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Football coaches, players push for return to play

Posted in Football, tagged Covid-19, football, masks, return to play, West Coast Coaching Alliance on December 10, 2020| Leave a Comment »

Will Coupeville High School football players return to Mickey Clark Field this spring? (David Stern photo)

High school football coaches from three states are pushing hard for government and health department officials to allow athletes to play this spring.

The West Coast Coaching Alliance organized in November, and represents California, Oregon, and Washington.

The group has been using social media to push its fight, with many football players posting videos to sites such as Instagram and Twitter this week.

Players were instructed to “thoughtfully consider the positive benefits of permitting students to participate in educationally based athletics activities,” use a positive tone, and avoid political messaging.

Unlike other protestors, the Alliance is not calling for education-based sports to immediately begin.

But the coaches want to see each state hold to its schedule for bringing back competition.

In Washington state, the current plan calls for traditional winter sports such as basketball to run from February 1 to March 20.

After that, fall sports would go March 15-May 1, with football beginning practices March 8.

Spring sports would cap a reduced 2020-2021 school athletic year, running from April 26 to June 12.

Each season would be seven weeks in length, with regional championship events likely replacing state tournaments.

However, with COVID cases and deaths spiking throughout the state, one of two things would have to happen for high school sports to start-up Feb. 1 in Washington.

Either case rates will have to rapidly fall over the next month-plus, or state officials will have to re-do (and loosen) current guidelines.

Washington Interscholastic Activities Association Executive Director Mick Hoffman pushed for the latter in an op-ed piece — “They’re running out of time to make memories” | Coupeville Sports.

That’s a position favored by the Coaching Alliance, as well.

While acknowledging the reality of the pandemic, it points to other states which have played high school sports — some more successfully than others — as offering a road map the Western states could follow.

Their statement:

West Coast Coaching Alliance Statement (calcoachesassociation.net)

In the meantime, the social media campaign will continue, with coaches and advisors posting videos this Saturday, Dec. 12, followed by family, friends, and neighbors of high school athletes Dec. 19.

An example of the athlete videos:

I am not giving up on my message! #Safe2Play #LetUsPlay #MaskUpWA @Q13FOX @BrandiKruse @IanFurnessSea @RylandSpencer @Seahawks @Damienlewis72 @jjones_74 @DangeRussWilson https://t.co/G9Gzrlpy1G

— Cooper Perez (@CooperPerez77) December 1, 2020

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Once Wolves, always stars

Posted in Football, tagged Alumni, Cade Golden, CHS Wolves, football, Gabe Shaw, sewa on December 3, 2020| Leave a Comment »

Former Wolf Cade Golden with dad Michael.

While Coupeville High School football players are hoping to play a delayed season this spring, two former Wolves just wrapped seasons in other states.

Gabe Shaw, whose family moved to Florida before this school year, was a junior lineman in the Sunshine state.

Meanwhile, Cade Golden, who suited up for Coupeville Middle School back in the day, wrapped up his prep run as a quarterback in Alabama.

Shaw, who was a crucial part of last fall’s CHS gridiron squad, which captured the program’s first winning record since 2005, now plays at Clay High School in Green Cove Springs.

The Blue Devils, who rep a 5A school, began the year 7-0 and finished 9-2, falling in their third playoff game.

Clay opened the postseason with 43-0 and 35-0 wins over Leesburg and Atlantic (Port Orange), respectively, before coming up on the short end of the stick 38-7 to Vanguard last Friday.

Shaw spent his first season in Florida pulling double duty, working as an offensive tackle and defensive end.

During his time in Coupeville, Golden flung the ball around for CMS, often targeting Jake Mitten.

After a move back to his family’s stomping grounds, the QB played at several schools, finishing his run at Thompson High School in Alabaster, Alabama.

A powerhouse in the state, the Warriors won back-to-back 7A state titles during Golden’s junior and senior seasons.

The second of those came courtesy of one of the most stunning comebacks in recent prep history, as seen in this ESPN clip.

Even @ESPN and Scott Van Pelt led off Sports Center tonight with the miracle finish in the @AHSAA_football 7A title game. pic.twitter.com/0vQU9qGdtl

— Pigskin Pete (@pigskinwnsp) December 3, 2020

Golden was the backup to Thompson QB Conner Harrell, who threw for 3,400+ yards and 40 touchdowns this season, against just three interceptions.

