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Posts Tagged ‘Happy birthday’

Spring sports arrive, in the Nick of time!!

Posted in Baseball, Boys Soccer, Girls Tennis, Softball, Track, tagged , , , , , , on March 12, 2015| Leave a Comment »

Nick Dion (right) was told there would be cake. Why else would he show up for soccer practice on his birthday? (John Fisken photos)

   Nick Dion (right) was told there would be cake. Why else would he show up for soccer practice on his birthday? (John Fisken photos)

Jae LeVine gets some advice from CHS softball coach Deanna Rafferty.

Jae LeVine gets some advice from CHS softball coach Deanna Rafferty.

Lathom

Lathom Kelley (38) and Makana Stone thunder down the stretch, while Jared Helmstadter (middle) prepares to blow them both away.

Jake Hoagland

Jake Hoagland, Jedi baseball player, able to catch the ball with his eyes shut.

Ken

   Wolf tennis coach Ken Stange: “I can hit this ball so hard it’ll take out that eagle on top of the Crockett Barn! Can so!!!!”

Jose

Jose Castro works his foot magic.

Allison

Allison Wenzel charges for the line, an explosion of color signalling her arrival.

McKayla

   McKayla Bailey appears to be watching the incoming softball. But she ALWAYS know where the camera is. Just trust me on that one.

Spring sports are just around the corner.

Practice has been going for almost two weeks, and the first taste of real competition hits this Saturday.

The Wolf baseball squad hosts Blaine (1 PM) on the windiest, coldest field known to man, while a stone’s throw away at the same time the CHS boys’ soccer team will play South Whidbey and Lake Stevens in a jamboree.

To get you ready, here’s eight spiffy John Fisken photos from the early days of practice, headed up by Nick Dion, who celebrates his 16th birthday today.

A scholar and an athlete, and a pretty good guy in general, here’s to Nick and the rest of the Wolves as they head into a new season bright with promise.

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Mad Dawg: Feisty ‘n Fantastic!!

Posted in A freakin' American hero, Girls Soccer, Happy birthday, Track, Volleyball, tagged , , , , on March 11, 2015| Leave a Comment »

Madison Tisa McPhee, the best damn athlete to NEVER be named Athlete of the Year at CHS.

   Madison Tisa McPhee, the best damn athlete to NEVER be named Athlete of the Year at CHS.

She was the first true superstar of Coupeville Sports.

Before McKayla Bailey, before Caleb Valko and Breeanna Messner, before Killer, Hammer Time, Elbows, The Big Hurt or Maddie Big Time, one name towered over all the rest in the early days of this blog.

Madison Tisa McPhee was a bright, blazing star. Still is, just in other arenas.

Volleyball, soccer and, most of all, the pinnacle of track and the times when she sat astride a horse, the one and only, original, Mad Dawg, rocked the joint.

Flying across the hurdles or teaming with Makana Stone, Jai’Lysa Hoskins, Sylvia Hurlburt, Marisa Etzell and Kirsten Pelroy to shatter every relay record in sight, Madison couldn’t be caught.

Put her on a horse, slap a cowboy hat on her head and the look of steely intensity she brought to track would morph into a mile-wide grin of pure delight as she and her steed thundered to win after win in riding events.

Whatever the arena, Tisa McPhee reveled in the competition, was her best in the brightest of spotlights.

That, in itself, would have marked her as a success.

But it was out of the spotlight, in the other moments, where she rose above all others.

Few, if any, high school-aged girls would consent to having a picture of their face published on the internet less than a hour after an errant soccer ball had shattered their delicate nose.

Madison said yes, quickly and fairly emphatically (maybe the painkillers were kicking in?), and that story remains among the 20 most-viewed pieces ever published on this blog (and we’re just a hair away from article #3,000).

She always answered my questions (no matter how stupid they were or how busy she probably was) and, in person, she has always been one of the most delightful people you are likely to meet.

Mad Dawg has charisma for days, and she knows it, but she wields her super power with a delicate touch.

She’s confident, bold, sometimes brash, but she pulls it all off in style.

You are a superstar, Miss Madison. From the day you were born (which happens to be today), never-ending.

The world is yours to rule. Go take it.

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Hoops to motherhood, simply the best!!

Posted in A freakin' American hero, Happy birthday, tagged , , , , on March 11, 2015| Leave a Comment »

Kassie (Lawson) O'Neil with mom DeeAnna Smith (left) and sister Kayla Lawson (right).

Kassie (Lawson) O’Neil with mom DeeAnna Smith (left) and sister Kayla Lawson (right).

Kassie and her progeny.

Kassie and her progeny.

