Kierra Thayer made a strong debut for Coupeville Middle School Thursday. (Photo courtesy Will Thayer)
Every journey needs a first step.
Thursday afternoon, a day after the Coupeville High School boys basketball team completed a season for the ages with a state tourney rumble in Spokane, the campus back home was fairly quiet.
Unless you were camped out in the middle school gym for the CMS girls hoops opener, which pitted the scrappy Wolves against their archrivals from Langley.
While the visiting Cougars made off with two wins, after MUCH screaming, Coupeville’s young guns, many of whom were making their competitive hoops debut, showed great promise.
“It’ll be great to see where this group is, how much they improve, a few years down the road,” said one Wolf dad, perfectly capturing the mood in a gym crammed with bodies from one end to the other.
How the day played out:
JV:
A team comprised largely of 6th graders will present new coach Kristina Forbes with a lot of teaching moments, as the Wolves look to shape their skills.
While CMS fell 46-5, it played Langley nearly even in the third quarter, and showed flashes of genuine potential throughout the afternoon.
Now, if we could just get the refs in mid-season form … as it took them a solid two minutes and 38 seconds of action to realize Coupeville was playing with six girls on the floor.
Neither guy in the striped shirts counted the players before tipoff, apparently.
After that, the constant roar which hung in the gym air — radiating from two packs of hyped-up middle school girls going nicely berserk — made communication hard.
While the Wolves failed to score in the opening frame, they busted through when Rhylin Price knocked down a second-quarter free throw.
Coupeville’s other buckets came from Adeline Maynes, who hit a jumper in the paint, and Rosie Lay, who flipped the net with a high, arcing shot while being triple-teamed.
Laken Simpson hit the boards hard for the Wolves, while Willow Leedy-Bonifas had fast fingers on defense, poking balls free several times.
Lexis Drake, Ava Lucero, Elyse White, and Chelsi Stevens rounded out the active roster for game one, all getting valuable floor time as they begin their new journey.
Varsity:
Coupeville’s top squad — led by first-year coach Kassie O’Neil, herself a former Wolf hoops sensation — was competitive from start to finish in a 29-14 loss.
Langley, which won the rebounding war most of the game, used second, third, and fourth attempts to build an early lead and then hold on late.
Trailing 8-0, the Wolves broke through thanks to Kierra Thayer, who came roaring off the bench ready to inflict major damage on the Cougars.
After banking home a pair of free throws, with each shot kissing the glass before plopping through the net, the 8th grader rolled hard to the hoop for a bucket to cut the deficit back to 8-4 at the first break.
Unfortunately for CMS, Langley put together its best run in the second frame, using a 10-2 surge to largely put the game on lock-down.
Wolf point guard Tenley Stuurmans, the only 6th grader to start for the varsity, threw down Coupeville’s lone second quarter bucket.
Dodging elbows and hands to the face much of the game, the younger sister of CHS hoops star Lyla Stuurmans showed the same feistiness on defense that is a trademark of her older sibling.
Taking names and plotting revenge for future games, Tenley opened the third quarter with a sprint from end-to-end, converting a turnover into a breakaway bucket.
After that, much of the offense flowed through Thayer, who has height, speed, and an ability to go hard to the hoop with both hands.
Which should intrigue any CHS coaches scouting Wolves who will move up next season.
Another player to watch is 7th grader Haylee Armstrong, who was channeling Mia Littlejohn with her headband and the extra lil’ spicy skip in her step while dribbling.
Like that former Wolf, who tore up the CHS court for three years, her reincarnation has a bit of a rumble, a touch of New Jersey playground lingering in her soul.
Or so I think.
Armstrong has a way to go to reach the same heights Littlejohn did, certainly, but first impressions are very promising.
Thayer paced the Wolves with eight points in her CMS debut, while Stuurmans banked in four and Armstrong tickled the twines on a pair of free throws.
The charity stripe was one place where Coupeville clearly had the advantage, hitting four of five attempts while Langley finished just 1-8.
Brynn Parker, Liza Zustiak, Valeria de Jesus Merino, Capri Anter, Lucero, and Drake also saw floor time for CMS, which plays its next three games on the road.
The Wolves kick off that series of bus trips Tuesday, Mar. 8 with a trek to Northshore Christian Academy.
Coupeville’s next home game is not until Mar. 17, when King’s visits Whidbey.
Special Thanks:
Big props to Wolf players Isabella de Souza Oliveira and Sydney Van Dyke, who were running the camera, taping the game for their coaches.
In between providing frequent vocal support for their teammates and enjoying tasty cupcakes, the duo tracked down info for me, tying together uniform numbers with names.
Since I entered the gym being able to visually ID about five of these still fairly new Wolf athletes, de Souza Oliveira and Van Dyke were a huge help.
It’s appreciated, ladies.
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