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Dang, Mallory!

Posted in Girls Soccer, Hall o' Fame, Track, tagged , , , , on April 4, 2020| Leave a Comment »

Mallory Kortuem commands the soccer pitch. (Photos by JohnsPhotos.net)

She sort of snuck up on me.

As her high school career has played out, Mallory Kortuem has been the quiet assassin, piling up records and awards while seeming content to reflect the spotlight onto her teammates.

The Coupeville High School senior, who should be enjoying one final trip around the track oval this spring, has never been one to scream and beat her chest in public about her accomplishments.

But dang, Mallory.

If you step back and look at the entire run of her prep days, it’s more than just merely impressive.

The youngest of Alex and Heather Kortuem’s children is legitimately one of the best athletes to ever pull on a Wolf uniform, ever. End of story.

That Mallory has always seemed like a super-quality person away from the pitch and oval as well, just makes it easier for those of up in the stands to hail her as one of the greats.

Momentarily at rest, Mallory hangs out with Sherry Roberts (left) and mom Heather Kortuem.

So, without further ado, we welcome her today to the Coupeville Sports Hall o’ Fame.

It’s not quite the same as getting to stand on the podium in Cheney in late May, hailed as a state champ, a path she seemed destined for before the coronavirus pandemic split the world into a billion pieces.

But, I hope it means something to her, at least a little.

As she goes forward into the world, ready to reach new goals and captivate her ever-growing legion of fans, Mallory can know that here on the blog she’ll live on in local lore, forever a prairie phenom.

Pop open the Legends tab up at the top of the page, and you’ll find her, a blur of speed and toughness, momentarily at rest.

Mallory has been at the forefront of two Wolf programs during her days at CHS, and it never seems like there was a moment where she was a raw rookie.

She always seemed like a grizzled vet, her cerebral skills matching her physical gifts, whether she was a new-to-the-scene freshman or an about-to-depart senior.

Put her on the soccer pitch and she could control a game from any position.

She had a deft touch with the ball and a wicked leg, and showed off an uncanny ability to spin around defenders and leave goalies grasping at air when she got to play up front.

If Wolf coaches had used Mallory in a traditional scoring position her entire career, I have little doubt she would be up at the top of the all-time CHS scoring list with players like Mia and Kalia Littlejohn and Genna Wright.

Instead, she spent a lot of her playing days on the backside of the field, using her speed to corral breakaways and her toughness to knock potential scorers off the ball.

As a defender, Mallory took no crap from nobody.

Kortuem fights off a rival.

I’m sure there were opposing players who looked at her slender build and thought they could bully her.

They quickly changed their minds.

Mallory not only wasn’t afraid of getting in close and scrapping with rivals, she seemed to derive a considerable joy out of beatin’ the snot out of them, then leaving them eating the grass as she sprinted away with the soccer ball.

Dirty? Never. Willing to back down? Let’s capitalize that NEVER.

Upholding the tradition set down by scrappy Wolf ballhawks like Micky “Two Fists” LeVine, there was no bend, no break in Mallory’s game.

Her team might win. It might lose. But she was going to make sure you remembered her long after the final score faded into memory.

But, as good as she was on the pitch, Mallory has made an even-bigger splash in the world of track and field.

Entering what was supposed to be her senior season, she had already splashed her name all across the school’s record board in the CHS gym.

Mallory currently holds four school records, tying her with fellow Hall o’ Famer Maya Toomey-Stout for top honors.

Speed demons Kortuem and Maya Toomey-Stout. (Dawnelle Conlisk photo)

And those records have come in a variety of events, from the 400 and pole vault to running legs on super-quick 4 x 100 and 4 x 200 relay units.

In the pole vault, her top mark of eight feet, 10 inches is almost two-and-a-half feet above what any other Wolf girl has ever reached.

Meanwhile, in the 400, an event in which Mallory finished 2nd at state as a junior, she passed Makana Stone, proving I was completely, 1000% wrong when I thought that record would live for decades.

With four state meet medals entering her senior campaign, Miss Kortuem had a chance, pre-pandemic, to finish as one of the most-decorated CHS female track stars of all time.

