Feeds:
Posts
Comments

Posts Tagged ‘Hall of Fame’

Legendary, every day, in every way!!

Posted in Hall o' Fame, tagged , , , , , on October 28, 2018| Leave a Comment »

Lauren Rose, baby whisperer, standout athlete, academic genius and all around remarkable young woman. (Photos by JohnsPhotos.net)

Rose comes up firing while patrolling the infield.

To know Lo is to adore her.

I have watched countless athletes play in my years as a sport writer, but Lauren Rose lands on a very, very small list as one of the best I have ever witnessed.

For her athletic ability? Absolutely. For her work ethic and commitment? Positively.

But also because she is simply one of the best human beings to ever pull on a Wolf uniform. Ever.

Lauren and twin sister Kayla are two of the most gracious, kind and caring, intelligent, personable young women I have met.

When you add in Lauren’s amazingly consistent, often inspired, athletic performances during her four-year run at Coupeville High School, and there is no doubt whatsoever she has long deserved inclusion into the Coupeville Sports Hall o’ Fame.

So, after I get done gushing about her in this article, you’ll find her enshrined up at the top of the blog, under the Legends tab.

The supremely serene superstar, whether she was being hailed as Mouse, Munchkin or Keebler Elf, had the stats, the SportsCenter highlight plays, the big wins, and all the All-Conference awards.

But, most of all, she had a heart that was unmatched. She might not have been as tall as some of her teammates, but she played like a giant every dang day.

Pick a sport — volleyball, basketball or softball — and Rose delivered, steady, calm and collected, yet burning with desire to get better, work harder and fight longer.

She once snapped off 20 consecutive points on her serve in a varsity volleyball match against Chimacum, almost running a complete set by herself, and every serve was pure perfection.

Rose, who may have missed two or three serves in her entire four-year run for the CHS volleyball program, lashed winner after winner, putting a slightly different spin on each serve as she continually hit a target only she saw.

The Cowboys weren’t a bad team, and the match itself was competitive, but when Rose was twirling the ball and launching elegant missiles, they might as well have just sat down on the bench and enjoyed the show, cause they had no answers for what she was dealin’.

And that’s how she was in all her sports, whether finishing among the state leaders in assists as a nimble-fingered setter, harassing rivals to distraction on the basketball court as a ballhawk, or being uniformly superb at whatever position her softball coaches asked her to play.

Rose did a stint behind the plate as a freshman, waiting for Sarah Wright to arrive from middle school and take over the catching duties, then moved out to anchor the team at short and third in later years.

And it’s in the world of softball where The Keebler Elf delivered what I believe to be her most inspired moment.

Coupeville had a road game in Sequim rescheduled at the last second, which put Rose in an unexpected sticky situation.

As the leadoff hitter for the red-hot Wolves, she wanted to be in the lineup, and yet she also had an important SAT test she couldn’t miss.

Strong athlete, strong student, trapped in a no-win situation.

Except, she made it work.

First, Rose blitzed her way through the test, using a #2 pencil like a sword to defend her academic rep.

Then she bolted across the street, hurdled into a waiting car driven by a teammate’s parents and hauled tail for the ferry, not even stopping to change into her uniform.

“I’ll do it on the ferry!”

“Do you know how dirty ferry bathrooms are??????”

“I’ll move faster than the germs!!”

With the clock ticking against her, Rose (and her ride) made it to the field in Sequim with mere moments to spare, at which point she catapulted herself from the back seat of the still-moving auto, juggling her mitt, bat and snacks as she sprinted towards her coach, who was pacing madly, one eye on his watch, one on the ump.

“Oh, sweet lord, my heart…”

“Told you I’d make it,” Rose whispered to her coach as she flung her mitt and snacks over her shoulder, bouncing them into the dugout on a dime.

Never breaking pace, she sprinted to the plate, nodded to the ump, hefted her bat, glanced at the pitcher for a split second (or less) and promptly smacked the first pitch of the game, driving the ball to straight away center for a standup double.

Legendary.

Read Full Post »

Hoops legend returns to alma mater!!

Posted in Boys Basketball, Middle School, tagged , , , , on October 8, 2018| Leave a Comment »

Greg White, here with his family, has been hired as a Coupeville Middle School boys basketball coach. (Photo courtesy White)

One by one, the giants of Wolf basketball are returning to the gyms of their youth.

