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Posts Tagged ‘football’

We’re #11,915!!

Posted in Football, tagged , , , , on August 7, 2017| Leave a Comment »

   Cameron Toomey-Stout (11) and Co. will seek a second-straight win over South Whidbey when the season kicks off Sept. 1. (John Fisken photo)

Well, it’s a start.

Coming off a 3-7 season (in which it was two plays from being 5-5), the Coupeville High School football team is ranked ahead of 2,631 other teams nationally in a preseason poll.

Of course, before you get super excited, MaxPreps, which is behind these way-too-early-and-based-on-little-of-substance rankings, has 14,546 schools in its poll.

So, the Wolves are looking upwards at a few thousand teams.

Officially, CHS sits #38 in 1A, #234 in Washington state and #11,915 nationally in the rankings.

California juggernaut Mater Dei is #1 in the USA, while Atlanta’s Cross Keys sits dead last at #14,546.

As always, there’s more to the story than just the ranking.

According to an online story I briefly skimmed, Cross Keys is the most culturally diverse school in Georgia, with students from 65 countries who speak 75 different languages.

It’s a school of immigrants, many of whom are playing football (at least the American version) for the first time, which is why at one point the school had won just 16 games across 18 seasons.

But back to Coupeville.

Last season was the first year of a two-year test run on combining the Olympic and Nisqually Leagues for football, with the Wolves finishing 6th out of eight teams.

The MaxPreps “rankings” aren’t based on the views of coaches, writers and fans, but off of previous win-loss records, quality of wins and strength of schedule.

While the 2017 preseason standings are semi-close to being a mirror image of the 2016 results, they do project Charles Wright Academy hurdling Klahowya and Coupeville skipping past Bellevue Christian.

Take it with a grain of salt, but here’s how the Wolves stack up with the 10 schools they’re scheduled to play this season.

PS — Nooksack, La Conner and South Whidbey are non-conference foes, and La Conner is a 2B and not a 1A school. The Braves are ranked #8 in their classification.

School 1A State Nation
Cascade Christian #5 #67 #4,628
Nooksack Valley #12 #104 #6,338
La Conner #141 #8,137
Port Townsend #24 #190 #10,188
Charles Wright #31 #210 #10,890
Klahowya #36 #229 #11,676
COUPEVILLE #38 #234 #11,915
Bellevue Christian #45 #257 #12,729
Vashon Island #49 #286 #13,930
South Whidbey #50 #290 #14,086
Chimacum #51 #292 #14,105

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“I love to give back to all the athletes!!”

Posted in Football, tagged , , , , , on July 24, 2017| Leave a Comment »

   Former Wolf coach Ryan King (right) has been working with Jacob Martin as he prepares to chase his college football dream. (Photo courtesy Martin)

You can take the coach out of the school, but you can’t take the coach out of the game.

For the first time in several years, Ryan King isn’t planning on being on the sidelines this coming school year.

The Coupeville High School grad, a captain on the last Wolf football team to post a winning season in 2005, has worked in recent years as a football and basketball coach for both CHS and CMS.

After finishing the middle school girls hoops season this past winter, King decided to take a break from both that sport and high school football, where he had been an assistant under Tony Maggio, Brett Smedley and Jon Atkins.

But while he’s no longer sporting official Wolf coaching gear, the lure of working with athletes is a hard one to resist, and King is reemerging as a personal coach.

This summer he’s been working with football players such as recent CHS grad Jacob Martin, who will be playing for Feather River College, and incoming Wolf senior Jake Hoagland.

The chance to impact players, and help them succeed, has driven King since he first moved from playing into coaching.

This summer’s one-on-one work has re-lit that fire.

“It’s been great; it’s really brought my love for coaching back to full-force,” he said. “There’s something there that reminds me why I’m doing this.”

King tailors his lessons to each player, based on their playing level and goals, with an emphasis on helping each of them improve their speed, skill set and attitude.

“My goal is to help them become better athletes in every way,” he said. “All athletes need one-on-one work, which they might not be able to get during a team practice, and this gives them that chance. It’s a tremendous opportunity.”

With a player like Martin, who is moving from linebacker to strong safety as he jumps up to the next level, King focuses on drills which will help the player in areas such as deep coverage and run pursuit.

“We want to work on his speed and agility, which he’ll need in college,” King said. “Jacob is a hard worker, and you can see tremendous improvement as we work.”

While football and basketball are his calling cards, King is open to working with athletes in any sport.

“Except tennis, cause I don’t know the game,” he said with a laugh. “I’d just tell them go hit the ball. I know that part!”

And while his clients so far are current or former Wolves, he would welcome working with athletes from Oak Harbor or South Whidbey.

King, who is attending school at Skagit Valley College and working at Sherwin-Williams, plans to be in the coaching biz for many years.

Whether that’s as a personal coach or coming back around to work at the school level, what drives him will remain the same.

“I love to give back to all the athletes, at whatever level and in whatever sport,” King said. “That’s why I do this.”

 

Cost is $10 an hour for middle school athletes and $20 an hour for high school athletes. To contact Ryan King, email him at king2233@msn.com.

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Coaching opportunities abound!!

Posted in Change is in the air, tagged , , , , on July 21, 2017| Leave a Comment »

   Local coaching gigs, such as being a CMS football assistant, are available. (John Fisken photo)

Want to coach? Now’s your time.

