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Posts Tagged ‘Freeman’

Season like no other, team like no other

Posted in Volleyball, tagged , , , , , on November 14, 2024| Leave a Comment »

Seniors (l to r) Jada Heaton, Lyla Stuurmans, and Mia Farris helped lead Coupeville volleyball to its best season in program history. (Jennifer Heaton photo)

They outplayed their seeding and sent a message across the state.

Listen up and hear it well — the young women in red and black have some serious bite.

Capping a season for the ages, a Coupeville High School volleyball squad led by seven seniors is returning from Yakima carrying the first state tournament trophy in program history.

Thursday didn’t go quite as well as Wednesday, with two hard-fought losses against highly ranked foes following two dynamic wins.

But you can’t dim the glow on the 2024 campaign, when the Wolves romped to an 18-2 record, a Northwest 2B/1B League crown, a Bi-District title, and a 4th place finish at the 2B state championships.

One team, one dream, start to finish. (Jennifer Marzocca photo)

And while seniors Taylor Brotemarkle, Katie Marti, Jada Heaton, Chloe Marzocca, Mia Farris, Madison McMillan, and Lyla Stuurmans depart, their legacies will live large through the coming years.

Meanwhile, when CHS coach Cory Whitmore returns next year for his tenth season at the helm of the program, he’ll have plenty of firepower to build around.

Junior Teagan Calkins led CHS in kills this season, while freshman Tenley Stuurmans emerged in the second half of the year as a player on the cusp of potential stardom.

Toss in a band of other Wolf spikers who led the JV team to a 12-1 mark — many of whom were at the SunDome, either in uniform or cheering in street clothes — and the future is as bright as the present.

Making its seventh trip to state, and third under Whitmore, the Coupeville volleyball program exceeded all expectations.

How Day #2 played out for the fifth-seeded Wolves:

Madison McMillan drops the hammer. (Photo by JohnsPhotos.net)

 

Adna:

Coupeville held off five set points, including four in one frame, but couldn’t topple the top-ranked team in 2B, falling 25-14, 26-24, 25-17.

It was a throwdown between the last two undefeated teams in the field, with Adna in the semifinals for the first time since 2011, and the Wolves exploring completely new territory.

In the end, the precision-hitting, powerful Pirates were just a little too much, and they advanced to the title bout for the first time in their program’s history.

Things started 45 minutes late, thanks to a slow-moving five-set thriller occupying their court, before the Wolves bolted out to a quick 2-1 lead.

Things turned sharply after that, with Adna seizing control and pushing its lead out to seven points.

Big-time kills from Calkins and Lyla Stuurmans provided hope, and the Wolves staved off a set point, but ultimately couldn’t get all the way back.

The second frame featured strong work from Heaton at the net and Tenley Stuurmans at the service line, but Coupeville once again was forced to play from behind.

Down 24-20, the Wolves caught fire behind Calkins, forcing a 24-24 tie after dodging one bullet after another.

While the effort was valiant, Adna had an answer, ending the set with back-to-back points to push CHS into a 2-0 deficit for only the second time this season.

The first time that happened, the Wolves rallied for the 3-2 reverse sweep in a non-conference win at Okanogan during a mid-season Eastern Washington road trip.

This time, there was no comeback.

Farris uncorked a series of potent kills to keep the Pirates jumpy, but Adna held on for the win, setting off a floor-storming celebration.

Katie Marti directs traffic. (Photo by JohnsPhotos.net)

 

Freeman:

After a lunch break, the Wolves returned to the floor to face a team which features three front-line players who stand between six-foot and six-three.

The Scotties, seeded #3, lost only to #2 Manson — once during the regular season and again Thursday in the state semifinals — and to undefeated 1A powerhouse Chelan.

Controlling the match from start to finish, Freeman jumped out to a 9-1 lead in the first set and made life tough for the Wolves.

While the opening frame vanished in a puff of smoke, Coupeville put up a strong fight in the latter two sets, eventually holding off a set point and two match points before things reached an end.

Farris did her best to blunt the power of Freeman’s tree toppers and racked up a few more kills in her final moments on the court.