In recent seasons, former Coupeville High School hoops stars such as Ashley Ellsworth-Bagby, Brad Sherman, Megan Smith and Brittany Black have picked up clipboards and moved into working with the current generation of basketball players.

Now, you can add Greg White to that list.

The Class of 1998 grad has been hired as a boys basketball coach at Coupeville Middle School, and will start his first season when practice begins Oct. 22.

He still needs the OK from the Coupeville School Board when it meets at the end of the month, but hey, if they mess with a Coupeville Sports Hall o’ Famer, the editorials will never stop, so I think we’re safe on this one.

White will coach the 7th grade CMS squad, joining Dante Mitchell, who is returning for a second season and will helm the 8th grade team.

One of the most accomplished athletes in Cow Town history, the long ‘n lanky White was a star on the football gridiron, the basketball hardwood and the baseball diamond.

He still stands as the 29th highest scorer in the 101-year history of CHS boys basketball, having recorded 604 points during his time in a Wolf uniform.

After his playing days, White has transitioned into coaching.

In recent years, he has been at the forefront of local SWISH basketball programs, running successful teams and helping build a new generation of stars to follow in the footsteps of players such as himself and Sherman.

He’s also been a key player on Red Pride basketball teams which have scorched the field in the Tom Roehl Roundball Classic, and helped carry the load in a recent Coupeville Schools fundraiser in which he and his teammates completed a circumnavigation of Whidbey Island.

As he counts down the days until the first CMS practice, White is rarin’ to get on the court and get going.

“I think we have a great group of kids coming up,” he said. “And I’m excited to be involved in the program.”

Read Full Post »

“That kid is killin’ us!!”

Posted in Hall o' Fame, tagged , , , , on September 10, 2018| Leave a Comment »

Clay Reilly may have hung up his jersey, but his legend still lives large. (Photo by JohnsPhotos.net)

Clay Reilly was a gamer.

Baseball or football or basketball (the latter in his younger days), the Coupeville High School grad was one of those rare athletes who never, ever seemed to give less than his best effort.

Every game I watched him play, Reilly went down fighting until the final out, the final second ticking off the clock, regardless of the score. And I saw the majority of the games he played at CHS.

And yes, Amanda Fabrizi’s lil’ bro (in age, at least) rocked some of the most impressive hair this side of a shampoo commercial, but it was his locked-in attitude, and not his flowing locks, that we will remember him for the most.

The 2017 grad left an indelible mark on Wolf Nation, and, for that, we induct him today into the Coupeville Sports Hall o’ Fame, where he joins his sister.

After this, you can find both of them up at the top of the blog, under the Legends tab.

Where to start with Clay? At the end, I think.

His senior season of baseball, the final sport of his prep career, ended with an agonizing playoff loss at home. It was a game he personally played very well in, but he and his teammates just couldn’t get past their private school rivals.

As many of the other Wolves stood aimlessly around the dugout, or chatted with fans and friends, Reilly walked out to the fence in the deepest part of the outfield and stood alone for a bit.

I can’t tell you what all was going through his mind at the time, and, while I could guess, I wouldn’t ask, then or now.

I understand why sports reporters stick tape recorders and notebooks in athlete’s faces moments after they’ve taken season or career-ending losses. It’s part of the job and yet it’s not fair to the reporters or the athletes.

Sometimes it’s better to just let a person have room to breathe, a moment to themselves to begin to absorb everything they’ve gone through, the highs and lows of years of sweat, hard work and dedication.

While there was obviously sadness, I hope, that in that moment, and in the time since, Reilly also dwelled on the positives of his season and career.

Of all he accomplished, of all those he inspired and impressed with his ability, his drive and his commitment.

He was a standout on the diamond, a dude with a rocket for an arm, fleet feet and a dangerous bat, and he played a key role on the first CHS baseball team to win a league title after 24 years of wandering in the wilderness.

That came during his junior season when Reilly, CJ and Hunter Smith, Cole Payne and Co. swept to the crown in the Olympic League, accomplishing something no Wolf diamond squad had achieved since 1991.

While the Coupeville football team didn’t win any league titles during his run, Reilly, who rose to be a captain by his senior season, provided Wolf coaches with multiple options.

He could run, slashing through the line. He could snag passes, pulling in bombs while being blanketed. He could size up a guy and drop his rear on the turf, wherever you played him on defense.

