Stig Carlson (right) had the best finish of any Coupeville runner in the half marathon Sunday during the Whidbey Island Marathon. (Photo courtesy Luke Carlson)
Hundreds upon hundreds of runners descended on Whidbey Island Sunday, but we only truly care about 23 of them.
If we listed all the results from this year’s Whidbey Island Marathon, this story would go on and on and on some more.
But, since the blog is Coupeville Sports, and not, say, The Tallahassee Tattler, we’re only listing those who claimed Cow Town as their residence when they registered.
Makes my life a lot easier…
So, here we go, Coupevillians who enjoy getting up and going for a run at the crack of dawn.
Working for 12+ years at Videoville, I came in contact with a lot of customers.
One of the nicest was Ginny Vracin, who always had a smile and a nice word for me, even when the movie I recommended wasn’t her cup of tea.
Mrs. Vracin, who passed away Mar. 26 at the age of 72, was a wonderful woman and she and her husband, Dr. Wylie Vracin, were always a welcome sight in my video store days.
All four of their children — Emily, Nicholas, Damon and Danielle — have grown up to be talented, outgoing and deeply caring, very much like their parents.
There was a service for Ginny last Friday, but I just wanted to share two things here.
A video tribute, which you can see below, and the words her family offered.
In lieu of flowers, they instead asked, “Please welcome all who cross your path, smile incessantly, frequent garage sales, reuse everything imaginable, volunteer your time and passions and pick up trash on walks in memory of our sweet Ginny.”
It’s a big, wild world of mascots out there. It’s time to think beyond Wolves.
We are the Wolves, but so is everyone else.
Coupeville High School shares a mascot with at least six other Washington state high schools, including one rival we face a lot.
That’s Sequim, the school which produced current CHS Athletic Director Willie Smith.
But if Coupeville were to play Black Hills, Eastlake, Muckleshoot Tribal, South Kitsap or Wapato, it would offer an equal amount of confusion.
And that’s not to mention our former Cascade Conference rival, the Cedarcrest Red Wolves, or the schools — Goldendale, Heritage, Jackson, Morton-White Pass and Tekoa-Rosalia — which celebrate Timberwolves.
Frankly, it’s time to mix things up.
The closest real wolf pack as of June 2016 is halfway across the state, with the vast majority of wolves camped out in upper Eastern Washington these days.
We have no real connection to the animal here on Whidbey, and that’s never going to change, barring a wild and illogical plan being hatched to relocate a pack to Deception Pass State Park to weed out the weaker tourists.
It’s just a mascot we have for no particular reason (much like Oak Harbor’s Wildcats and South Whidbey’s Falcons) and it lumps us into a large gray mass in the middle.
Now would be a great time to change mascots, build a new brand, sell a lot of merchandise and catch everyone’s attention.
How, you ask?
By actually hailing our heritage or surroundings and doing so in a fun manner that would get people talking (and t-shirts flying out the door).
By being unique.
Let’s break from the pack (nudge, nudge…) and join the likes of the Davenport Gorillas, the Quincy Jackrabbits, the Ridgefield Spudders or the Northwest Yeshiva 613s.
And yes, that last one is real. The school is offering a shout-out to the number of commandments in the Torah.
While calling ourselves the Coupeville Head-Loppers (in tribute to Isaac Ebey’s final encounter with the natives) would probably be frowned upon, imagine if we were the Coupeville Clams (Killer Clams?), Sea Captains or Mussels.
For one thing, the new student chant “We are the mighty, mighty Mussels” practically writes itself.
Heck, there are enough cows (“Bow Down to Cow Town”) and Raccoons (“Rabies, Rabies, You’re all Gettin’ Rabies”) in our town that both make more sense than Wolves.
Or, pay tribute to the Puget Sound mosquito fleets (“The Coupeville Mosquitoes drained the life blood out of the Cowboys”).
Choose creatively — don’t wuss out like Port Townsend did when they replaced Redskins with RedHawks, passing on Riptides and Sasquatch — then craft a memorable logo.
No one outside of our immediate fan base is buying Coupeville Wolves merchandise.
The Coupeville Cows, with a cartoon heifer doing the Heisman pose, or the Coupeville Killer Clams (with a saucy cartoon mollusk striking an Arnold Schwarzenegger pose?
We’re talking Biloxi Shuckers or Hartford Yard Goats style money for days.
Translation: 17 random guys in Michigan who couldn’t tell you where Washington state was on a map suddenly all want to wear your gear.
We’re sitting on a financial windfall here, and we just need someone in power brave enough to stand up and say, “I have seen the future … and it’s full of mighty, mighty Mussels, baby!!”
Face masks? What’s a stinkin’ face mask? (Photos courtesy Bob Davies)
Looking spiffy in the short shorts.
The pride of the prairie.
Ready to rumble on the hardwood.
Coupeville’s sports past is out there, waiting to be uncovered.
While there’s no museum dedicated to the exploits of the Wolves, or the many Cow Town athletes who played for city teams, little bits and pieces of history are stuffed into a million attics, basements and photo albums.
The trick is finding them all, and sharing it with new generations.
The photos above come to us from Bob Davies, who father, Howard, played with teams in the late ’20s and early ’30s.
The elder Davies passed away in 1968, when his son was 12, but he, and his compatriots from the early days of Coupeville athletics live on in the photos of the time.
If you have similar photos from any time period, now is the time to do something about them.
If you want to clean out the house, my address is:
David Svien
165 Sherman
Coupeville, WA 98239
If you want to hold on to your items, but would still like to share, snap a pic or scan them and email me at davidsvien@hotmail.com.
We can preserve Coupeville’s athletic history, if we all work together.