Trailing 24-17, CHS held fast, earning its final two points of the season on a side out and a service point from Marzocca.

Coupeville’s seniors with their trophy. (Jennifer Marzocca photo)

 

League rivals go different routes:

Two of Coupeville’s Northwest 2B/1B League mates also advanced to state, but one had a better trip to Yakima.

Darrington, while coming up just short of a trophy, survived through three matches in the 1B tourney.

The Loggers opened their two-day odyssey by waxing Willapa Valley 25-10, 25-15, 25-10, before being edged by Walla Walla Valley Academy in the final match (very late) Wednesday night.

Darrington came up just short in that one, falling 27-25, 25-14, 16-25, 28-30, 15-13 to narrowly miss a trip to the semifinals.

Returning to the floor early Thursday, the Loggers pushed Northwest Christian (Lacey) to four sets, before dropping an elimination bout 25-22, 25-21, 19-25, 25-14.

Meanwhile, six-time state champ La Conner went two and out on Day #1 of the 2B tourney.

The Braves fell 25-19, 25-15, 25-18 to Adna in their opener, before being eliminated 25-8, 25-12, 25-23 by Tri-Cities Prep.

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Suck it up, buttercup!!

Posted in Football, Ranting and Raving, tagged , , , on June 15, 2014| 1 Comment »

New helmets are nice, but they'll look nicer if you're hoisting them skywards while standing on the field at the Tacoma Dome.

New helmets are nice, but they’ll look nicer if you’re hoisting them skywards while standing on the field at the Tacoma Dome.

The defending 1A state football champs have only 11 more students than Coupeville.

Numbers don’t win championships. Desire does.

In the 2014-2016 counts, the Wolves represent the smallest 1A school in the state (though 12 of the 64 schools which will play at the 1A level actually have fewer than Coupeville’s 225 students, but have opted to forgo being a B school to play up instead).

Freeman, which rolled Mount Baker 31-13 in the Tacoma Dome, capping a 13-0 season, has 236 students.

Unless those 11 students are all 6-foot-3, 300-pound linemen, Coupeville is basically on an even playing field with the state champs.

Except…

When there is talk of canceling summer practices because of a lack of turnout, you realize the gap between Coupeville and Freeman is far bigger than a few bodies.

I will guarantee you that the players at Freeman, like those at King’s, like those at national 3A power Bellevue, are on the field, in the weight room, as much as is allowed.

At a certain point, as a player, you have to ask yourself what you want.

Do you want to coast into the season, pick up a few wins, lose a few games you could win, and write off the season as something you did, when you had the time?

Or do you really want to take advantage of moving into a new league where you won’t be playing 2A schools and big-money private academies any more?

Do you want to take advantage of the fact you have moved from District 1, where King’s and the Bellingham schools sit, to District 3, where Coupeville is now one of just eight teams?

Do you want to do something more than just put the uniform on two weeks before school starts and go through the motions?

Do you have what it takes down deep to live up to the players who wore those uniforms in the past? Can you play like Brad Sherman, compete like Virgil Roehl, bust heads like Murph Cross?

Well no, you probably can’t bust heads like Murph Cross, cause everyone is a pantywaist now and you’d get ejected from the game for playing ultra-old school, but you get the point.

Do you care? Really care?

Are you content to end your football career in the fog on the Cow Town field in October, or do you want to lift your helmets while standing on the turf in the Tacoma Dome in November?

You, the Wolf players, have the power. Not the coaches, not the fans, not idiot writers.

You, and you alone, will decide how far you want to go. How much effort you will put in. How much time you will commit.

If you are willing to work, to fight, to grab underclassmen and drive them to the weight room, to refuse to accept anything less than a full commitment from every man who wants to put on a Wolf uniform, you can surprise a lot of people.

They are NOT more talented in Freeman. They are NOT growing some rare strain of genetically-gifted athletic gods in Rockford.

But they are working their asses off while you sit on yours.

They care in Freeman, which is why they have a state title banner hanging at their school.

There are no championship banners hanging in the CHS gym, and, right now, it’s fairly easy to see why.

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