The former Wolf completed five of six passes for 57 yards as a senior, tossing a TD against Sparkman.

While Golden might have preferred more playing time, the experience has been invaluable for his development.

“Thank you Thompson HS for an unforgettable last 2 years of HS Football,” the QB wrote on Twitter.

“I’ve learned so much that will help me in my next chapter of life. I truly appreciate and love my teammates and coaches.”

And don’t think Golden is being overlooked by talent scouts at the next level.

The 6-foot-1, 180-pound senior (who also has a 4.0 GPA) has college offers from schools such as LaGrange College, Clarke University, Norwich University, and Sewanee: University of the South.

Coupeville grad Sarah Wright is currently a sophomore softball player at Sewanee.

Golden also has Preferred Walk-On offers from at least two NCAA D-1 schools, Florida State and Tennessee.

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Prep sports pushed back

Posted in Everything changes, tagged Basketball, CHS Wolves, Covid-19, football, WIAA on November 18, 2020| Leave a Comment »

Coupeville gunner Ty Hamilton splashes home a jumper. (Photo by JohnsPhotos.net)

Basketball is not cancelled, just postponed.

Again.

After meeting Tuesday, the Executive Board of the Washington Interscholastic Activities Association announced its latest adjustment to the 2020-2021 athletic schedule.

With COVID-19 cases spiking statewide, and Governor Jay Inslee having recently issued restrictions which include athletes not practicing inside for at least the next four weeks, a December 28 start for basketball became more unlikely.

The WIAA confirmed that, opting to delay the start of hoops season to Feb. 1, 2021.

At that point, it will be almost a year since a Coupeville High School team in any sport has played a game.

The last time a CHS squad faced off with a rival school came Feb. 11, 2020, when the Wolf girls basketball squad lost a home playoff game to Meridian.

The pandemic kicked into high gear shortly afterwards, with spring sports cancelled in 2019, and fall sports postponed in recent months.

The plan is still to have three complete sports seasons for the 2020-2021 school year, if positive COVID-19 case numbers drop.

Under the latest plan, each season will last seven weeks and end with a “regional culminating event” in place of state tournaments.

Traditional winter sports, which for Coupeville is basketball, will start February 1 and end March 20.

After that, traditional fall sports (football, volleyball, cross country, boys tennis, girls and boys soccer) will go from March 15 to May 1.

Football teams, which have to have more practices than other sports before playing, will start March 8.

The traditional spring sports (softball, track and field, baseball, girls tennis) will close the school year, with practices beginning April 26 and the season ending June 12.

Once we hit those start dates, the ability to play will be decided by whether counties are reaching goals set by state health officials.

To play basketball, which, like football, is considered a “high risk” sport, schools have to be in counties that have less than 25 new cases per 100,000 people in a 14-day period, and less than 5% positive cases overall.

Also, 50% of schools in a WIAA region (by classification) must be eligible to participate in league games.

That means at least four of eight schools in the revamped Northwest 1B/2B League will have to be ready to go for basketball to begin.

With another delay to the start of actual play, the WIAA also voted Tuesday to extend the open coaching window to January 23.

That window, which has been extended twice now, allows coaches to work with student/athletes and have practices.

CHS, under the guidance of Athletic Director Willie Smith, has been holding carefully-monitored workouts for most of its sports programs.

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CHS puts some sports practices on hold

Posted in Basketball, Football, tagged CHS Wolves, Covid-19, football, practice, Willie Smith on November 9, 2020| Leave a Comment »

Mickey Clark Field waits. (David Stern photo)

Better safe than sorry.

As the COVID-19 pandemic rolls on, Coupeville High School Athletic Director Willie Smith has been at the forefront of making sure the Wolves remain diligent in how they conduct business in the Age of Coronavirus.

When the Washington Interscholastic Activities Association opened the chance for schools to start workouts for their athletes — there will be no games until at least January — CHS took advantage.

But Smith has also been a hawk in making sure Health Department guidelines are followed by his coaches and athletes every step of the way.

So, with that in mind, he put a temporary hold on some activities starting late last week.