And, maybe most memorably, Reilly could kick the ever-lovin’ snot out of the ball.

A dangerous return man on special teams, he became Coupeville’s kicker and punter in the latter stages of his career, quickly becoming one of the deadliest booters in the entire state.

Reilly nailed 20 of 21 PAT kicks during his senior year, while racking up nearly 1,200 yards as a punter. Coming in a season where the Wolf offense struggled at times to find a rhythm, his foot was often their best way of moving the ball.

One punt, in particular, will live long in the memories of Wolf fans.

CHS had sputtered out and was pinned deep in its own half of the field, when Reilly, dodging incoming defenders, let loose with an epic kick.

It sailed high, straight and true through the lightly foggy fall evening, arcing and tumbling ever so slightly, then came down behind the would-be returner, tore off a chunk of grass and took a perfect bounce, arcing towards the end zone.

With Wolf special team players in hot pursuit, the opposing team had no chance to return it, and no willingness to backpedal and chase after the rapidly-fleeing football.

By the time a Coupeville player downed the ball, it had traveled, with kick, and well-timed bounce, some 70+ yards, and remains maybe the single most awe-inspiring kick I have seen in a high school game.

Later that same season, while on the road and camped out in a rival team’s press box, I watched Reilly launch moon shot after moon shot on his kicks, earning actual ooh’s and ah’s from an opposing coach camped out a few feet away.

“Lordy, that kid is killin’ us!!,” he wailed into his head set, and then he stopped, rubbed his forehead and sighed deeply.

It was the ultimate sign of respect for one of the ultimate competitors to ever wear a Coupeville jersey.

Your prep sports career may be over, Clay, but you will always live large in our collective memory.

Read Full Post »

All you need is some Hope!!

Posted in Softball, Volleyball, tagged , , , , on August 21, 2018| Leave a Comment »

Hope Lodell charges out, ready to slice ‘n dice foes as The Surgeon. (Photo by JohnsPhotos.net)

Pick a sport, and The Surgeon will carve you up.

Hope Lodell is among the most talented athletes I have written about, and it’s far more than just what she did between the lines on a field or court.

From the moment she was born, she was frankly kind of uncanny.

Walking around while doing a handstand, and not just a few lurching feet, but traveling as far as she wanted to, her body never wavering.

In later years, she amused herself by doing pull-ups on the softball dugout during rain delays, effortlessly ripping them off until she realized everyone was watching her, mouths agape.

Dropping back down to the ground, in much the same way a cougar would pounce off of a rock to attack its prey, Lodell shook her head, smiled, rolled her eyes and bounced off to do other feats of strength, away from autograph seekers.

She could have been a hellion on the basketball court.

Actually she was, in middle school, but then left CHS coaches to sob uncontrollably in their morning Cheerios over her decision to not play the sport in high school.

What Lodell did choose was volleyball and softball, and, for four solid years, she was a BEAST. And yes, that word is supposed to be capitalized, thank you.

On the volleyball court, she was a wild woman unleashed, one of the best servers in the entire freakin’ state.

Jumping, twirling, flying into the gym from somewhere out in the hallway, then going airborne and uncorking raw, blistering heat, she peppered foes (and teammates in practice) with balls they had little chance to return.

If that alone, the ability to crush her serves, was all she had, Lodell would have been a star.

But she could do it all on the court, and morphed her game to fit what the coaches asked of her any given day.

That was never more evident than in her senior season, when she slid into the libero position formerly occupied by Valen Trujillo.

Others would have stumbled a bit, learning a new position, and a vitally important one at that, on the fly.

Lodell? She went out, adapted in the blink of an eye, and brought home an Olympic League MVP award, while helping CHS sweep through conference action without losing a set.

Fresh off their second-straight league crown, Lodell and the Wolves advanced to state as well, the first time the Coupeville spikers had gone to the big dance in more than a decade.

Put her on a softball diamond and she was a walking, talking web gem come to life. Just replace “walking” with “sprinting from corner to corner of the outfield on a dead run.”

There were few balls which evaded her glove in four years of anchoring the defense in center, and Lodell was equally dangerous with her bat and her feet.

Multiple All-Conference honors and two runs at qualifying for the state tourney which fell just a pitch or two short, and the highlight reel never stopped running.

