Nick “The Big Hurt” Streubel — ready to rumble. (John Fisken photo)
You, the average fan, are not the only one that thought the referees who hung out at Coupeville High School basketball games this year were a motley crew.
The players down there in the trenches agree.
“Can’t forget about the reffing, which was God-awful!!,” said Wolf senior Nick Streubel with a laugh.
Frequently whistled for imaginary fouls, as refs assumed the biggest guy on the court had to be the culprit, the six-foot-three, 295-pound post — who is also quite nimble on his feet and not prone to plowing defenders over — often took the brunt of the bad calls.
Basketball, more than any other sport, has suffered from atrocious calls made by possibly blind and incompetent refs the past two seasons.
With Coupeville moving from the 1A/2A Cascade Conference, where they have been viewed as the ugly step child to the slick Everett and Seattle big money schools, to the 1A Olympic League, there could be a change in refs, and reffing styles, next season.
Not that Streubel will be around to benefit, as The Big Hurt will be playing college football at Central Washington University on scholarship by then.
Still, he’ll have his memories, and not just of the reffing. A lot of what he witnessed was far more positive.
“God, this season was crazy! It had its ups and downs, and some wins,” Streubel said. “The highlight of this season for me is beating Lakewood at their house, when in the previous years, they tried to put a hundred points on us, and winning our first conference game in a long time.”
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