiece, packaged around a steal from Simpson-Pilgrim, to push the lead out to 47-39.

A turnaround jumper from White to open the fourth put the lead back into double-digits, and you know where it goes from there.

Downes finished with a game-high 31 points, eventually passing Wolfe to move into 14th on the CHS boys’ basketball career scoring list.

With 809 and counting, he heads to Seattle just a bucket away from tying ’70s star Corey Cross (811) for 13th, with Hunter Smith (847) and Bill Jarrell (855) next up on the list after that.

White rippled the nets for 11 Monday, with Blouin (9), Guay (3), Davidson (2), and Bronec (2) rounding out the offensive attack.

Oldenstadt, Simpson-Pilgrim, and Hurlee Bronec also saw floor time, with Mikey Robinett, Timothy Nitta and Chase Anderson providing vocal support from the bench.

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