But even if spring sports don’t start back up, and she doesn’t get the chance to chase Lindsey Roberts (eight medals), Stone (7), and Natasha Bamberger (6), it will take absolutely none of the luster off of her brilliant run.

You can only control what you can control, and when that control was left in Mallory’s hands, she never failed to impress.

One of the best, ever. (Photo by JohnsPhotos.net)

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Killer Kassie classes up the joint

Posted in Basketball, Hall o' Fame, tagged , , , , on March 15, 2020| Leave a Comment »

Kassie (Lawson) O’Neil, forever hitting nothing but net, on and off the court.

Kassie (second from left, back row), during her senior season.

Nothing but net.

Just give her the dang ball.

Kassie (Lawson) O’Neil was one of the deadliest scorers Coupeville High School basketball has ever seen.

It wasn’t always how many points she scored, though, but when she scored them, and how she scored them, that ensures her place in Wolf lore.

Kassie was a Killer, and you better spell that with a capitol K as you put some respect on her name.

Her sisters Kayla and Katie were hoops stars as well, and lil’ bro Kurtis a pretty darn good baseball player, but today the focus is all on the woman who just turned 29 a few days ago.

Now the mom of four young boys (all primed to make their names in a Wolf uniform as well, if local fans are lucky), Kassie is an extraordinary woman.

Today we swing open the doors of the Coupeville Sports Hall o’ Fame, and welcome her into our digital hideaway, an honor long overdue.

After this, you can pop up to the top of the blog, look under the Legends tab, and bingo, there she will be.

Not that she needed me to tell you she’s a legend, cause her game did all the talking.

One of the rare Wolves to net points at the varsity level in all four seasons, Kassie currently sits at #61 on the all-time CHS girls scoring chart (out of 229 players).

But that doesn’t tell the full tale.

Kassie played alongside some of the best scorers the Wolf program has seen, from Megan Smith (#4 all-time) to Shawna West and Ashley Manker, with both of her sisters tossed in to the bucket chase as well.

So Killer Kassie picked her moments, then delivered the daggers.

Two nights stand out the most, one in her junior season, the other when she was a senior.

On the night of January 18, 2008, Kassie and Co. welcomed private school juggernaut King’s to town, with everything on the line.

The Wolves and Knights were battling for the #1 playoff seed out of the Cascade Conference, and the visitors held a two-point lead with mere seconds to play in overtime.

Just give her the dang ball.

Thus setting up one of the biggest buzzer-beaters in school history — along with Ian Smith making all of South Whidbey weep sweet, sweet tears in 2011, and Steve Whitney shocking King’s in ’79.

Pulling up out in the parking lot, long before Steph Curry and Damian Lillard made it the popular thing to do, Killer Kassie banked home a game-winning three-ball.

Cue a 33-32 Wolf win. Cue an eruption in the CHS gym. Cue the birth of a legend.

While that first chapter happened in a flash, the second night Kassie claimed the spotlight, she did so for an extended period of time.

Facing off with Granite Falls late in her senior season (February 3, 2009), she went off for 13 of her team-high 19 points in the crucible of the fourth quarter.

Just give her the dang ball.

The Wolves entered the fourth quarter trailing 29-28, and eventually lost 51-49 when the visiting Tigers slipped in a game-winner at the buzzer.

Which doesn’t take anything away from Kassie’s torrid fourth quarter run.

She bounced off the bench with a gleam in her eye, nailed a three-ball to kick things off, then softly whispered, “Oh, there’s more where that came from, baby!”

At least that’s how I’d like to believe it went down.

I wasn’t there, but neither were you, very likely, so just go with it.

Either way, Kassie was locked-in over the game’s final eight minutes, following up her trey with a pair of buckets, a free throw, another bucket, then a final three-ball.

That long-range dagger, which rattled home with just 18 ticks left on the clock, knotted the game at 49.

Megan Smith, Mandi Murdy, Jesse Caselden, and Katie Smith also came up big with fourth-quarter buckets, but it was Killer Kassie who was unstoppable.

And here’s a fun fact.

Megan Smith, who Kassie shared the court with for three seasons, torched the nets for 1,042 points in her CHS career.

