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Strong, Price earn high honors

Posted in awards, tagged CHS Wolves, Danica Strong, Finn Price, Lions Club, Students of the Quarter on March 10, 2026| Leave a Comment »

CHS seniors Finn Price and Danica Strong celebrate their excellence. (Photo courtesy Robin Bernardy)

Winter has been good to them.

Coming off of strong seasons as a basketball player and swimmer, respectively, Wolf seniors Danica Strong and Finn Price are being recognized by the Coupeville Lions Club.

The duo has been tabbed as Students of the Quarter for the third section of the 2025-26 academic year.

The Lions honor two students each quarter, with the winners picked by the school staff.

Founded in 1938, the club annually awards scholarships to top CHS grads, and selects two Wolves as the Students of the Year.

Criteria used in the selection of the top students include community service, effort, character, social relationships, scholarship, ethical behavior, and integrity.

Danica Strong, drillin’ three-balls and takin’ names. (Julie Wheat photo)

Danica Strong, daughter of CHS grad Danette Beckley, plays softball and basketball, while also operating as the manager for the Wolf football team.

She stays busy as a member of Future Farmers of America, ASB, and Skills USA, while volunteering with youth sports, the food bank, and community cleanup.

When she’s not in class, where her favorite subjects are history and English, Strong can be found working part-time jobs at Home Depot and Aqua Gifts.

After graduation this spring, she plans to attend college to major in dental hygiene.

Finn Price ponders his place in the universe. (Photo courtesy Rachel Price)

Finn Price, son of Craig and Rachel Price, qualified for the state swim meet three times, despite CHS not having a pool or an aquatic program.

The water wizard trained and competed with Mukilteo during the regular season, before splitting off on his own each postseason.

Having earned Eagle Scout status, Price also competes as a track athlete for the Wolves and is on the Exec Board and a member of the National Honor Society.

In his limited spare time, he works as a lifeguard and is involved in community service through the Scouts and with various festivals and conservation projects.

Price plans to attend Whitman College, which recruited him as a swimmer, while studying filmmaking.

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Let it rain, all night long

Posted in Girls Basketball, tagged CHS Wolves, Danica Strong, Darrington, girls basketball, Northwest League, Teagan Calkins on January 16, 2026| Leave a Comment »

Arianna Cunningham tiptoes her way to the bucket. (Jackie Saia photo)

Sunny day, rainy night. Sort of.

After a sun-drenched mid-January Friday on the prairie, the Coupeville High School varsity girls’ basketball squad went inside and promptly opened up the heavens, raining down nine three-balls on visiting Darrington.

Peppering the Loggers from every angle, while also playing rock-solid defense, the Wolves romped to a 58-25 win to get to 1-4 in Northwest 2B/1B League play, 4-9 overall.

Coming hot on the heels of a non-conference win Monday at Auburn Adventist Academy, it gives Scout Smith’s hardcourt warriors their first back-to-back wins of the season.

“Shoot like this every game!” (Jackie Saia photo)

The Wolves will try and keep the good times going next week, with a road trip to Concrete Tuesday and a home clash Friday with Orcas Island.

If they come out firing on both ends of the floor like they did Friday, the win streak will only grow.

Coupeville opened the game by forcing a 24-second shot-clock violation on the Loggers first possession, and never looked back, blanking Darrington 15-0 across the first quarter.

Tenley Stuurmans opened the scoring, snagging a rebound and rolling through a mob of defenders to slap the ball back up and in, then the trey explosion began.

Wolf senior sniper Danica Strong, who netted six of her team’s nine three-balls, hit back-to-back longe-range shots, helped set up a jumper for fab frosh Kennedy O’Neill, then looped back around to splash home yet another three-ball.

With sparkplug Arianna Cunningham piling up rebounds and steals, the CHS defense was brutally efficient, with Darrington not scoring until more than a minute into the second quarter.

By that point, the visitors trailed 18-0 after Teagan Calkins opened the frame by knocking down the first of her three treys, and things were just heating up.

Haylee Armstrong and Calkins converted breakaway buckets off of steals, while Strong couldn’t miss from behind the arc, and the Wolves strolled into the halftime break up 29-10.

