Feeds:
Posts
Comments

Posts Tagged ‘Hall of Fame’

They blazed the trail!!

Posted in Girls Basketball, Hall o' Fame, tagged , , , , on July 30, 2017| Leave a Comment »

   Coupeville High School girls hoops tipped off in 1974. (Photos courtesy Martha Folsom)

The ’74-’75 squad, which had to go to Fort Casey to practice.

   The high scoring ’86-’87 Wolves, the first CHS girls hoops team to make the playoffs. (Photo courtesy Sherry Roberts)

They were the pioneers.

Today, 43 seasons into its existence, the Coupeville High School girls basketball program is flying high.

The current Wolves have won three straight Olympic League titles (while going 27-0 against conference rivals), and the program has produced numerous big-time stars and hung several state tourney banners over the years.

But all of that success had to start somewhere, and today we’re here to honor two squads which made everything possible.

As we swing open the doors to the Coupeville Sports Hall o’ Fame, we welcome the 1974-1975 and 1986-1987 Wolf girls hoops teams.

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

Why those teams?

Because the ’74-’75 squad was the first modern-day team in school history and the ’86-’87 sharpshooters were the first to ever make the playoffs.

With Title IX having shaken things up (finally) in 1972, CHS began to open up opportunities to female athletes.

The school, which already had a strong basketball tradition on the boys side of the court, launched its girls program in 1974 … and promptly sent the players down the road.

While the boys hoops stars practiced in the same gym in which they played their home games, the Wolf girls trekked to Fort Casey for their workouts.

“No heat and the out-of-bounds lines were the walls!,” remembers Martha Folsom.

It wasn’t until 1977 that the Wolf girls finally got a full share of the home gym for practices, but the early road trips didn’t keep players from showing up, as the first squad boasted a full 12-player varsity roster.

While I’m tracking down the history of CHS girls basketball, the ’74-’75 team is still hidden in the shadows a bit.

The Whidbey News-Times elected to not write a single word about that season, and it was only with year two — and the arrival of a new sports writer — that things changed.

So, stat-wise, I haven’t been able to find much yet. But the hunt goes on.

We do have photos and a roster, though, thanks to a school yearbook kept by Folsom.

By the time the ’86-’87 team took the court, the program was more than a decade old and things were starting to take shape.

No Wolf girl topped 150 points in a season until Kristan Hurlburt went off for 263 in 1981-1982.

Two years later Judy Marti set a new mark, pouring in 312 points during her senior season.

Enter the ’86-’87 squad, which scored like no Wolf girls team before it, with two players, Terry Perkins (314) and Marlene Grasser (307) joining Marti in the 300-point club.

Tina Barker (274) just missed making it a trio, while Sarah Powell (141) and Aimee Messner (88) were also scoring threats for a deep, balanced team.

Led by head coach Phyllis Textor, the Wolves finished 15-8 overall, 11-5 in league play, coming within a single win of making it all the way to state in the program’s playoff debut.

The CHS girls finally cracked that barrier in 1998, advancing to the big dance with Willie Smith coaching, before capturing the program’s first state tourney win in 2000.

After that came three state banners (a sixth-place and two eight-place finishes) during Greg Oldham’s tenure, and the Wolf girls have gone back to state as recently as 2016 under David King.

There can be a solid argument made that girls basketball is the most consistently successful sports program at CHS over the past two decades.

But that all started with the athletes we honor today, the ones who broke the playing barrier and the ones who broke the postseason barrier.

So welcome to our little digital shrine.

Inducted together, as teams.

1974-1975 squad:

Brenda Belcher
Suzanne Enders
Martha Folsom
Eileen Hanley
Tammie Hardie
Ann Kahler
Debbie Snyder
Tracy Snyder
Teresa Taylor
Jill Whitney
Janie Wilson
Jean Wyatt

1986-1987 squad:

Tina Barker
Sally Biskovich
Sherry Bonacci
Trudy Eaton
Carol Estes
Marlene Grasser
Aimee Messner
Cheryl Pangburn
Terry Perkins
Sarah Powell

Read Full Post »

Take a moment for Marie!!

