Wolf QB Joel Walstad waits for the snap from Carson Risner during a summer scrimmage. (John Fisken photos)
Josh Bayne is deadly on both sides of the ball. Here he skies to pick off a Lakeside pass during the scrimmage.
When Matt Shank isn’t busy anchoring the Wolf line, he does a pretty good impersonation of David Caruso on “CSI: Miami.” (Shelli Trumbull photo)
Even with the departure via graduation of 1,000-yard rusher Jake Tumblin, the Coupeville High School football squad has speed to burn in the backfield.
And with a veteran line to run behind, the fleet-footed ball carriers are hoping to break big runs on a regular basis.
Senior Josh Bayne, who busted out a 204-yard rushing performance against Sultan as a junior (he also snagged four passes for 57 yards in that game), is the featured back.
Junior fullback Lathom Kelley, junior wing Wiley Hesselgrave and senior quarterback/kicker Joel Walstad will join Bayne in trying to stuff the ball down opponent’s throats in 2014.
Kelley and Hesselgrave, who also double as two of the Wolf defense’s hardest hitters, are already two-year lettermen, while Walstad is the biggest unknown on the offense.
He showed a nice touch throwing the ball at the JV level, but is a first-year starter at QB after seeing most of his previous varsity playing time at kicker and defensive back.
Walstad and Co. will operate behind a seasoned offensive line headed up by seniors Carson Risner (if he’s healthy), Matt Shank, Aaron Wright and Oscar Liquidano.
That line will miss All-State selection Nick Streubel, now a redshirt freshman at Central Washington University, but has depth and some big bodies.
While the team’s leaders were already largely in place entering the start of practice, several newcomers have thrown their names into the battle for varsity stardom.
That group includes juniors CJ Smith (QB/WR/CB) and Ryan Griggs (WR/CB) and sophomores Clay Reilly (WR/CB) and Dominic Dausey (OL/DL).
Regardless of which players end up where, third-year Wolf coach Tony Maggio is looking for them all to aim for improvement from week to week.
“Of course we want to win a league title, but more than that, we want to compete in all aspects of the game,” Maggio said. “Our goal is to improve in every offensive and defensive category from last year.”
The single biggest change for CHS has nothing to do with the loss or addition of any players.
Instead, it’s a league swap, as the Wolves left their home for the last eight seasons, the 1A/2A Cascade Conference, and have joined Chimacum, Klahowya and Port Townsend in the new 1A Olympic League.
Coupeville will play each league opponent twice (home and away), while filling out the remainder of the regular season schedule with South Whidbey, Sequim and Concrete.
Gone are the days of playing private schools that double as sports factories (ATM, King’s) and large 2A schools (Lakewood, Cedarcrest) with rosters more than twice as big as what the Wolves could scrape together.
Maggio was a strong proponent of the swap, and thinks it will benefit CHS across the board and not just on the gridiron.
“I’m excited,” he said. “Our kids should compete well, in all Coupeville sports. We should see participation increase over the next few years with good showings.”
For their part, his players are fired up, regardless of the opponent.
“All I want this year is to win,” Lathom Kelley said. “Freshman year we won two games, sophomore we won four. This year I want all of them to be wins.
“What I want more than anything, though, is to have every single person on the team to want it as bad as I do.”
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