The 1981 CHS harriers braved the weather to make history, and now join Jeff Fielding (top) and Pastor Cliff Horr in the Hall o’ Fame. (Photos courtesy Kerry Rosenkranz and Pat Kelley)
With the state basketball playoffs and Oscars taking most of my attention this weekend (I didn’t spend 15+ years working in video stores for nothing), we’re jumping ahead two days on our normal schedule to honor this week’s Coupeville Sports Hall o’ Fame inductees.
And, with the jump, why not focus on athletes and coaches who took CHS on a huge jump into the future?
So, with that, we welcome the 36th class into these hallowed digital walls — Cliff Horr, Jeff Fielding and the 1981 CHS girls’ cross country team.
After this, you’ll find them at the top of the blog, residing under the Legends tab.
Our first inductee, Pastor Horr, is pretty much, without argument, the most successful coach in school history.
Certainly in terms of winning (non-existent) banners for his school.
Wolf baseball coach Jim Hosek captured five straight league titles in the ’70s, but Horr almost doubled him, going a perfect 8-for-8 during the years when he guided the CHS girls’ tennis team.
The female netters, despite getting a late start thanks to the long delay before, you know, girls were allowed to play competitive sports in high school and all, hold the most league titles of any Wolf program with 17.
The first three (’81-’83) came before Horr, and current coach Ken Stange enters this season seeking his seventh, but Horr’s squads remain at the pinnacle, rolling through league play from 1998-2005.
His final squad was his best, with star players Mindy Horr and Taniel Lamb advancing all the way to the state final in doubles, where they lost a three-set war with a private school powerhouse.
That gave the Wolves a 3rd place team finish, which ties the 1987 baseball team and 2002 softball squad for the best team finish at state in the school’s 116-year history.
Our second inductee, Fielding, redefined running at CHS and blazed the trail that folks like Kyle and Tyler King would one day tear up.
During his days as a Wolf, he qualified for state seven times (four as a cross country harrier, three in track), and put his name into the history books as the first CHS athlete, in any sport, to win a state title.
After narrowly missing a cross country championship in ’78 (he was second), Fielding capped his career with an awe-inspiring senior track season in ’79.
Undefeated in the 1600 and 3200 from opening day until the state meet, he snatched second-place in the 1600 and went home champ in the two-mile event.
It would take five more years before a second Wolf (Natasha Bamberger in ’84) would win a state title and 27 before another male athlete (Jon Chittim and Kyle King in 2006) would join Fielding on top of the victory stand.
His fellow athletes from the time remember him as being the most committed, and friendly, athlete they ever went to school with.
“Kid was a genuine and nice guy. Tiny. A leader of the school. Never heard him curse or be mean to anyone,” Pat Kelley said. “Stud on the run. ASB President and Letter C club president.
“I remember coming from home to school and passing him by on the highway about seven miles out running to school with a backpack on.”
Two years after Fielding celebrated his big moment, the school achieved a landmark event on the other side of the gender divide.
Bamberger was a year away, still just a middle school phenom, when the 1981 Wolf harriers became the first girls team, in any sport, to make it to state.
Led by junior Kerry McCormick (whose daughter Erin Rosenkranz would later star for CHS as a soccer player and long distance runner), the Wolves jelled under legendary coach Craig Pedlar and were high achievers all season.
They finished second at the Cascade League championships, third at districts and then eighth at state, not only advancing there for the first time, but bringing home a trophy to boot.
A year later, with McCormick a senior and Bamberger on the squad, the Wolves would win a league title and place 4th at state.
Three years later the greatest runner in school history would win an individual state title.
Four years later the program would fall apart for lack of numbers, and, after a brief revival, fade into memory.
Today, there is no cross country program at CHS and it is a shame.
If someone finally steps up and restarts the program, they can point to the past for inspiration.
Pedlar went on to a long career, first at Coupeville, then Oak Harbor, where he taught and coached multiple sports, while team members have fanned out and become leaders in their communities who have watched their own children achieve great athletic highs.
On this, the 35th anniversary of their run into school history, we reunite the ’81 harriers and honor them for blazing a trail that still lights up the way for Wolf athletes, in any sport, today.
Inducted, as a team:
Craig Pedlar (coach)
Sharon Brown
Debbie Logan
Jill Luedtke
Kristine Macnab
Terri McClane
Kerry McCormick
Karen Reuss