She is one of the best I never actually saw play.

Kassie (Lawson) O’Neil was a stellar hoops player for the Wolves during a time when I was bogged down with the grind of the real world and wrote very few words about high school sports for a few years.

I left the arena right before she hit the floor and came back right after the door swung shut on her exit.

But still, I heard tales of a scrappy player who ran the floor alongside my fake daughter, Courtney Boyd, terrorizing rival ball-handlers.

When I went back to writing, I got to talk about her days as a college basketball player, and then picked up a lot of page hits with photos of her young sons.

Kassie, who celebrates a birthday today, is one of the genuine greats, not only as an athlete but as a person.

Her family, which includes mom DeeAnna Smith, sisters Kayla Lawson and Katie Smith and lil’ bro Kurtis Smith, is deeply entrenched as part of the core of Coupeville.

Sherman blood flows through those veins, and, one after another, they have been unassuming superstars at whatever sports they picked up.

Kassie, like her siblings, is friendly, outgoing, deeply committed to her ever-expanding family.

She is, without a doubt, one of the best this town has produced.

With two precocious boys and a third child on the way, it’s probably not easy to have a moment to herself these days.

But, whatever she’s doing today, I hope the day is wonderful for you, Kassie.

Happy birthday, Mrs. O’Neil.

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Birthday cake as far as the eye can see!!

Posted in Happy birthday, tagged , , , , , on March 10, 2015| Leave a Comment »

Clockwise, from top right, Jovanah Foote, May Rose and (old school) Brad Sherman.

   Clockwise, from top right, birthday trio Jovanah Foote, May Rose and (old school) Brad Sherman.

Somewhere in Wolf Nation, right now, birthday cake is being served.

It has to be.

March 10 is a banner day for Coupeville High School athletic stars to have been born, with at least three (that I know of) sharing the day.

Current Wolves May Rose and Jovanah Foote are still blazing trails of success, while Brad Sherman’s exploits at CHS were so legendary they named the road I live on after him.

Well, at least that’s what I tell the more gullible tourists…

The trio may have played different sports along the way, but they share much in common, from their snappy personalities to the joy they have displayed when competing.

Rose, Foote and Sherman have all left a positive mark on their school and their town and I could go on and on, or I could just wish them happy birthdays and point you in the direction of the feature stories I previously wrote on each of them.

If I do that, maybe I’ll have some time to track down some of that elusive birthday cake…

To bask in the glow of their awesomeness, check out:

Rose — https://coupevillesports.com/2013/10/15/fleet-footed-booter-has-bright-future/

Foote — https://coupevillesports.com/2014/08/06/jovanah-foote-is-fired-up/

Sherman — https://coupevillesports.com/2013/10/07/ten-years-later-the-legend-of-brad-sherman-still-looms-large/

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Happy birthday, lil’ ray of sunshine!!

Posted in A freakin' American hero, Happy birthday, tagged , , , , , , on March 3, 2015| Leave a Comment »

CLaire

Claire Ure: Senorita Sunshine

Yes, yes, JP, you're a little ray of sunshine too...

Yes, yes, JP, you’re a little ray of sunshine too…

Now, you might think this is going to be a happy birthday thing for former CHS soccer stud JP Ward, but you’d be wrong.

Sure, JP hits the big 2-1 today and he is a pitch legend and he is a lil’ ray of sunshine and all, so it would fit.

But nope.

JP gets to slide to the side so we can honor his girlfriend instead, the sunniest ray of sunshine in all the land, one Miss Claire Ure.

A former Coupeville star now wrapping up her high school days in Oak Harbor, Claire has also followed in the footsteps of big sis Jenna (pretty dang sunny herself) by working at Christopher’s on Whidbey.

Through easy shifts and slammed-to-the-wall nights, Claire is always like a breath of fresh air.

As genuinely sweet a person as you are likely to meet, she treats everyone the same — welcoming them with soft words, a calmness of spirit and a smile that would warm even the hardest of hearts.

To know Claire is to like her and anyone who would say a single ill word about her is likely to end up in a ditch someplace outside city limits, deposited there by her epically-sized fan club.

She is smart, she is kind, she is wonderful (she maybe needs to drive a little slower…), she is living, breathing proof that Jewel is not the only mega star to emerge from the wastelands of Alaska.

Wherever she goes, whatever she does after graduation, she will be amazing.

I hope, as she celebrates her birthday, Claire realizes how much everyone around her — from her family to her friends to her co-workers — thinks she is the bee’s knees.

The world adores you, Miss Ure, and you deserve every accolade.

Oh, and JP, you’re not too bad, either.

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