But as amazing as she is as an athlete, Lodell is even more impressive in the other aspects of her life.

I call her The Surgeon for two reasons.

One, she carved up opponents in the arena, and two, she will one day be carving people as a doctor.

And probably curing cancer or some disease we haven’t heard about yet, cause her brain is just that impressive.

Some of the athletes I write about I’ve known for a short period of time. Others a few years.

With Hope, I’ve known her since the day she was born, and she has remained the same joyous force of nature, the same kind, caring, high-achieving supernova, every step of her path.

She is going to blow our minds with what she accomplishes post-high school. Of that, there is no doubt.

So, today, before she starts winning all the world-wide awards, I’m slipping in to give her a local honor.

We’re swinging open the doors of the Coupeville Sports Hall o’ Fame and welcoming Lodell to our little digital playground.

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

Take a peek inside and she’ll be easy to find. She’ll be the one doing one-arm pull-ups on the doorway to the Hall.

Read Full Post »

Only the best!!

Posted in Cheer, Girls Soccer, Hall o' Fame, Track, tagged , , , , , , , on August 6, 2018| 1 Comment »

Mckenzie Meyer, ready to unleash sweet sounds. (Photos by JohnsPhotos.net)

Her future’s so bright, she has to wear shades.

The absolute master of the positive approach.

She was just born talented.

I have known Mckenzie Meyer since the day she popped in to the world, the first of two children born to Sarah and Frank Meyer.

That was back in the lazy, hazy glory days of being paid to watch movies (and do a little managerial work) at Videoville, a 12-year run in which I worked for Mckenzie’s grandmother, Miriam.

The newest Meyer made her video store debut at a very young age, and from the first moment she eyeballed all of us from her perch on the counter, she radiated intelligence.

And I don’t mean she just seemed smart.

I mean she seemed like she was going to cure a disease while solving world hunger while also teaching herself to read Mandarin in the two minutes of free time she had every day.

It’s a feeling which has increased every day since.

Mckenzie is too smart, and too talented, and too awe-inspiring, for one small town on a rock in the middle of the water in the Pacific Northwest to contain, but we here in Coupeville have benefited immensely from what time we have had her here.

Today, I’m inducting her into the Coupeville Sports Hall o’ Fame.

In the moment, that’s something (maybe not epic, but worthy of a nod at least), being enshrined inside these hallowed digital walls.

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

And, about two seconds after she lands up there, she’ll probably win a much-bigger, much-better award or three.

I feel fully confident that in a few years or so, being in my little, sorta fake Hall o’ Fame should still be at least the 245th biggest thing she’s done. Maybe…

Mckenzie, as much as any high school athlete or student I have seen come through Cow Town, is fated to be big. Like world famous big.

She has a personality which is a mixture of joy and wonderment, and she charges full-tilt at any and every obstacle or opportunity with a grin which wraps up the whole world in a hug.

Give her a sport, any sport, and she did well.

In cheer, she was a volcano erupting, showering everyone with school spirit. A captain who was the loudest, the proudest, and the first to pick up her teammates, those she was cheering for, and the fans.

It could be an epic win or a crushing defeat, and Mckenzie tackled things with the same glee, the same desire to make every performance the best she ever delivered.

And if lil’ bro Caleb was playing? Miss Meyer could turn the sound system up to 120, thank you very much.

Her spirit and never-say-die attitude carried over to her time on the soccer pitch, the tennis court, and the world of track and field, where she competed in a gazillion events, including holding the school record in the pole vault.

Sports, though, are but a small sliver of what makes Mckenzie the whirlwind she is.

She was a veteran of the stage, bouncing from comedy to drama as an award-worthy thespian.

A woman born to wail when you put a sax in her hand and fired up the band.

Toss her into the cutthroat world of Science Olympiad? She made Einstein sit up in his grave, just so he could bow in appreciation of her skill.

Look, I’m not impartial here.

I think Mckenzie is one of the most talented, kind, brilliant people on the face of this planet.

Seeing her grow up, holding on to the fire that burns brightly inside, while always challenging herself and achieving remarkable things, has been great.

I think the world of this young woman. Did when she was a few days old, did when she first went to school, do today, and will many years down the road.

There’s a ton of reasons to induct Mckenzie into my Hall o’ Fame.

The biggest one? She classes up the joint.

Read Full Post »

« Newer Posts - Older Posts »