Posted in Basketball, Hall o' Fame, tagged , , , , on July 28, 2017| 3 Comments »

   Long before she had four kids, all of whom became CHS athletic stars, Marie (Grasser) Bagby was a rebounding machine. (Megan Hansen photo)

Marie Bagby is one of the most genuinely nice people you will ever meet.

It’s a trait she shared with her sister, Marlene Grasser, and one which filtered down into all four of her children.

But we’re here to talk about the Coupeville Sports Hall o’ Fame, and we’re here to discuss not Marie’s sweet nature, but her fire and drive on the basketball court.

That’s what carried her to great success as the first true modern-day girls basketball superstar at CHS, and it’s why she is being inducted (finally) into our little digital mecca.

After this, if you pop up to the top of the blog and look under the Legends tab, you’ll find her, enshrined under her maiden name, Marie Grasser, which means she and Marlene will always be paired.

For students at CHS today, the ones who see Marie on a daily basis as she works at the school, they know she’s a warm and welcoming presence and that she’s married to the ol’ ball coach himself, Ron Bagby.

They may even know her four children, April, Ashley, Mike and Jason, were all multi-sport stars who blazed across the campus, winning Athlete of the Year honors, setting records and carrying teams to state.

But what they probably don’t know is Marie was just as big a star in her day as any of her relatives.

In the days after Title IX, Coupeville High School finally powered up a girls basketball program, but it took until the FOURTH season before the squad got to practice in its own gym.

Seriously.

Prior to the 1977-1978 season (Marie’s sophomore year), the Wolf girls trekked out to Camp Casey, put their work in, then trekked back to campus to take showers.

As the Coupeville girls fought for respect, equality and some newspaper coverage (it wasn’t until the ’80s that articles started to expand past a size where you no longer needed a microscope to see them…), Marie was the program’s rock.

Players like Suzette Glover, Pam Jampsa and Kristan Hurlburt were among the early leaders in scoring, but #15 was a true two-way terror, scoring and hauling down an astonishing number of rebounds.

As I plow through the newspaper archives, one thing surfaces again and again in the truncated stories of the day — if there was a loose ball or a carom, Marie felt it belonged to her.

She pulled down 20 or more rebounds in a single game numerous times across her four-year career, with one game her junior season a particular standout.

Facing off with rough and tumble Concrete, Marie went off for 26 points and 28 rebounds, almost holding her own on the boards with the Lions, who mustered 31 rebounds as a team.

There have been some top-grade rebounding machines in Wolf uniforms over the years, from Sarah Mouw to Lexie Black to Makana Stone, but that 28 stands tall.

It’s the largest number for one game I’ve seen in my journey through the archives.

The early years of girls basketball at CHS were a tough road.

It took a decade before the Wolves posted a winning record and went to the playoffs, and longer before they made their first inroads at the state tourney.

But when you look back at the start of the program, it’s obvious — Marie Grasser was the spark that started things.

So today, for her superior skills on the court, for the talented children she gave her alma mater, for the classy way she approaches everything she does, we are very happy to welcome her into our little digital shrine.

It’s well deserved.

Read Full Post »

Remember the trailblazers!!

Posted in Boys Basketball, tagged , , , , , on July 17, 2017| Leave a Comment »

   The first basketball team in Coupeville High School history. (Photo courtesy Megan Hansen/Whidbey News-Times)

It was a different time and a different game.

This Wednesday marks the 100-year (and six-month) anniversary of the first official basketball game in Coupeville High School history.

While CHS became a school in 1900 and graduated its first class (of three seniors) in 1904, the school waited until Jan. 19, 1917 to take an official stab at the game James Naismith invented in 1891.