Just to drive the point home, CHS went on a second 18-0 run, this time to open the third quarter, with the Wolves pushing the lead all the way out to 37 points.

Darrington, fairly scrappy for only having seven active players on its roster, managed to keep Coupeville from triggering the running clock that comes with a 40-point deficit, but not by much.

The Wolves used all 10 of their players in the lopsided win, with everyone contributing.

Late in the game, O’Neill tickled the twines on a pair of picture-perfect jumpers — one set up by a pass from Sydney Van Dyke — while Capri Anter put on offensive rebound back up and in under extreme pressure.

Coupeville’s long-range gunners led the scoring attack, with Strong banking in a game-high 18 points and Calkins hot on her heels with 17 of her own.

O’Neill (6), Armstrong (5), Stuurmans (5), Adeline Maynes (2), Anter (2), Cunningham (2), and Lexis Drake (1) also scored, with Van Dyke crashing to the floor in pursuit of loose balls when she wasn’t setting up her teammates with artful passes.

It was a historical night for Calkins, with “The Red Dragon” moving into the top 30 scorers all-time for a CHS girls’ varsity hoops program which has been going since 1974.

With her performance Friday, she passes Kailey Kellner (339) and Tracy Taylor (350) and sits with 352 points.

No JV game:

Darrington only has one squad, so Alita Blouin’s team didn’t get a chance to play. Instead, they enthusiastically supported their varsity counterparts from the bleachers.

Coupeville’s young guns await their return to the hardwood. (Melanie Wolfe photo)

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Strong scorches nets on birthday

Posted in Girls Basketball, tagged CHS Wolves, Danica Strong, Friday Harbor, girls basketball, Northwest League on January 6, 2026| Leave a Comment »

Danica Strong scored a team-high 13 points Tuesday on her 18th birthday. (Photo courtesy Danette Beckley)

She was born for this.

While celebrating her 18th birthday Tuesday, Coupeville High School senior Danica Strong proved to be the deadliest shooter in a Wolf uniform, raining down a trio of three-balls en route to a team-high 13 points.

The game itself didn’t end the way her fans wanted, as an absolutely brutal 10-minute-plus stretch threw things off after a super-strong start, eventually sending CHS to a 63-48 loss to visiting Friday Harbor.

But, for those who wanted to witness Dakota’s big sis make the nets bounce, they got their money’s worth.

Tuesday’s tilt, the first home game of 2026, was a Jekyll ‘n Hyde affair which drops Coupeville to 0-3 in Northwest 2B/1B League action, 2-8 overall.

When the Wolves were on the rampage, they impressed on both ends of the floor. But when the rim turned unforgiving, it made for a mountain of frustration.

The first quarter was a thing of beauty, to be sure, with Scout Smith’s squad flying from end to end, ripping down rebounds, terrorizing shooters, and knocking down buckets at a dizzying rate.

Haylee Armstrong opened things with a three-ball from the right side — part of a nine-point run by the Wolf junior in the opening frame — and CHS bolted out to a 23-14 lead by the first break.

Everything was dropping for Coupeville early on, whether it was from behind the arc, at the free throw line, or in the paint.

Strong slapped home a layup off of a strong entry pass from Teagan Calkins, while Adeline Maynes, Tenley Stuurmans, and Arianna Cunningham all drilled jumpers on the move, each basket generating a roar from the crowd.

Things slowed down a bit in the second quarter, with Friday Harbor pulling back within 28-27, but the Wolves had an answer, hitting three straight buckets to end the half on a positive note.

Freshman Kennedy O’Neill converted a basket off of another laser pass from Calkins, while Armstrong and Stuurmans provided back-to-back jumpers, and things were looking good.

Until they weren’t.

Coupeville’s shooting touch, which had been so flawless, suddenly went AWOL and stayed that way for quite some time.

Up 34-27 with seconds to go in the second quarter, the Wolves went without a field goal across the entire third frame and several minutes into the fourth, allowing Friday Harbor to crack open the game with a 27-1 tear.

