Coupeville Sports

Dominique Coffin and his team are travelling 142 miles to play Coupeville. (Photo property Cascade School District)

Let the wild animals come out to play.

It’ll be a wolf vs. Kodiak bear rumble this Friday night at Mickey Clark Field, as Coupeville welcomes an unfamiliar foe to town for Homecoming.

The opponent in question is Cascade (Leavenworth), which is traveling 142 miles from 10190 Chumstick Highway down to 6 S. Main Street and the football field which resides there.

So forget about your Friday Harbor’s and La Conner’s for a moment and meet the new kids in town (for a day at least).

The first bit of info about Cascade (Leavenworth) is that you shouldn’t confuse it with Cascade (Everett), which used to be a regular rival of Oak Harbor and often traveled to Whidbey.

Or with Cascade Christian, which Coupeville used to play every once in awhile.

No, this Cascade is in the 1A classification, and plays out of the Caribou Trail League in Eastern Washington, where it’s joined by Cashmere, Quincy, Chelan, and Omak.

This year’s version of the Kodiaks, who sit at 3-3 after winning back-to-back games, have 44 players on their roster — about double of what the Wolves have to offer — and rep a student body which outnumbers 2B Coupeville 439-275.

Cascade opened with 21-18 and 43-12 losses to Naches Valley and King’s, respectively, then rebounded to drill Brewster 42-22.

After a 55-54 heartbreaker against Chelan in their league opener, the Kodiaks have polished off Quincy (42-0) and Cashmere (24-19) to arrive at this point.

Playing in scarlet and grey, their 44-man roster contains no names I recognize way over here on the opposite end of the state.

That being said, Will Beibesheimer and Gunnar Balzer are just fun to say, so they have that going for them, which is nice.

I do know the Kodiaks have a strong history, having advanced to state 13 times, with the most-recent trip being in 2014.

Cascade is 12-13 in state gridiron playoff games, with its best showing coming back in 1995, when it won three games before falling 44-30 to Ridgefield in the 1A state title game.

And one last intriguing note about the Kodiaks.

Their coach, Dominique Coffin, pictured above, is also the school’s Athletic Director, having returned to his alma mater around 2015.

What’s intriguing – to me, at least — is how close his name is to one of Coupeville’s players, junior Dominic Coffman, who’s scored five touchdowns for the Wolves this season.

So, Friday night, Dom Coffin meets Dom Coffman.

Two Doms enter, one exits with a win. Who will be the true … Dominator???

Yes, I’m easily amused. Why do you ask?

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