Coupeville, under the direction of coach J.H. Hallock, blistered visiting Langley 29-7 that day, kicking off an inaugural season in which it went 7-3.

We can’t call them the Wolves, since that name didn’t get attached until years later — yearbooks from the ’20s refer to the school’s teams as the Cards — but they played like a ferocious pack.

According to stories in the Whidbey News-Times, the standout player on the six-player roster was Ed Kennedy, who led CHS to four straight Island County Championships during his playing days.

At a time when the pace of the game was far different from today, and scores were often equally muted, Kennedy would routinely score half of Coupeville’s output.

If you look at the photo above you can get a look at the high-scoring (for the time) center/forward in his later days, when he returned for the opening of Coupeville’s new gym in 1979.

Back in 1917, when Kennedy and his teammates were young lads, they waged war in a new gym of their own, referred to as a “play pavilion.”

Apparently it was so drafty fans kept their coats on while watching games, and the lighting in the joint was courtesy gas lanterns suspended from the ceiling on cables.

The floor was built from planks, and frequently gave players splinters if they were unfortunate enough to come in contact with it.

“I still have scars on my knees from that fir floor,” Kennedy is quoted as saying, while chuckling, in ’79.

Today, in memory of the seven who started our town’s long and successful basketball legacy, we’re doing two things.

One, we’re inducting them into the Coupeville Sports Hall o’ Fame, a chance to be immortalized in an internet world they never imagined.

Inducted, as a team:

Fred Barrett
Altus Custer
Ed Fisher
Ben Gaskill
Clarence Keith
Ed Kennedy
J.H. Hallock (Coach)

And, secondly, by weird coincidence, when the next boys basketball season rolls around, Coupeville is slated to have a home game against Chimacum Jan. 19, 2018.

So, I’m putting the call out to Wolf hoop coaches Brad Sherman and Chris Smith and CHS Athletic Director Willie Smith — we need to mark the moment.

Whether you want to do something big — find the oldest surviving Wolf basketball stars and bring them back for a reunion — or simply put a note in that night’s game program (heck, I’ll write one for you!), we need to celebrate the 101-year anniversary of Coupeville High School basketball.

When it comes to promotions, some things are just a slam dunk, and this is one of them.

Read Full Post »

A Wynn-er all the way!!

Posted in Hall o' Fame, tagged , , , , , , on July 8, 2017| Leave a Comment »

   Gabe Wynn charges off the court and into the Hall o’ Fame. (John Fisken photos)

“I … crushed it.”

Some players make you smile.

Gabe Wynn is one of those.

For the past five years, from the first time I saw him playing 8th grade basketball, on through his graduation this spring, he was one of the most reliably entertaining guys in town.

Didn’t matter the sport — football, tennis, basketball or baseball — Wynn, the son of former OHHS hoops legend Robyn (Seth) Myers, enjoyed every moment he was playing.

It’s that spirit, along with his skills and stats, which lifts him up and today, deposits him at the doorway of the Coupeville Sports Hall o’ Fame.

So let’s swing those doors wide and welcome him to these hallowed digital halls.

After this, while his physical body will be leaving Whidbey for college at some point, his memory will live on, enshrined at the top of the blog under the Legends tab.

Gabe exits holding the school record for most three-point shots made in a basketball game, swishing seven in a ferocious fight with league champ Port Townsend.

He played varsity basketball all four years, making his debut as a raw frosh and exiting as a sage senior, and, along the way, he sparkled at a whole lot of other sports as well.

Wynn was a big hitter on the football field, a fireball on the tennis court and a scrapper on the diamond, willing to sacrifice his body for the good of the team game in and game out.

But it’s basketball where his legacy will be the most enduring.

Over the course of his high school career, Gabe showed a mix of big-time play and quiet, committed hustle.

He’s part of a select group of Wolf hoops stars who scored points at the varsity level in all four of their seasons, and raised his scoring total each season.