That included singing Friday Harbor for 30 while narrowly missing the program’s single-game scoring record of 32, set by Judy Marti in 1983.

Meanwhile, South Whidbey’s Lindsey Newman tormented Coupeville during the Kassie and Megan years, dropping 39 and 33 on the Wolves.

And yet…

Neither Megan Smith, in her four-year run, or Newman, in her meetings with CHS, ever went higher than 12 points in a single quarter.

Cause you have to be Killer Kassie to go out there and slap down a 13, while making it your lucky, and not unlucky, number.

Just give her the dang ball.

High school was big for Kassie, but it wasn’t even close to being her ceiling.

She went on to play some college ball, before shifting gears and becoming a mom and wife, a strong, accomplished woman, like her sisters, her mother DeeAnna, and her prairie ancestors, who include a town’s worth of Sherman’s.

Seeing the growth and development of her boys from afar, thanks to social media, is a testament to all she has accomplished, and all that is to come.

Pick your reason, and she’s a legend, worthy of all the praise and admiration.

Killer Kassie, forever hitting nothing but net, on the court and off.

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A heart as big as the prairie

Posted in Hall o' Fame, tagged , , , , , on February 27, 2020| Leave a Comment »

Scout Smith, beatin’ the crud out of your best pitches. (Photos by JohnsPhotos.net)

A coach’s daughter, who took the lessons delivered by parents Charlotte and Chris to heart.

My respect for her grows each time I see her play.

Scout Smith is not the tallest, the strongest, the fastest, or the most physically-gifted athlete I have ever written about, and I mean her no disrespect when I say that.

But she doesn’t need to be.

I have watched Scout play volleyball, basketball, and softball for six years now, through middle school days and almost all of her high school experience, and I know this for a stone-cold fact — no one can match her heart.

She is the daughter of coaches, and she paid attention when parents Chris and Charlotte imparted lessons on the field and the court, in the dugouts and on drives home.

Scout is one of the smartest athletes I have witnessed in person, and like older brothers CJ and Hunter, she combines her big brain with a resilient spirit.

She does not quit. Ever.

She will find a way to beat you, and, if that way doesn’t work, she will lose with grace.

It will hurt, it will drive her on to greater heights, but she will honor her opponents and the game itself. Always.

Epic black eye developing after slamming face-first into the volleyball court in pursuit of a ball, she will quietly tell her dad to sit his fanny back down on the bench, because she’s not coming out of the game with her season, and prep career, on the line.

And she will dance around the bases, feet barely touching the bags as she floats through the air, after knifing Cedar Park Christian with a walk-off grand-slam home run which jumped over the fence like a laser.

She deeply loves her brothers, of that I have no doubt, and she has spent her days chasing them athletically.

In that moment, though, she does something neither one of them accomplished during their own halcyon high school careers.

And she will never, ever, EVERRRRRR let them forget that.

Under the deceptively calm exterior Scout projects to the world, burns a heart which is like 10 million active volcanoes exploding all at once.

It’s why she’s helped take Wolf volleyball and softball teams to state, and it’s why she will live large in the memories of Coupeville fans for a very long time after she leaves the prairie.

The youngest Smith, who still has one final softball season left to play before graduation, may go on to play college sports like her brothers, who are in their second year as baseball stars at Green River College.

I hope she does.

I hope Scout finds the right fit, at the right school, at whatever level, and in whichever of her sports brings her the greatest joy.

If she does, she will make a school, and a coach, or coaches (who says she can’t play more than one sport?) very happy.

But I also hope she makes the jump to collegiate sports only if it’s something SHE truly wants.

Whatever she does, wherever she goes, whatever path she follows, whether it’s sports-related or not, Scout will knock it out of the park.

She’s too smart, and has too much heart, and is too committed, to not be excellent.

There was a moment when I, like all the other Wolf fans, had no clue she even existed.

Then, one day, she and her family made the move to Coupeville, and now Scout is so interwoven into our world, it seems inconceivable there was ever a moment when she wasn’t here.

I hope she knows how deeply respected she is, by coaches, fellow athletes — both teammates and rivals — and those who have watched her rise and take her rightful place among the best to ever pull on a CHS uniform.