There are seven openings currently listed for Coupeville High School or Middle School, four in sports and three in activities.

While there are no varsity high school head coaching positions currently open, there are still a wide range of opportunities if you’re looking to come down from the stands and make an impact on the current generation of Wolves.

Now, there’s a school board meeting set for next Wednesday, July 26, and once the agenda gets released in the next couple of days, it’s possible we’ll find out some of the jobs are about to be filled.

But, as of 1 PM Friday, CHS is still advertising for applicants for an assistant volleyball coach and CMS is looking for an assistant football coach and head coaches for girls basketball and volleyball.

The middle school volleyball position is the newest one to hit, as it was posted today.

The school district is also looking to hire advisors for Science Olympiad and Drama.

Peg Tennant held the drama advisor position for both CHS and CMS for many years, but, following her recent retirement, the jobs are being advertised as separate positions.

To get more info on the job opportunities, pop over to:

https://www.applitrack.com/coupeville/onlineapp/default.aspx?Category=Athletics%2fActivities

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Wolf QB nabs Golden opportunity!!

Posted in Football, tagged , , , , on July 18, 2017| Leave a Comment »

   Cade Golden rambles for yardage during a Coupeville Middle School game. (John Fisken photo)

He’s gold, Jerry, gold.

Or Golden, as it were.

Incoming Coupeville High School freshman QB Cade Golden has spent a chunk of his summer honing his gridiron skills, traveling around the country to football camps.

The most recent trip was to the University of Alabama, where head coach Nick Saban, the brains behind five national title-winning teams, patrolled the field as drills went on around him.

Now, Golden, who is still a month away from his first fall practice with the Wolves, has been tabbed to join other top gunslingers at Northwest 9, a five-day camp for QB’s.

Run by the Rough Diamonds Athletic Foundation, the event is set for July 30-Aug. 3 in Kirkland.

The camp is being offered on an invitation basis to 35 prep quarterbacks who have been plucked from Washington, Oregon and Idaho.

Golden and his fellow competitors will face off in testing, positional drills, 1-on-1 and 7-on-7 events, with the top finishers being chosen as the inaugural “Northwest 9.”

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A Wynn-er all the way!!

Posted in Hall o' Fame, tagged , , , , , , on July 8, 2017| Leave a Comment »

   Gabe Wynn charges off the court and into the Hall o’ Fame. (John Fisken photos)

“I … crushed it.”

Some players make you smile.

Gabe Wynn is one of those.

For the past five years, from the first time I saw him playing 8th grade basketball, on through his graduation this spring, he was one of the most reliably entertaining guys in town.

Didn’t matter the sport — football, tennis, basketball or baseball — Wynn, the son of former OHHS hoops legend Robyn (Seth) Myers, enjoyed every moment he was playing.

It’s that spirit, along with his skills and stats, which lifts him up and today, deposits him at the doorway of the Coupeville Sports Hall o’ Fame.

So let’s swing those doors wide and welcome him to these hallowed digital halls.

After this, while his physical body will be leaving Whidbey for college at some point, his memory will live on, enshrined at the top of the blog under the Legends tab.

Gabe exits holding the school record for most three-point shots made in a basketball game, swishing seven in a ferocious fight with league champ Port Townsend.

He played varsity basketball all four years, making his debut as a raw frosh and exiting as a sage senior, and, along the way, he sparkled at a whole lot of other sports as well.

Wynn was a big hitter on the football field, a fireball on the tennis court and a scrapper on the diamond, willing to sacrifice his body for the good of the team game in and game out.

But it’s basketball where his legacy will be the most enduring.

Over the course of his high school career, Gabe showed a mix of big-time play and quiet, committed hustle.

He’s part of a select group of Wolf hoops stars who scored points at the varsity level in all four of their seasons, and raised his scoring total each season.

Helping lead a painfully young, inexperienced team through his senior campaign, Wynn became a go-to scorer, raining down treys from behind the arc, while retaining an ability to fight for buckets in the paint.

Along with the points, the rebounds and the steals, Gabe set himself apart with his grit and hustle.

And also, and this is a huge thing, with his willingness to get up every time he was sent to the floor, or sent a rival to the floor, and deliver a quick word, or just a butt-slap and a nod, to let the other player know it’s not personal, it’s the game.

Playing against Stevenson, a school which traveled 525 miles, round trip, to fill out its schedule with a non-conference game, Wynn made sure the visitors would never forget him.

Sparking a 64-60 Wolf victory, he exploded his own bench, sending chairs and teammates flying during a wild scramble for a loose ball.

Not content to stop there, he then did a full somersault over a Stevenson player’s shoulder while latched onto a rebound that both players badly wanted.

When Wynn hit the floor, the resulting sound was a mix of a cannon shot and a watermelon hitting the ground after being dropped from a skyscraper.

But he got the jump-ball call he wanted, and staggered back to his feet, checking on the condition of the rival player first before gently massaging his own head.

It was vintage Gabe in every way — not giving up, no matter the cost, but always mindful of those around him.

Off the court, on the court, he was the same quality dude every step of the way.

Stats are important, and Wynn piled up some nice stats, but character matters more, and his was A+ all the way.

Which is why inducting him into the Hall o’ Fame is such an easy call.

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