Helping lead a painfully young, inexperienced team through his senior campaign, Wynn became a go-to scorer, raining down treys from behind the arc, while retaining an ability to fight for buckets in the paint.

Along with the points, the rebounds and the steals, Gabe set himself apart with his grit and hustle.

And also, and this is a huge thing, with his willingness to get up every time he was sent to the floor, or sent a rival to the floor, and deliver a quick word, or just a butt-slap and a nod, to let the other player know it’s not personal, it’s the game.

Playing against Stevenson, a school which traveled 525 miles, round trip, to fill out its schedule with a non-conference game, Wynn made sure the visitors would never forget him.

Sparking a 64-60 Wolf victory, he exploded his own bench, sending chairs and teammates flying during a wild scramble for a loose ball.

Not content to stop there, he then did a full somersault over a Stevenson player’s shoulder while latched onto a rebound that both players badly wanted.

When Wynn hit the floor, the resulting sound was a mix of a cannon shot and a watermelon hitting the ground after being dropped from a skyscraper.

But he got the jump-ball call he wanted, and staggered back to his feet, checking on the condition of the rival player first before gently massaging his own head.

It was vintage Gabe in every way — not giving up, no matter the cost, but always mindful of those around him.

Off the court, on the court, he was the same quality dude every step of the way.

Stats are important, and Wynn piled up some nice stats, but character matters more, and his was A+ all the way.

Which is why inducting him into the Hall o’ Fame is such an easy call.

Read Full Post »

They all scream-i for Mimi!!

Posted in Hall o' Fame, tagged , , , , on July 1, 2017| 1 Comment »

   Mimi Johnson, the newest member of the Coupeville Sports Hall o’ Fame. (John Fisken photo)

Mimi Johnson did it all.

Down the road, when it sinks in that she and her family (husband Scott and children Elliott and Stella) have really left Whidbey behind for the wilds of Danville, Kentucky, her absence will be enormous.

Mimi wore many hats during her years in Cow Town, as a player, coach, volunteer and business owner, and today we induct her into the Coupeville Sports Hall o’ Fame for her full body of work.

After this, you may not find her down at the CHS softball field as often, but you will always find her up at the top of the blog, under the Legends tab.

We’re enshrining her as a Contributor, as a way to encompass everything she accomplished.

Back in her high school days, when she was still writing Iverson on her papers, Mimi was a standout softball player for CHS who later went on to play college ball.

After marriage and kids, she joined with brother Matt to do the seemingly impossible and resurrected Ebey Bowl after a decade-long absence.

The bowling alley of their youth had spent years neglected, basically a dumping ground for old car parts and boats, when the duo sparked a Phoenix-like rebirth.

When not working together to run the family insurance business, the brother/sister combo recreated a ’50s-style alley, and the place was popular with a new generation during its second run.

Around all that, Mimi, like her husband, devoted countless hours to Central Whidbey Little League.

Working as a coach, she took several softball teams, at different age levels, to the state tourney, capping her run by leading the Juniors squad to the big dance this year on the very day she was moving off-Island.

Through it all, Mimi rarely, if ever, lost her smile.

She was adept at bringing people together and worked to include players and families from North and South onto her Central Whidbey teams, when the other parts of the Island couldn’t field their own squads.

Mimi got along with everyone, even umpires, and her impact on a generation of young local softball sluggers, who have been ripping through rivals (but doing it with class) at every level, is immeasurable.

And now she’s gone, Kentucky’s gain and our loss.

Except, she’s not really gone.

Mimi’s fun, unassuming style will linger on through seasons to come, as her players go on to take the field for other coaches.

As future softball successes play out, she will be a part of them, if from afar.

And if Kentucky doesn’t work out?

Whidbey is always here waiting, and it wouldn’t be hard to find a coaching job upon her return.

Just start off with “So, yeah, I’m in the Hall of Fame…” and go from there.

Read Full Post »

« Newer Posts - Older Posts »