Scout is the one you hope all young athletes model themselves on as they follow their own path to success.

Be graceful, be kind, play with a burning intensity, let your actions speak louder than your words, work your tail off, be there, front and center, every game, every practice, when we see you, and when we don’t.

Let your heart be a volcano.

Do that, and like Scout, it will carry you far.

For Miss Smith, today it carries her into the Coupeville Sports Hall o’ Fame, where she joins her brothers, three truly superb human beings, on and off the various courts and fields they have owned.

After this, you’ll find the trio up at the top of the blog, under the Legends tab.

How did Scout get there? She earned it, every step of the way.

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Twice the talent, twice the grace

Posted in Hall o' Fame, tagged , , , , , , on February 26, 2020| 2 Comments »

Maya Toomey-Stout unleashes the fury. (Brian Vick photo)

Sean Toomey-Stout rumbles. (Photos by JohnsPhotos.net)

The wonder twins and their wonder moms — Beth Stout (left) and Lisa Toomey.

They came into the world together, born to be stars.

When we have the conversation about the best athletes I have written about, not just today, but all-time, Maya and Sean Toomey-Stout are among the first names I would raise.

The wonder twins, “The Gazelle” and “The Torpedo,” they are up there with Makana Stone, Hunter Smith, Madeline Strasburg, Nick Streubel, Breeanna Messner, and a few others.

So, while I normally wait until after graduation to induct Wolf athletes into the Coupeville Sports Hall o’ Fame, what’s going to change in 3-4 months?

The Toomey-Stout’s are golden now, and they’ll be golden in June, so why prolong the inevitable?

Throw open the doors to our hallowed digital world o’ wonder, and let Maya and Sean join older brother Cameron in the Hall.

It’s time.

From this moment on, when you look at the Legends tab at the top of the blog, you’ll see all three Toomey-Stout siblings in residence.

While both Maya and Sean still have a final track and field season to go, a swan song hopefully full of record-busting and state title-chasing, the duo have already established themselves as the gold standard.

As athletes, and as people.

Moms Beth Stout and Lisa Toomey have raised three of the finest kids to grace Coupeville, and I would regard them that way even if none of the trio had been athletes.

But dang, they have been, and their impact is undeniable.

Maya’s eye-popping power on the volleyball court, Sean’s electric, game-changing plays on the football field and basketball court, their complete and utter command of any event they compete in during track season.

And that’s just the start.

Maya was a very good hoops player herself until she let the game go to focus on volleyball, and her skills as a base thief during her little league softball days were truly uncanny.

I really believe she and her twin brother would be among the best to ever wear a CHS uniform in any sport.

Toss a tennis racket their way, say, or a soccer ball, give them a couple of practices, and be amazed.

Great genes help, yes, but what sets Sean and Maya apart from almost everyone else on their campus is their work ethic.

To find another recent Wolf athlete who worked as hard, in season and out, as the Toomey-Stout twins, you’d have to look around until you spotted … Camtastic.

Cameron set the pace for the family, and his younger siblings have lived up to his legacy.

Scan the photos from off-season training sessions in the CHS weight room and the same three faces pop up in 99.2% of the photos.

Other Wolf athletes come and go, with some reappearing on a fairly-steady basis, but the Toomey-Stouts were there EVERY DANG DAY.

They took nothing for granted, they prepared for everything, and they played their hearts out from the first day of their middle school adventure to the final days of their high school journey.

It’s Sean, his arm injured, sneaking back on to the field late in the final game of his football career, intent on anchoring his defensive unit to the end, regardless of the score or the pain.

When CHS coach Marcus Carr noticed “The Torpedo” ready to blow up the Interlake QB, and intent on accomplishing the feat with only one good arm, the Wolf gridiron guru shook his head softly, then went to retrieve his wrecking ball, a look of pride and concern mingling on his face.

It’s Maya, pushed to the limit in the final moments of her prep volleyball career, physically exhausted, mentally drained, after back-to-back epic matches, yet still finding a way to elevate and abuse the ball, until there were no more shots to make.