While there have been no positive COVID cases publicly reported among participants in the CHS practices, the start of cold and flu season has everyone looking twice as hard at every wayward sniffle.

Which is why some recent practices for sports such as football have been cancelled.

“Some of our student athletes have colds or cold-like symptoms and as an Athletic Department we have chosen to postpone the optional practices that those students participate in as a precautionary measure,” Smith said.

“As soon as we are able, we will begin offering our optional sports practices once again.”

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Big milestone for best-ever Wolf gridiron squad

Posted in Football, tagged 1990, CHS Wolves, football, Home Alone, Ron Bagby, undefeated on November 2, 2020| Leave a Comment »

Wolf QB Jason McFadyen operates under center during a practice in 1990. (Photo courtesy Carmen McFadyen)

The past is present again.

Next Tuesday – November 10 – marks the 30th anniversary of arguably the second-biggest game in Coupeville High School athletic history.

It’s hard to top the 1970 boys basketball district title game, when the Wolves toppled Darrington in front of 2,000+ fans.

That was the game when Jeff Stone torched the nets for 48 points, without the benefit of the three-point bomb, a single-game CHS mark which hasn’t been matched in 50 years.

Even more importantly, by winning that game, Coupeville beat Oak Harbor and Langley to the promised land, becoming the first Whidbey Island hoops squad to win a district title.

But the anniversary of that titanic hardwood tilt already passed earlier this year, and was talked about back then.

Today, in the time frame when football season would normally be wrapping up, we return to 1990.

Mariah Carey topped the musical charts with Love Takes Time as the morning of Saturday, Nov. 10 dawned.

George H.W. Bush was in the White House, and, at movie theaters, Child’s Play 2 was becoming the third-straight horror thriller to top the box office charts, following hot on the heels of Graveyard Shift and Jacob’s Ladder.

But Chucky’s reign would be a short one, at just one week, as a lil’ juggernaut called Home Alone was days away from release.

America so loved seeing Joe Pesci and Daniel Stern get abused, the film stayed #1 for 12 consecutive weeks, a feat matched by only four other films.

But, while they were home Nov. 10, 1990, the members of the CHS football team were not alone.

Instead, on an especially-gusty day, head coach Ron Bagby and his crew were surrounded by fans, as they took to the turf at Mickey Clark Field to host a WIAA state quarterfinal playoff game.

A win away from a trip to the Tacoma Dome (with a journey to the Kingdome on tap if they made the state final), the ’90 Wolves were, without argument, the most-successful team in program history.

Using a pounding ground attack and a feisty defense, Coupeville was 9-0, and had outscored opponents 258-107.

The Wolves had won a league title, their first on the gridiron since 1974, and the program was making its fourth state playoff appearance, and first at home.

Coupeville had shredded its rivals all year, but the defining win was likely a 10-0 whitewashing of Concrete, which was the reigning powerhouse in the Northwest B League.

Frank Marti capped a 122-yard rushing performance with a one-yard touchdown plunge in the fourth quarter, then Brad Haslam dropped the punctuation mark with a 34-yard field goal.

The stage was set for continued success as the playoffs kicked off, but, ultimately, Coupeville had to accept the role of Child’s Play 2, and not Home Alone, as it lost 34-14 to visiting Rainier.

The Mountaineers would go on to blank Adna 16-0 in the semifinals, before falling 13-3 to Reardan in the state title game.

While it wasn’t the end Coupeville coaches, players, and fans wanted, that 1990 team still towers above any other football squad to wear the red and black.

It’s final 9-1 record remains the best in program history, and, 30 years out, Wolf football has yet to win another league title or return to the state playoffs.

As we roll up on the anniversary of their quarterfinal clash, it would be nice if CHS could do an in-person event to commemorate those players and coaches.

Of course, the ongoing pandemic makes that impossible.

But, we can run through the roll call one more time, and give them an online tribute.

So, 30 years later, still the greatest football team in Coupeville High School history is:

Coaches:

Ron Bagby
Brian O’Hara
Tom Roehl (RIP)
Jon Prater

Manager:

Brent Fitzgerald

Seniors:

Brian Barr
Ben Biskovich
Sean Dillon
Chris Frey
Les Hall
Mark Lester
Frank Marti
Jason McFadyen
Ryan Samplawski
Aaron Williams