What had been a romp unexpectedly turned into a 54-35 deficit, with the pain not broken until Strong rippled the nets on a three-ball to finally stop the bloodbath.

Coupeville played the final six minutes in much the same way it had handled business in the opening quarter, closing on a 13-9 mini-run, but it was too late to fully recover.

Strong finished with 13 points, while Armstrong (12), Stuurmans (9), Cunningham (5), O’Neill (4), Calkins (3), and Maynes (2) also scored, with Sydney Van Dyke chipping in on the defensive end of the floor.

While it wasn’t their birthdays, two Wolves hit personal career scoring milestones in the game.

Armstrong is the 66th CHS girl since 1974 to crack the 200-point club (she sits at #63 all-time with 205), while Stuurmans, a sophomore, joins the 150-point club with 152 and counting.

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Wolves stay feisty on long road trip

Posted in Girls Basketball, tagged CHS Wolves, Danica Strong, girls basketball, Morton-White Pass, road trip on January 3, 2026| Leave a Comment »

Danica Strong played a stellar defensive game Saturday night. (Julie Wheat photo)

Forget about the third quarter and it was a nail-biter.

Having traveled way down the road Saturday, the Coupeville High School varsity girls’ basketball squad squared off with a very-strong Morton-White Pass team and held its own.

Other than in the third quarter.

The host Timberwolves used a 21-7 surge in that frame to capture a 54-38 non-conference win, getting to 8-3 on the season while dropping a scrappy CHS squad to 2-7.

After playing its last four games on the road, Coupeville returns home Tuesday for a Northwest 2B/1B League brawl with Friday Harbor, and Scout Smith’s road warriors will be ready.

Much of what the Wolves did Saturday worked, from strong team-wide rebounding efforts to a balanced offensive attack.

Trailing just 11-10 at the first break with senior Teagan Calkins having rained down eight points fueled by a pair of three-balls, Coupeville was bidding for the upset.

MWP slightly stretched the margin out to 25-20 at the half, then pulled away with a decisive burst in the third.

Even then, the Wolves fought back, closing the game on an 11-8 run sparked by a rampaging Tenley Stuurmans.

The sophomore sensation finished with a team-high 11 points, while Haylee Armstrong, Coupeville’s top scorer this season, added 10 more to her total.

Calkins (9), Arianna Cunningham (6), and Adeline Maynes (2) rounded out the offense for CHS, with Danica Strong, Kennedy O’Neill, and Lexis Drake also seeing floor time.

Strong anchored Coupeville’s defense, ripping down six rebounds and rejecting three shots, while Calkins also snared six boards.

Armstrong, Cunningham, and Maynes each collected five rebounds apiece as the Wolves fought for every carom.

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Captain, my captain(s)

Posted in Girls Basketball, tagged captains, CHS Wolves, Danica Strong, girls basketball, Teagan Calkins, Tenley Stuurmans on December 1, 2025| Leave a Comment »

Danica Strong drills a jumper. (Photos by JohnsPhotos.net)

Two veterans and a rising star.

As we sit here on the eve of a new basketball season, the Coupeville High School girls’ hoops squad is lighting up social media with the announcement of its captains for the 2025-2026 campaign.

Seniors Danica Strong and Teagan Calkins will join with sophomore Tenley Stuurmans to lead the way for the Wolves, who open play Tuesday night at home against archrival South Whidbey.

The CHS girls tip at 5:15 PM, with the varsity boys set to clash with the Falcons at 7:00.

Teagan Calkins hangs out with her fan club.

Calkins, who led the Wolves in scoring as a junior, starts the new season with 242 career varsity points, just five shy of cracking the top 50 scorers in program history.

Her fellow captains made their CHS varsity hoops debuts last season, with both following in the footsteps of family members.

Strong, who began her high school hardwood career in Whatcom County, is the daughter of Danette Beckley, currently #47 all-time on the Wolf girls’ career scoring chart with 249 points.

Meanwhile Tenley Stuurmans is the younger sister of Lyla Stuurmans (#45 with 257 points), the only girl in school history to play five seasons of varsity basketball.