“The Gazelle” would have played all night, if need be. Like her brothers, she has no quit button.

That the Toomey-Stouts are great athletes is a start.

That they are top-notch students intent on using their brains, and not their brawn, to get ahead in life after their high school days, is more.

That they are kind, and caring, that they treat those around them with compassion, that they greet life with a joy which radiates outwards and touches all those they meet, is the most.

When Beth Stout and Lisa Toomey, two of the loveliest human beings I know, brought their children into the world, they made that world a better place.

And now, Cameron, Maya, and Sean continue the work of their moms, spreading love, joy, and general awesomeness.

We, as a town, as Wolf fans, have been blessed to be a part of their story, and putting them in my lil’ Hall o’ Fame is one of the easiest decisions I’ve ever made.

So why wait?

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Once a Wolf, always a legend

Posted in Hall o' Fame, tagged , , , , on November 8, 2019| 3 Comments »

John Engstrom (back row, far left) finally enters the Coupeville Sports Hall o’ Fame.

John Engstrom was the small town boy who hit the big time, and made the big time sit up and take notice.

The descendant of one of Whidbey’s pioneer families (his mom was an Engle), he rose from being a three-sport athlete and class valedictorian at Coupeville High School to thriving as one of Seattle’s most-respected newsmen.

Now, the late writer picks up one more honor, as we induct him into the Coupeville Sports Hall o’ Fame.

There are a fair share of former Wolf stars whose names I know, having run across them in my hunt for stats and stories, but whose tales remain largely foreign to me.

Thanks to Charlie Burrow, who nominated Engstrom for induction, I can finally put more of a face to the name.

One down, several hundred to go, and this reminder – if there is a Coupeville athlete from the past you want to see go into our digital Hall o’ Fame, don’t assume I know their full story.

Come forward, let me know. I need your help to fill in the blanks.

With Engstrom, who graduated from CHS in 1959, we have a man who excelled in football, basketball, baseball, and the classroom during his time as a Wolf.

His name popped up during my attempts to track down all the buckets scored by Coupeville hoops stars, as he pumped in points as a junior and senior.

Playing alongside “Big” Mike Criscuola, who may be the true #1 scorer in program history (the records of the time are spotty, at best), Engstrom was Coupeville’s #2 scorer during his senior season.

That was the year the Wolves shocked the pundits by finishing second in the six-team Northwest District tournament.

Reducing to a mere paragraph or two in the pre-tourney breakdown, Coupeville stunned Sultan and Darrington, before narrowly falling to a rampaging La Conner squad in the title game.

It would be 11 years before the Wolves would become the first Whidbey Island boys hoops team to win a district crown (the immortal 69-70 CHS team coached by Bob Barker), but Big Mike, Engstrom, Sandy Roberts, and Co. made believers of all the non-believers.

After graduation from Coupeville, Engstrom attended the University of Washington, where he earned a bachelor of arts degree in elementary education and a masters in education.

Spring-boarding from his time on the school paper, he went on to write for United Press International and have a long career as a sports writer, editor, travel writer, and TV critic for the Seattle Post-Intelligencer.

He and wife Susan Paynter, a revered P-I columnist, retired in 2009 when the newspaper brought its print edition to a close.

The couple lived on the Oregon coast afterwards, until Engstrom lost a battle with acute myeloid leukemia at age 72 in 2014.

On his passing, his newspaper colleagues hailed him as “a terrific supportive boss, just a wonderful human being.”

“A steadier, more laid-back person you could not find,” said another.

Among Engstrom’s many high points during his journalism career was covering the Seattle SuperSonics during their NBA championship season in 1979.

Whether camping in his fifth wheel trailer while documenting Eastern Washington wheat farmers, or living in Spain during Franco’s reign, the former Wolf was the ultimate journalist, one who impacted all of his co-workers in positive ways.

He was “a gentleman, a lovely man, a favorite colleague,” who was “all class and grace.”

And now, a bit late, but very well-deserved, he joins our lil’ digital Hall of Fame.

After this, when you look up at the top of the blog, go peek under the Legends tab, and you’ll find Engstrom camped out where he’s always belonged.

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